this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2025
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Alexa+ is a lobotomized version of the original. Since the "upgrade", a simple request for a wholesome sesame street clip results in playing the beezleblocks music video (which starts with a girl dead in a bathtub full of water holding a cinder block) - true story.
"Alexa, please find local pediatric therapists"
I just saw an ad for Alexa+ at a family member's house and was a bit surprised initially. The last I had known about the personal home assistant market was that both Google and Amazon were growing bored with its lack of annually doubling revenue and were slow-walking their whole participation in it to the grave, slashing those departments and walking back forecasted products.
To the home automators like you and others, am I mistaken or has it seen a resurgence now that they realize they can take another crack at it with LLMs this time?
The holy grail (for amazon at least) is to up-sell ("would you like me to order that for you?") but that fell flat. My guess is behavior data is being sold to ad agencies instead.
Exact same with Google with Gemini. Think can't flip switches, play podcasts...