Amazon Alexa Is A "Colossal Failure" Projected to Lose 10 Billion USD This Year

[plat]

Content source

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/11/amazon-alexa-is-a-colossal-failure-on-pace-to-lose-10-billion-this-year/

The BI [Business Insider] report spoke with "a dozen current and former employees on the company's hardware team," who described "a division in crisis." Just about every plan to monetize Alexa has failed, with one former employee calling Alexa "a colossal failure of imagination," and "a wasted opportunity." This month's layoffs are the end result of years of trying to turn things around. Alexa was given a huge runway at the company, back when it was reportedly the "pet project" of former CEO Jeff Bezos. An all-hands crisis meeting took place in 2019 to try to turn the monetization problem around, but that was fruitless. By late 2019, Alexa saw a hiring freeze, and Bezos started to lose interest in the project around 2020. Of course, Amazon now has an entirely new CEO, Andy Jassy, who apparently isn't as interested in protecting Alexa.

 

[vtqhtr413]

I've been using the same Echo Dot for 6yrs now, mainly as a radio but it's handy for many things, I do hope it lives on.

 

[show-Zi]

If it is a simple exchange of information, there is no difference between voice and text. It seemed like a convenient technology, but it was actually not very practical.

 

[vtqhtr413]

If it is a simple exchange of information, there is no difference between voice and text. It seemed like a convenient technology, but it was actually not very practical.

I received mine as a gift otherwise I probably wouldn't have purchased one but have grown to thoroughly appreciate it, never would have guessed.

 

[show-Zi]

otherwise I probably wouldn't have purchased one

I think a lot of people probably did. Me too. It's like a robot that scratches the itchy part of your back. I would be happy if I could receive it as a gift, but I don't feel like spending money to buy it myself.

 

[vtqhtr413]

Amazon is looking to add new AI chatbot technology to Alexa, reports Insider based on leaked documents. The voice assistant needs reanimation in a world now seemingly infatuated with generative AI like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard. One example in the document describes Alexa generating a bedtime story after an eight-year-old asks it to tell a story about a “cat and a moon.” And in true ChatGPT-style, it makes up a whole story about “Mittens, the first cat to ever go to the moon.” It also describes the use of an Echo Show camera that sees the child holding an Olaf toy, so it incorporates the character into the story. Disney is just one of several partnership opportunities that Amazon is imagining alongside Lego and others.

Amazon plans to rework Alexa in the age of ChatGPT

Alexa is going to become a chatbot in your living room.

www.theverge.com