A new bombshell Bloomberg report details how Amazon’s Alexa AI isn’t anywhere near completion, and the company has recently pushed back the deadline from late 2024 to 2025.
The report mentions that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy tested the feature at one point, and the chatbot just made up sports scores. Other people who’ve tested the AI also report that it can be too specific or too long-winded, making it annoying and not as user-friendly as the company has been aiming for. On top of that, some traditional Alexa skills like setting timers and controlling smart lights don’t seem to be working as well anymore, either.
Amazon announced the AI-powered Alexa last September with the intention of it coming out in 2024, but the company has been quiet since then, and this September, it didn’t even hold a special event like it usually does.
The Verge also notes that Amazon has cut off beta access to the feature, so no new users can sign up to test it. Reportedly, the people who have been able to get in before the cut-off haven’t been impressed.
Overall, it seems like Amazon is stuck with an assistant that’s taking a lot longer to fine-tune than the old basic version. One quote from the Bloomberg report says that the new assistant is “smarter, but not necessarily wiser,” and I think that sums things up pretty succinctly.
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