Amazon launches cost-cutting review focusing on Alexa

[Apache]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

At least in the US, sleep apnea machines have been known to send data on "compliance" to the insurers. Yuck.

That is so they can bill you for the device if you stop using it in the first year.
Apache

[Skydog]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

At least in the US, sleep apnea machines have been known to send data on "compliance" to the insurers. Yuck.

Not only insurers. The FAA is also "connected."

[Uncle Robin]

The Register has an article on this today, and includes this priceless gem

While timers, music, and weather forecasts might be good for users, they are hardly high earners for the platform providers. At the same time, the first page of Amazon "skills" downloads include four apps for making fart noises.

[Quoth]

Related:

Hannah Fry continues to uncover The Secret Genius of Modern Life on BBC Two.
Hannah Fry uncovers the secrets of how virtual assistants work. Plus: Emily Blunt continues to go way out west.

No need to click on link
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-r...ce-is-revealed

I don't expect anything significant.

It's not real AI, and even the term Machine Learning is dishonestly misleading.

[tomsem]

Another article:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022...ion-this-year/

Amazon is going through the biggest layoffs in the company's history right now, with a plan to eliminate some 10,000 jobs. One of the areas hit hardest is the Amazon Alexa voice assistant unit, which is apparently falling out of favor at the e-commerce giant. That's according to a report from Business Insider, which details "the swift downfall of the voice assistant and Amazon's larger hardware division."

[Quoth]

The tech giant’s flawed business model for its popular smart devices has cost the company a fortune and thousands of jobs.

I went rooting in a drawer where the Echo Dot I bought years ago had been gathering dust. Having found it, and set it up to join the upgraded wifi network that hadn’t existed when I first got it, I asked it a question: “Alexa, why are you such a loss-maker?” To which she calmly replied: “This might answer your question: mustard gas, also known as Lost, is manufactured by the United States.” At which point, I solemnly thanked her, pulled the power cable and returned her to the drawer, where she will continue to gather dust until I can think of an ecologically responsible way of recycling her.

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...up-a-10bn-loss
It's an "it".
It has no AI. Even Machine Learning is a dishonest term.
See also The Diamond Age.

In the US, according to Business Insider, Google Assistant currently leads with 81.5 million users, followed by Apple Siri’s 77.6 million tally. Alexa, with 71.6 million users, now occupies third place but even the thought that the other two are also losing money on their gizmos will not provide much consolation for the Alexa team as its unit is slimmed down.

No mention of Cortana? Poor thing!

The fact is that all of these are Speech to Text front ends connected to search engines and databases. Like the the Young Lady's Interactive book in "The Diamond Age" it's a bit fraudulent. They rely, as all so called AI does, on human curation. Hence the huge staff requirement. It if was just software development then fifty people would be a lot at this stage.
We have had voice recognition and control on PCs for over 25 years without an internet connection, no "Cloud". Even 15 years ago stand-alone gadgets had voice control. But it's not efficient nor ever going to be reliable, and it's not just a case of technology.

"Hey Jill, what's the command to erase this disk," shouts Jack.
"Format C," replies Jill.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes," shouts Jill
All the discs in the room start formatting.

AI generated art?
A fraud. It's a parasite using a human curated database.

[ApK]

Maybe it's the layoffs, or sabotage, or Amazon's actively trying to drive customers off, I don't know which, but our Echos have lost their minds. Basic behavior to control devices has broken, and today I asked an Echo to set her volume, and she attempted to change the volume on the TV. I removed the TV from the groupn it was in with the echo and tried again, and she STILL tried to set the volume on the TV.

[Quoth]

It's a dumb computer program. You couldn't pay me to have one. I disable Cortana on Windows and Google Go Assistant on Android.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Quoth

It's a dumb computer program. You couldn't pay me to have one. I disable Cortana on Windows and Google Go Assistant on Android.

A couple years ago I wrote a short (6 page) script about Alexa, Siri and Google — though I completely left out Cortana.

If anyone wants to waste their time...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uxc...usp=share_link

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by rcentros

If anyone wants to waste their time...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uxc...usp=share_link

I just get a header with name, disabled printer icon Sign In and a spinner in the middle of the page. Maybe it now only works with Chrome based browsers? I even disabled script blocking entirely.

Maybe you have to Sign In?

Edit: It does load in Chromium, not in any other browser. But only reading on screen, no download to read on big 10" eink or off-line.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Quoth

It's not real AI, and even the term Machine Learning is dishonestly misleading.

Originally Posted by Quoth

It has no AI. Even Machine Learning is a dishonest term.

Originally Posted by Quoth

It's a dumb computer program.

I don't understand your hobby horse on this. So it's not HAL-9000. Who cares? If it does what the end user wants, that is good enough.

You couldn't pay me to have one. I disable Cortana on Windows and Google Go Assistant on Android.

I like my Google Home speakers and could see adding a thermostat and door bells have been pretty successful.

But lights, refrigerators, microwaves and dishwashers? I just don't get the appeal.

It's like video calling that all the science fiction shows and movies said would be the future, but when it rolled out, people didn't like it. Then again, Skype, Facetime and Zoom seem to have brought video calls back. So maybe those smart appliances are just a bit too early.

[DuskyRose]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I like my Google Home speakers and could see adding a thermostat and door bells have been pretty successful.

But lights, refrigerators, microwaves and dishwashers? I just don't get the appeal.

I'm mostly the same, but do enjoy having our echo's turn on the lights in certain rooms before we get there. Or be in bed and have the lights turn off on command.

I also like that we can use the echoes to talk to each other on different levels. Like an intercom. Never fails I get all the way upstairs and forget something, so will 'drop in' on hubby in the basement and have him bring it up.

Also nice to just be able to ask it to play Disney songs, when my grandkids were sleeping over and restless late at night. I didn't have to dig them out on another device. I just asked.

Microwaves and dishwashers I wouldn't bother with. My daugher has one of those fridges where there's a screen on the outside, and she can see a camera view of what's inside. She says it's more trouble than it's worth, and just another thing to go wrong.

[andyh2000]

There's a tendency in AI that as soon as computers become able to do something that previously only humans could do, it no longer counts as intelligence. Playing chess, recognising images etc. Sure, we don't have artificial general intelligence yet but tell someone 20 years ago that you'd be able to speak in natural language to a computer, asking it general knowledge questions, and it would provide useful answers; well, I think they'd have called that intelligence.

Andrew

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by andyh2000

There's a tendency in AI that as soon as computers become able to do something that previously only humans could do, it no longer counts as intelligence. Playing chess, recognising images etc. Sure, we don't have artificial general intelligence yet but tell someone 20 years ago that you'd be able to speak in natural language to a computer, asking it general knowledge questions, and it would provide useful answers; well, I think they'd have called that intelligence.

Andrew

And it also keeps turning out that non-human animals can do things previously thought exclusively human.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by DuskyRose

I'm mostly the same, but do enjoy having our echo's turn on the lights in certain rooms before we get there. Or be in bed and have the lights turn off on command.

Oh, man, if it works the same way everything else with those speakers works, I would crawl into bed, say 'okay Google' and the speaker wouldn't react. So then it would be 'OKAY GOOGLE! PLEASE TURN OFF THE LIGHTS!!!' and my neighbors would ask me to just start turning them off myself like an adult.

All the other stuff you mentioned is generic stuff the speakers do, and yeah, I do appreciate them. I have seven speakers scattered around the house (and one Alexa show I was gifted. I prefer Google).