This week, Amazon will launch a new Eco -Hardware created to spare the AII -powered upgrade in its Voice Assistant. I’ve been using Alexa Plus as part of its initial access program for the past few months, and when the new auxiliary is closed for a promising start, it’s still clearly underway.
To fix Alexa, Amazon had to break it and rebuild it. The result is a hybrid smart home assistant, personal assistant, and Amazon’s chat GPT. Right now, in my son’s stage, this new Alexa is not doing any of them and as I hope.
This is the most obvious in the smart home. Controlling your lights, locks, and robots vacuum with the natural language is a great improvement, because repeatedly does not have to say “Alexa” and it has to be able to interfere, and my mind has to change the mid -thinking. But we are still away from the dream of the Mahatti house that runs on a Star trackStyle style “computer”.
Today, which feels like a low -strength hardware and running with surface levels in my smart home, Alexa Plus often disappoints me. There is strength under the hood, but it feels widespread. The assistant is desperately needed to force more – and better hardware may be the answer.
Alexa Plus should improve smart home
Generative AI is considered a water shedding moment for the Smart Home. By reducing the complexity of your home program and removing the frustrations of cloning commands, LLMS should make the smart home more accessible. And in many ways, Alexa Plus provides.
Now I can say, “Alexa, dim the lights here, adjust the thermostat with some degrees, lock the front door, and close the light above. Oh, and remind me of taking the trash out in the morning,” and all this happens. Such an easy, hand -free convenience is exactly what the smart home has promised for years.
It is also easy to manage my equipment. Instead of scrolling through thumbnail clips in the color app, I can ask Eco Show 21 when the cat was last on the porch and can immediately watch a full screen video. The latest UI on the show 15 and 21 is a huge improvement, which has easy access to large widgets, customized layouts, and smart home controls.
Recently, Alexa and I talked about the best ways to use my smart home gadget for their full potential. He suggested potential routines, made automations, tweet them based on my impressions, and tested them – in minutes, there is no rotation in the Alexa app (still clunky). Even he helped me set up a new air purifier and added it to one of these routines.
But there are problems. Alexa Plus is significantly slow, in response to some requests for 15 seconds. While it is fast enough to turn on the lights or adjust the thermostat (I assume that the use of local contacts more than the material), waiting for more than 10 seconds for the weather is no fatigue for the weather.
Some of the basic features that work reliablely do not need new phrases anymore. My struggle to control my Alexa -powered coffee machine, and I can’t find Alexa to permanently turn my bathroom fans for a fixed period.
I used to say, “Activate the bathroom fans for 15 minutes,” and he did it. Now, Alexa Plus tells me that it has to make it normal, and then does not run this routine. Or it says, “definitely”, turns the fan, but never closes it. I have tested it a dozen times and have not yet received a permanent response.
An unrealistic moment: After the new sound of Alexa’s plus, the old Alexa suddenly came to the scene when the system snatched it. “Sorry, something went wrong,” he said in this harsh, familiar tone. For a second, I wondered – is Old Alexa still there, trying to get out?
Building old on top of new
The old Alexa-Sutta command and control rules have gone as a precise model-lazami. According to Panos Panaye, head of Amazon’s Devices and Service Division, to whom I spoke in February, Alexa Plus runs a completely new architecture. One who, based on my test, feels more powerful than the old Alexa, but also less reliable.
This is a contradiction of LLMS: they are best in analyzing human language, but they are not designed for consistency. Ask Chat GPT twice the same question, and you will get different answers. The unexpected capacity of the LLM, known as noditarinism, is a poor fit for smart home control, where reliable and repetition is very important. It’s great when you’re mind -making, but disappointing when you just want coffee in the morning.
Amazon’s work is to use your LLM model as a translator. It translates to your request, then refer to the application to the Detromitic Systems – APIS, device controllers, or local material contacts.
The unexpected capacity of LLMS is poor fit for smart home control, where reliable and repetition is very important.
I have worked mostly, but if the LLM misrepresenting an application or there is a vacuum in the API, it seems that the hand -off may fail. I assume that is why my bathroom fan sometimes goes on according to the request and why Alexa sometimes insists on making normal but then forgets to finish the work.
The case of every company with a voice assistant in the Smart Home is that it is being dealt with. LLM is not designed to predict, and what you want to control your home is predicted.
Panaye says he has worked hard to predict Alexa Plus and ensure that it will not cheat in your smart home. Although the former still needs work, my smart house has been free from deception so far. There is no strange behavior here, such as unlocking the door or disabling the heat, or doing something different from what was requested.
However, this strictly controlled structure has resulted in the result of an Alexa Plus that is not a shift that I was expecting. Of course, there are now the early days, but the promise of LLMS is that they will unlock technology capacity in our homes – and it has not yet happened.
Alexa Plus has not changed anything for me. It has just made it easier to manage my smart home (mostly). It still feels like pieces and parts, not a harmony with an intelligent machine.
The hardware can hold the key
Many of my frustrations with Alexa Plus have been linked to hardware, and the changes here may make a big difference.
The current show devices are the flagship Alexa Plus interface, especially the show 21 and 15. But there is a lack of interaction between sound and screen. Hardware voice remains first.
For example, I would tell Alexa to show me the prescription I was now using, and instead, he would read these instructions. With the hardware that compatibility sounds and visuals without interruption, Alexa Plus will be very compelled. (Also, the worst Eco devices in the listening orders are, and Amazon really needs to fix it.)
Andy Jesse promises “beautiful” new hardware to us for Alexa. Since the first product was fully developed under Panos Panai, who told me he believed in the screens, we have some idea what is coming. But in the end, it will be about how good work is done with hardware and software. The devices revealed this week will be a moment of Alexa Plus to prove that it is more than mere capacity.
Pictures of Jennifer Patison Toy / The Verge
1 Comment
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