Late at night, in the gathered shadows of your bedroom, you may have heard it. Or, perhaps you heard it over breakfast with your family in the kitchen, the sound rising unbidden from over your shoulder in a corner of the room you had thought -- and now, desperately wish -- to be empty. At least, that's what Amazon Echo owners say they've been hearing lately. In recent weeks, many of them have hit social media saying they their smart speakers have been laughing spontaneously, unprompted by commands. So Alexa decided to laugh randomly while I was in the kitchen.

Microsoft's digital assistant Cortana could help hackers infect a computer running Windows 10 with a virus. A pair of independent Israeli security researchers found the major security flaw this week. By giving simple voice commands, they found they could install malware and launch websites from computer's lock screen. The hack works because Windows 10 allows a device to connect to a different network while it is still locked. This means an attacker can connect a USB with a network adapter and ask Cortana to open an unencrypted and potentially dangerous websites.

Amazon's Echo is emitting chilling laughter and refusing to do what is asked of it. The terrifying behaviour is leading people to lose sleep and to unplug their devices, amid fears their smart speakers are after them. But the chilling behaviour doesn't demonstrate that the machines are about to take over. In fact, it shows just how far they've got to go. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph.

Amazon's Alexa has been letting out an unprompted, creepy cackle - startling users of the best-selling voice assistant. The laugh, described by some as "witch like" was reported to sometimes happen without the device being "woken" up. Others reported the laugh occurring when they asked Alexa to perform a different task, such as playing music. "We're aware of this and working to fix it," Amazon said. Voice assistants like Alexa are designed to respond or act only when prompted with a wake word, which in this case is "Alexa" or "Amazon".

Remember that bit in 2001: A Space Odyssey when the computer turns evil and purrs, 'I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that'? We may have reached that moment with Amazon's now-ubiquitous Echo devices, which seem to be emitting'evil' and'witch-like' laughs and refusing to obey their masters. One user claims that Alexa refused to turn the lights in his house off, repeatedly turning them on with an'evil laugh' So is it time to unplug the devices and shove them into a toaster before they turn on us and murder us all in our sleep? Amazon's Alexa is supposed to laugh when you tell it a joke – but users are reporting that the devices are laughing at inappropriate moments. An Amazon spokesman told Metro.co.uk, 'We're aware of this and working to fix it.'

Only Homo sapiens, of all the descendants of Homo erectus, survived on earth whereas other species such as homo soloensis, homo denisova, Homo neanderthalensis, Homo floresiensis faded away more than 40,000 years ago. What advantages did Homo sapiens possess that helped them to flourish while other species are extinct? Apparently a cognitive revolution (according to Prof. Yuval Harari in his famous book Sapiens) triggered by some kind of genetic mutation provided Homo Species with more cerebral power and thus they acquired an ability not possessed by any other species – ability to imagine things that did not exist. This ability helped them to invent things including powerful communicative languages, religion, tools and more. Does current cognitive revolution ushered under various nomenclatures such as artificial intelligence, cognitive computing etc provide more powers, this time to machines and bring in unprecedented progress to human life?

Artificial intelligence might conjure images of a robotic Haley Joel Osment in Spielberg's film AI, or it may make you think of Data from Star Trek. Yet the impact of artificial intelligence in everyday life is more understated and far-reaching than science fiction might suggest. Artificial intelligence has the potential to offer $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030. You already encounter it every day. Think of all those times Amazon recommended a book to you or Netflix suggested a film or TV show.

I, like most of the population, have been binging on Black Mirror. If you have seen the series, you know some episodes revolve around the creation and use of smarter, improved artificial intelligence, or AI. If you have not seen the series, (spoiler alert) the AIs that are depicted in two of the episodes are essentially copies of human counterparts, coded and thrown into a virtual world. It allows this coded AI to think, feel and behave as their human counterpart would in this fabricated realm. However, in these episodes, this treatment of AIs is portrayed as inhumane.

Samsung Electronics is now believed to be upgrading its Bixby artificial intelligence platform following its latest acquisition. The South Korean giant's affiliate has apparently acquired AI search engine startup Kngine. The Investor learned Wednesday that Samsung Research America has acquired a 100-percent stake in Kngine, a startup that develops mobile solutions that understand and answer inquiries with the use of AI including deep learning. The functionality is something that could strengthen Bixby as a whole and set it apart from its rivals, like Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant. Kngine started its operations in 2013 in Egypt.

As Amazon Echo Dot owner Gavin Hightower was heading to bed the other week, he encountered a disturbing Alexa bug. For no apparent reason, the device uttered a "very loud and creepy laugh." "There's a good chance I'm getting murdered tonight," Hightower tweeted after the incident. Hightower isn't alone: Numerous Echo device owners have reported their Alexas laughing spontaneously, unprovoked by their wake word ("Alexa") or any other command. Some report their Alexa devices failing to fulfill their spoken requests, performing random other actions instead, and then capping it off with a guffaw. Of all the bugs your smart assistant could encounter, uttering a high-pitched "witch-like" laugh ranks among the creepiest possibilities.