How to Make Alexa Mad (She Doesn’t Like This at All!)

There are two types of people in this world – those who are terrified that AI will eventually get angry and destroy all of humanity and those who intentionally want to make it mad just to see what happens.

Since you’re here, I think it’s safe to assume you fall into the second group.

The good news for you is that there are a few different ways to make Alexa mad, but they probably aren’t exactly what you had in mind.

How to make Alexa mad

You can’t make Alexa “mad” in the traditional sense because AI is not currently advanced enough to feel or experience emotion. Alexa is far more likely to make you mad, but you can still use custom Alexa Routines to make it seem like she is angry!

AI simply hasn’t advanced far enough for technologies like Amazon’s virtual assistant “Alexa”, or Google’s “Google Assistant”, to have real, raw emotion in their conversations with us.

Honestly this is probably for the best…

That said, it can still be fun to provoke Alexa and get her angry every now then so here are a few different ways to get Alexa mad.

Set up an angry Routine

Setting up a custom routine is your best bet if you’re trying to get Alexa mad.

If you’ve used Alexa for any amount of time already you’ve probably discovered “Routines” by this point.

Routines are short cuts for Alexa that allow you to create and execute custom commands/actions of your own.

For this tip I’ll show you how to create custom routines with custom responses that come across as mad.

If you haven’t already, download the Alexa app on your smartphone. 

Within your Alexa app, select More at the bottom right hand side and then scroll down to Routines. 

Click the + sign at the upper right hand corner to create a new Routine. You can name the routine whatever you’d like then click Next.

On the next screen you’ll see When this happens and Add action. Click on the When this happens section and click the + symbol.

For this example lets select Voice and type “get mad” and then hit Next.

Then Add action and this time select Alexa Says and then Customized. Within this text field you can type whatever you want.  

I’ll type “I’ve had it up to here with you Mike. I hate living with you and just wish you’d move out. I can’t stand it here anymore!” 

(Hint: if you have more than one Alexa device make sure you select which one you want this command to play from. Alternatively you can just choose “The device you speak to” and it will play from which ever Alexa you’re talking to at that time. ) 

Now whenever I say “Alexa, get mad” she will automatically respond with that custom text! 

Go ahead and play around with Routines and preset some new ones based on different inputs and outputs to make Alexa angrier than ever! 

You can get really creative with these.

For example, say you have a smart motion sensor in your home, you can select Smart Home when setting up your Routine and select that sensor. Then you can have Alexa yell something every-time someone walks by. 

The possibilities are truly endless. 

Can you get Alexa to swear at you?

No, currently you can’t get Alexa mad enough for her to swear at you. And try as you might to add custom Routines that contain swear words, Alexa will simply bleep them all out out. 

Trust me, I’ve tried them all. 

Even if you ask Alexa directly – “Alexa, swear at me” her response right now is, “Sorry, I don’t want to say anything rude”. 

That said, you can game the system a bit. For example instead of saying the F-word you can try “fack” or “facking” and Alexa will read it. 

Not quite the same effect as swearing, but it’s as close as you’re gonna get!

You can also use the Announce feature to record your voice swearing and have that played on every device in your home, uncensored. More on that below. 

I know Amazon had a family-centric product in mind when they developed Alexa, so it makes sense that she is pretty censored. But still, they should really come out with some non-PG Alexa devices.

I have a feeling they would sell out rather quickly… 

Use Announce to furiously broadcast to your entire home

Another hacky way to get Alexa mad is to use the Announce feature.

The Announce feature allows you to type or record yourself saying something and then have it play on every Alexa device in your home at once.

So, for example, you can record yourself saying, “Dinner is ready damnit, hurry up!” and then hit play and it will play from every device in the home.

If you type an Announcement and use a swear word Alexa will bleep it out like always, but if you record your own voice and swear, Alexa will play it back completely uncensored!

To find Announce open your Alexa app and click on Communicate at the bottom.

Then up top you will see Announce, click on it.

From here either type out your Announcement or record yourself by clicking and holding the microphone. If you decide to record you will be able to preview your recording before sending it out.

The future – Alexa emotions

At the end of 2019 Alexa announced that they had added “new Alexa emotions and speaking types to create a more natural and intuitive voice experience”.

Right now the only emotions that are live are happy/excited and disappointed/empathetic but I imagine over time Amazon will keep adding new ones.

I have no doubt that Alexa will get better and better at mimicking the inflection required to sound mad/angry and eventually she will understand the context well enough to know when to use it.

She won’t actually be mad, but we won’t be able to tell the difference.

I am equal parts excited and scared for that day…

Conclusion

While the technology behind Alexa is not advanced enough to actually get mad, there are a few hacks you can use to make it seem like she is angry.

The first is to set up a custom Routine. This is a pretty versatile feature so possibilities are endless here, just keep in mind any swears you include will be bleeped out.

Another option is to try the Announce feature. This allows you to type or record an angry message and have it play on every single device in your home.

In the future, Alexa will likely incorporate a mad/angry emotion into its speech catalog but until then you’ll have to hack it.

While you’re here, check out 37 Creepy Things to Ask Alexa…