Last night, I asked my Amazon Alexa to set my alarm for “9 AM To Zedd on Spotify.” After blatantly ignoring me once, I repeated again: “Alexa, set my alarm for 9 o’clock AM playing Zedd on Spotify.” Her response? “I’m sorry, I don’t know how to do that.” But if I ask her to play Zedd at any other point in the day, she listens just fine. And I can set my alarm to any other musician if I wanted. So what’s the deal with Alexa?
Turns out, Amazon is trying to figure that out, too. An update to all Echo devices will allow Alexa to store questions she doesn’t know the answer to so she can later update you when she learns them. This new feature, which is coming a few days from now, will be automatically enabled for all devices. The option to opt-out, however, will be available through the Alexa app.
But what else is Alexa up to nowadays? Apparently, she hasn’t been doing much shopping. Only 2% of people who own one of these smart devices have used it to purchase items. Of those 2%, only one-tenth of them followed up with an additional purchase. For everyone else, it was a one-and-done.
Ultimately, the goal is for Alexa to become increasingly more “humanlike” than other smart speakers. Once again, I’m scared of where this technology could go, especially in terms of in-house privacy. For example, another new feature for Alexa is called “Away Mode” and will allow her to simulate a conversation when you’re not home so potential burglars will be drawn away from your house as if its occupied.
For me, I’ll stick to asking her to play music and set alarms. Definitely worth the $100 I spent.
