Amazon lays off Alexa employees as 2010s voice-assistant boom gives way to AI

Lee Duna@lemmy.nz to Technology@lemmy.world – 157 points –
Amazon lays off Alexa employees as 2010s voice-assistant boom gives way to AI
arstechnica.com
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Me: Play Whitehorse the band
Google Assistant: Playing Whitehorse the song by some other guy
Me: No, play Whitehorse the Canadian band
Google Assistant: Playing Whitehorse the album by a third guy
Me: Play Achilles Desire
Google Asistant: Playing Whitehorse

Me: Play Tu vuò fà l'americano on Spotify
Google Assistant: !?!?!?!?

Me: Play Laisse tomber les filles
Google Assistant: !?!?!?

Me: Play Les Cowboys Fringants on Spotify
Google Assistant: !?
Me: Play Les Cowboys F R I N G A N T S
Google Assistant: Playing Les Cowboys Fringants

I only ever use those junky voice assistants when driving, and they are useless half the time

70% of the time, finding my phone and doing it myself would have been faster than arguing with a dumb speaker. I find them really good for

  • setting timers
  • playing generic music
  • pausing other devices that are playing
  • simple questions like current temperature or forecast

When I don't already have my phone in hand.

Me: Turn on the kitchen

Alexa: I'm sorry, what device?

Me: KITCHEEEEEEN

It used to work flawlessly for every room in my house, and then a few months ago it just started doing that stupid "what device?" shit.

Not only are voice assistants not improving, they're actively getting worse.