This article misses the point. Alexa is interesting because it's a new user interface (voice + always listening), not because it's "an AI". Imo, it's the biggest UI jump since the touchscreen phone. The tech that enables the UI will continue to improve, but it doesn't need to be a general purpose conversational AI to be successful.
Alexa isn’t the future of AI–it’s a glorified radio clock, and stupid otherwise
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Re: Alexa isn’t the future of AI–it’s a glorified radio clock, and stupid otherwise
#52Well, a good point that there is no AI except for speech recognition, but, overlooks the utility of hands-free operation. In scenarios like cooking, in jacuzzi/bath/shower, or just when you are some distance from the device, it is useful to control listening to audio books, music, NPR radio, etc., my family owns two Echoes and get good use from them.
Re: Alexa isn’t the future of AI–it’s a glorified radio clock, and stupid otherwise
#53This article far exaggerates the devices problems, at least as I've experienced it. If someone shouts my name—Alex—across the apartment, it will activate Alexa That's trivially fixable. You can rename her to "Echo", "Amazon", or "Computer". sometimes Alexa will also be activated by arbitrary syllables in ordinary conversation. ... As I read this paragraph aloud to myself, her blue ring has already lit up several time…
> That's trivially fixable. You can rename her to "Echo", "Amazon", or "Computer".
In my experience, this just changes the times that it accidentally triggers. It doesn't actually reduce how often it happens. Our triggers for random crap all the time, both when we say stuff that sounds like "Alexa" and for completely indecipherable reasons. We actually have two of them in our house, and only one regularly goes of at the wrong time. I thought it might be defective, so I swapped them, but then the other one started doing it. It's location-dependent in our house, so it must have to do with the acoustics or something. Regardless, it's annoying, and the less technical family members are far less tolerant of this kind of stuff than I am.
All that said, I still agree that the article goes overboard in exaggeration. Overall I like my Echos, and I think they work pretty well most of the time. There's a lot of room for improvement, but it is a new product.
Re: Alexa isn’t the future of AI–it’s a glorified radio clock, and stupid otherwise
#54I don't get this rant. Alexa is still bleeding edge. It does some things really well. It does some things really poorly. There are lots of things it can't do. So the main complaint is that Alexa could be better, your point..? To me, right now it excels as an interface when you are busy doing something else. Ours is used most in the kitchen and living room. Timers, streaming music/audio and basic facts all work great.…
I don't get this rant. Alexa is still bleeding edge.
But it's being sold to relatively unsophisticated consumers, on the front page of the world's largest e-commerce site. This is not a bleeding edge release like Google Glass; this is a broad market release to all kinds of users.
Like I said in my other comment, I do like mine, and I think the article goes overboard. But I don't think Amazon has the luxury of saying "hey, it's bleeding edge!" when it's a top selling item for them, and front and center when you go to their site.
Re: Alexa isn’t the future of AI–it’s a glorified radio clock, and stupid otherwise
#55I have an Amazon Echo in every room of my house, and I use it to control home automation, such as all of my lights, my ecobee thermostat, and my entire home theater (via a logitech harmony). I even use it to switch on and off my humidifier and space heater (and manage the temperature). My wife and I also use it to manage my shopping list (via the OurGroceries skill/app). I can use it to remote start my car and prehea…
Isn't it easier just to do that stuff with your hands?
I have my home automation stuff hooked up to Alexa also, and no, it's not always easier to do it with my hands. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. I am often baffled by this "I'll just use the light switch" response to home automation. It's not that you can't "just use the light switch," but there are situations where it makes life measurably better to not have to. First world problems, for sure, but they exist.
For example, if I'm sitting comfortably in my recliner and I decide I want to watch a movie, it's pretty great to be able to tap a few buttons on my phone to dim the lights without getting up. It's even better to now be able to say "alexa, turn on movie lights" to do it without digging out and unlocking my phone.
Or if I'm making dinner, feeling hot, and my hands are covered in tomato juice, it's awfully nice to be able to adjust the air conditioner by voice.
These aren't life changing things, but they are pretty nice luxuries that have increased my family's quality of life.
Re: Alexa isn’t the future of AI–it’s a glorified radio clock, and stupid otherwise
#5652 comments and nobody mentions the NSA.
Are you people aware that this is essentially a glorified bug?
Re: Alexa isn’t the future of AI–it’s a glorified radio clock, and stupid otherwise
#57I don't get this rant. Alexa is still bleeding edge. It does some things really well. It does some things really poorly. There are lots of things it can't do. So the main complaint is that Alexa could be better, your point..? To me, right now it excels as an interface when you are busy doing something else. Ours is used most in the kitchen and living room. Timers, streaming music/audio and basic facts all work great.…
> I can't wait until they are connected and I can issue a command to move streaming from one device to another one in another room ("Alexa, pause for Jim", "Alexa, continue for Jim"). Too much overhead. It should be able to identify you by voice, so you can just ask it to "pause" and "resume".
While I think this is necessary, I don't think it's sufficient. Sure, when your smart home device is just hooked up to some lights and maybe your thermostat, it's fine. But pretty soon (and/or possibly now, I haven't kept up with the news), your smart home device will be connected to things that warrant a little more security, e.g. door locks. It's not that hard for someone to get a recording of your voice.
Re: Alexa isn’t the future of AI–it’s a glorified radio clock, and stupid otherwise
#5852 comments and nobody mentions the NSA. Are you people aware that this is essentially a glorified bug?
I was at a multifamily technology conference in San Diego last year and during a panel with some 'experts', brought up the concern of devices like Amazon Echo recording people's conversations. The lady who responded misunderstood me and chimed in within something like: "you know, I haven't even thought of that. There are many opportunities for revenue with this technology". But that was an evil uber-landlord, not sure where Amazon stands on this. If they want to increase adoption for this technology, they better come up with a solid privacy policy and stand behind it.
Re: Alexa isn’t the future of AI–it’s a glorified radio clock, and stupid otherwise
#5952 comments and nobody mentions the NSA. Are you people aware that this is essentially a glorified bug?
I was at a multifamily technology conference in San Diego last year and during a panel with some 'experts', brought up the concern of devices like Amazon Echo recording people's conversations. The lady who responded misunderstood me and chimed in within something like: "you know, I haven't even thought of that. There are many opportunities for revenue with this technology". But that was an evil uber-landlord, not sur…
A policy won't help against the NSA.
And technologically the language processing "necessarily" takes place in the cloud. For that everything you say needs to be sent through the web. Amazon will store everything they can for the purpose of later using this as a training data set.
Re: Alexa isn’t the future of AI–it’s a glorified radio clock, and stupid otherwise
#60My favorite one: Me: Alexa, set up an alarm for 2 minutes Alexa: Two minutes. [Two minutes later] Alexa: Beep beep beep Me: Alexa, thank you! Alexa: You are welcome... Beep beep beep... Edit: formatting
I spent a minute staring at this comment in puzzlement wondering what party to the interaction this "Edit" person is and what hard drive they were formatting while telling the world about it.