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"It’s not exactly clear why Amazon has decided to discontinue the feature, but it could be a sign of broader Amazon’s broader Alexa woes." "Last November, a re

"It’s not exactly clear why Amazon has decided to discontinue the feature, but it could be a sign of broader Amazon’s broader Alexa woes." "Last November, a report from The Wall Street Journal revealed that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy heavily scrutinized the company’s Alexa sector, as its operating losses exceeded $5 million in recent years." "The company also announced layoffs affecting 18,000 employees earlier this year, with Amazon hardware chief Dave Limp telling CNBC that 2,000 of those cuts affected workers in his division, which is in charge of Alexa and Echo products." It turns out that the "killer app" for Alexa / Echo devices is being a voice-activated kitchen timer and playing music. Some users also use it as a voice-activated controller for smart home devices, but they are only a small fraction of users. This means that Alexa costs more to operate than it brings in in revenue, so they are looking to cut costs in any way they can. Hooking up ChatGPT or similarly powered backend seems like a next step to stay competitive, but that will cost even more to operate. Expect to see a smarter AI-powered Alexa available for a subscription that gives better answers and has more skills.

wincy 3y ago
Too bad Alexa failed even at basic tasks, I bought an Amazon BRANDED smart microwave/oven, which worked fine until on Thanksgiving I told it “bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes” from the upstairs (my kid had put the food in while I was in the shower), and it wasn’t until 20 minutes later I smelled smoke that I realized Alexa had somehow interpreted “_ at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes” (I looked at the Alexa log of how it had parsed my words, to try to figure out where it went wrong) to mean “please burn down my house”. I’ve also noticed they aren’t selling that microwave anymore.
- kisonecat 3y ago
  Your experience is just like the "Carousel of Progress" at Disneyworld!
  - wincy 3y ago
    It’s funny you say that, because my wife said the exact same thing and laughed so hard when we went to the carousel of progress last year!
scrum-treats 3y ago
> Expect to see a smarter AI-powered Alexa available for a subscription that gives better answers and has more skills. Umm, no. If I owned these devices (which I don't, because it's spyware), I'd push for the ability to plug in my model of choice (e.g., Alexa, ChatGPT, BARD, my own model). Because Alexa lives in the Cloud, this should not impact the hardware I don't believe. Firmware updates can happen regardless of my voice-assistant of choice. Smaller models can be stored locally on device, or accessible via a skill. Larger models can be stored in the cloud, just like Alexa. However, I don't think that a personal voice assistant language model requires cloud. Unless of course Amazon removed the on-device memory. If they did, then that decision essentially rendered 100 million devices e-waste, as they are surveillance bricks without the "subscription service" Amazon will require owners to purchase. Yikes, what a mess.

wincy 3y ago

Too bad Alexa failed even at basic tasks, I bought an Amazon BRANDED smart microwave/oven, which worked fine until on Thanksgiving I told it “bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes” from the upstairs (my kid had put the food in while I was in the shower), and it wasn’t until 20 minutes later I smelled smoke that I realized Alexa had somehow interpreted “_ at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes” (I looked at the Alexa log of how it had parsed my words, to try to figure out where it went wrong) to mean “please burn down my house”. I’ve also noticed they aren’t selling that microwave anymore.

kisonecat 3y ago
Your experience is just like the "Carousel of Progress" at Disneyworld!
- wincy 3y ago
  It’s funny you say that, because my wife said the exact same thing and laughed so hard when we went to the carousel of progress last year!

scrum-treats 3y ago

> Expect to see a smarter AI-powered Alexa available for a subscription that gives better answers and has more skills. Umm, no. If I owned these devices (which I don't, because it's spyware), I'd push for the ability to plug in my model of choice (e.g., Alexa, ChatGPT, BARD, my own model). Because Alexa lives in the Cloud, this should not impact the hardware I don't believe. Firmware updates can happen regardless of my voice-assistant of choice. Smaller models can be stored locally on device, or accessible via a skill. Larger models can be stored in the cloud, just like Alexa. However, I don't think that a personal voice assistant language model requires cloud. Unless of course Amazon removed the on-device memory. If they did, then that decision essentially rendered 100 million devices e-waste, as they are surveillance bricks without the "subscription service" Amazon will require owners to purchase. Yikes, what a mess.