If AI is so good why is my Alexa so stoopid.

ginjaninja

ginjaninja

ginjaninja

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Is there any chance that better levels of understanding will come to a free tier on Alexa, or even to a paid tier......i see no evidence of intelligence in Alexa, somewhere where it would be immediately transformatively useful as a home assistant. Maybe Amazon are just working out how much to charge for it and who to partner with.
 
I'm not sure what they're really doing today. But I know Alexa didn't playout for them as they hoped. I think they hoped for it to be an integrated part of life when the reality seems to be the majority just using it as a speaker they can yell at when getting home drunk. The dreams of people ordering new toilet rolls from amazon when they're low by asking their smart device didn't become a habit. Last I recall was reading about their massive losses, I think like this - https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-alexa-job-layoffs-rise-and-fall-2022-11?r=US&IR=T
 
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mid_gen said:
Because Alexa doesnt use a LLM, it's not really AI, it's just voice recognition and keywords.
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It could be though, but you won't be getting it for free I'd imagine. I have Google/Nest stuff, but it doesn't offer Gemini through those. Having said that, when I did use Gemini on my phone, it couldn't do everything that I'd become dependant on Assistant doing, especially when driving.
 
Fubsy said:
It could be though, but you won't be getting it for free I'd imagine. I have Google/Nest stuff, but it doesn't offer Gemini through those. Having said that, when I did use Gemini on my phone, it couldn't do everything that I'd become dependant on Assistant doing, especially when driving.
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Yes the whole Google ecosystem is a mess. Android auto is hot garbage, to the point I may actually switch to Apple.
 
ginjaninja said:
Is there any chance that better levels of understanding will come to a free tier on Alexa, or even to a paid tier......i see no evidence of intelligence in Alexa, somewhere where it would be immediately transformatively useful as a home assistant. Maybe Amazon are just working out how much to charge for it and who to partner with.
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Yes, they were trialing an LLM back in 2023, it's not particularly tricky for them to have an LLM you can just chat with but it does complicate matters a bit when some of that chat can involve making requests for controlling stuff. A simpler model that just responds to basic commands is perhaps currently more reliable than trying to blend that functionality with a modern LLM.

mid_gen said:
Because Alexa doesnt use a LLM, it's not really AI, it's just voice recognition and keywords.
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"AI" is a rather broad category and has been around for a few decades now, it's not just anything that uses an LLM.
 
Only good thing to come out of Google and Alexa is cooking recipes is fantastic as it just works well with voice as generally your hands are mucky and you can just say next step.

I absolute hate Google in the car when playing Spotify. I ask it to play some song and it always ends up playing some rubbish cover version instead of the one I actually want to listen too.
 
mid_gen said:
Yes the whole Google ecosystem is a mess. Android auto is hot garbage, to the point I may actually switch to Apple.
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I'm actually in the process of selling all my google/nest home products and switching to a mix of amazon/ring

Google ruined Nest, it gets worse and worse each day. Buggy and very slow at times. I bought the google tv streamer which was utter turd compared to the 4k max despite me hating fireos.

The final nail in the coffin was when someone rang the doorbell and I got the notification 5 minutes later lol

Just setup the new echo spot, it's brilliant. I'll get a new doorbell, camera and the hub screen for the hallway to start off with.

This will be interesting

www.aftvnews.com

Amazon to announce new devices and services on February 26th

Amazon has sent out invitations to media outlets for an event on February 26th where the company is expected to reveal new devices and/or services. Amazon typically hosts such an event in September but skipped it last year, likely due to major VP changes and its new AI-powered Alexa not being ready.
www.aftvnews.com www.aftvnews.com
 
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Efour said:
I went heavily into Google home/nest.
Its the smartest pasta timer/light switch I've ever owned.
It's honestly seems to get worse every year.
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Same. The really isn’t a lot I use it for outside of the usual; control lights, set timers, play music or play white noise.
 
mid_gen said:
HomeAssistant is the way to go, just use kit that can be integrated into open source, self-hosted solutions, so no-one can ever pull the plug on it.
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Agreed in terms of controlling devices etc. but it's still not an AI voice assistant (which is what I assume the OP is alluding to).
 
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I never found voice assistants useful, it’s almost always easier to pull your phone out of your pocket and press the relevant buttons than having to explain what you want 3 times to Alexa.

We had an Echo dot for a few weeks and sold it on, ‘tech for the sake of tech’ is the phrase of choice for me.

Im no technophobe either, I most certainly do tech but it needs to have a clear purpose.

I’ve got a full Home Assistant set up at home, running in a VM on NAS. It does useful things like automates the charging of my home battery when I get cheap electricity and turns on my outside lights when my cameras detect a person on my property.

Where I don’t see the benefit is being able to shout at a box in the corner to turn the light on when I would have walked passed the light switch which I could have just used in 1/4 of the time it took me to shout at a box in the corner.

As for paying subscriptions for cloud based cameras, that’s a hard no.
 
mid_gen said:
Yes the whole Google ecosystem is a mess. Android auto is hot garbage, to the point I may actually switch to Apple.
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Our google home ***** its pants all the time at the moment, it's getting to the stage where I don't really want to use it anymore - I wonder if I can use home assistant to completely replace it... Android auto is great though.
 
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b0rn2sk8 said:
I never found voice assistants useful, it’s almost always easier to pull your phone out of your pocket and press the relevant buttons than having to explain what you want 3 times to Alexa.

We had an Echo dot for a few weeks and sold it on, ‘tech for the sake of tech’ is the phrase of choice for me.

Im no technophobe either, I most certainly do tech but it needs to have a clear purpose.

I’ve got a full Home Assistant set up at home, running in a VM on NAS. It does useful things like automates the charging of my home battery when I get cheap electricity and turns on my outside lights when my cameras detect a person on my property.

Where I don’t see the benefit is being able to shout at a box in the corner to turn the light on when I would have walked passed the light switch which I could have just used in 1/4 of the time it took me to shout at a box in the corner.

As for paying subscriptions for cloud based cameras, that’s a hard no.
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Alexa is handy for setting alarms when you're half asleep, turning the lights on when you're comfortable on the sofa (or have your hands full), and checking the time when you don't have your phone/watch handy.

Other than that I absolutely agree, it's vastly easier and quicker to do things manually.

Her inability to understand artist/song names infuriates me, and even when she does, as someone above said, you invariably end up with some terrible cover version or obscure remix of the track you want, rather than the original. Either that or comes back with "Sorry, I couldn't find XYZ on Spotify" when you can literally open Spotify and play it on the echo... :rolleyes:
 
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