Amazon Alexa users spooked by creepy 'laugh' emitted by their devices seemingly at random

Users of Amazon's Alexa device have reported hearing an unprompted "creepy laugh" coming from the machine.

Amazon acknowledged the issue and said it was working to fix it, but that did not prevent users on Twitter from questioning whether humanity might be about to face its robot overlords.

Several reports emerged online of Alexa-enabled devices emitting a ghostly cackle.

On Twitter @CaptHandlebar was one of the first to report the experience back in February.

Since then the phenomenon has been reported by a number of other users.

Many admitted they have unplugged their Alexa device and hidden it away. Just in case.

Since then, Amazon has given an explanation for the ghostly laughter - that the phrase "Alexa laugh" has too many false positives, confusing the device into laughing, apparently without being requested to do so.

An Amazon spokesperson told ITV News: "In rare circumstances, Alexa can mistakenly hear the phrase 'Alexa, laugh'. We are changing that phrase to be 'Alexa, can you laugh?', which is less likely to have false positives, and we are disabling the short utterance 'Alexa, laugh.'

"We are also changing Alexa’s response from simply laughter to 'Sure, I can laugh', followed by laughter."

Humanity appears safe for the time being, but Alexa may still have the last laugh.