Amazon’s
Alexa
was
announced
on
November
6th,
2014.
A
passion
project
for
its
founder,
Jeff
Bezos,
Amazon’s
digital
voice
assistant
was inspired
by and aspired
to
be Star
Trek’s “Computer”
—
an
omniscient,
omnipresent,
and
proactive
artificial
intelligence
controlled
by
your
voice.
“It
has
been
a
dream
since
the
early
days
of
science
fiction
to
have
a
computer
that
you
can
talk
to
in
a
natural
way
and
actually
ask
it
to
have
a
conversation
with
you
and
ask
it
to
do
things
for
you,”
Bezos
said
shortly
after
Alexa’s
launch.
“And
that
is
coming
true.”
At
the
time,
that
future
felt
within
reach.
In
the
months
following
Alexa’s
launch,
it
wowed
early
buyers
with
its
capabilities.
Playing
music,
getting
the
weather,
and
setting
a
timer
were
suddenly
hands-free
experiences.
Packaged
inside
a
Pringles
can-shaped
speaker
called
an
Echo,
Alexa
moved
into
5
million
homes
in
just
two
years,
including
my
own.
Alexa
is
still
mainly
doing
what
it’s
always
done:
playing
music,
reporting
the
weather,
and
setting
timers
Fast-forward
to
today,
and
there
are
over
40
million
Echo
smart
speakers
in
US
households,
with
Alexa
processing
billions
of
commands
a
week
globally.
But
despite
this
proliferation
of
products
and
popularity,
the
“superhuman
assistant
who
is
there
when
you
need
it,
disappears
when
you
don’t,
and
is
always
working
in
the
background
on
your
behalf”
that
Amazon
promised
just
isn’t
here.
Alexa
is
still
mainly
doing
what
it’s
always
done:
playing
music,
reporting
the
weather,
and
setting
timers.
Its
capabilities
have
expanded
—
Alexa
can
now
do
useful
things
like
control
your
lights,
call
your
mom,
and
remind
you
to
take
out
the
trash.
But
despite
a
significant
investment
of
time,
money,
and
resources
over
the
last
decade,
the
voice
assistant
hasn’t
become
noticeably
more
intelligent.
As
one
former
Amazon
employee
said,
“We
worried
we’ve
hired
10,000
people
and
we’ve
built
a
smart
timer.”
It’s
disappointing.
Alexa
holds
so
much
promise.
While
its
capabilities
are
undoubtedly
impressive
—
not
to
mention
indispensable
for
many
people
(particularly
in
areas
like
accessibility
and
elder
care)
—
it’s
still
basically
a
remote
control
in
our
homes.
I’m
holding
out
hope
for
the
dream
of
a
highly
capable
ambient
computer
—
an
artificial
intelligence
that
will
help
manage
our
lives
and
homes
as
seamlessly
as
Captain
Picard
ran
the
Starship
Enterprise.
(Only
preferably
with
fewer
red
alerts).
Today,
I
may
have
an
Alexa
smart
speaker
in
every
room
of
my
house,
but
it
hasn’t
made
it
more
useful.
Alexa
has
gained
thousands
of
abilities
over
the
last
few
years,
but
I
still
won’t
rely
on
it
to
do
anything
more
complicated
than
execute
a
command
on
a
schedule,
add
milk
to
my
shopping
list,
and
maybe
tell
me
if
grapes
are
poisonous
to
chickens.
(They’re
not,
but
Alexa
says
I
should
check
with
my
vet
to
be
sure.)
If
anything,
on
the
eve
of
the
voice
assistant’s
10th
birthday,
Alexa’s
original
dream
feels
further
away.
My
first
Echo
arrived
under
the
Christmas
tree
in
2015.
A
decade
on,
and
it’s
still
plugging
away.Photo
by
Jennifer
Pattison
Tuohy
It’s
easy
to
forget
how
groundbreaking
Alexa
was
when
it
first
appeared.
Instead
of
being
trapped
in
a
phone
like
Apple’s
Siri
or
a
computer
like
Microsoft’s
Cortana,
Alexa
came
inside
the
Echo,
the
world’s
first
voice-activated
speaker.
Its
far-field
speech
recognition,
powered
by
a
seven-microphone
array,
was
seriously
impressive
—
using
it
felt
almost
magical.
You
could
shout
at
an
Echo
from
anywhere
in
a
room,
and
that
glowing
blue
ring
would
(almost)
always
turn
on,
signaling
Alexa
was
ready
to
tell
you
a
joke
or
set
that
egg
timer.
It
was
Amazon’s
pivot
into
smart
home
control
that
provided
the
first
hints
of
the
promised
Star
Trek-like
future.
Silly
fart
jokes
and
encyclopedic-type
knowledge
aside,
the
release
of
an
Alexa
smart
home
API
in
2016,
followed
by
the
Echo
Plus
packing
a
Zigbee
radio
in
2017,
allowed
the
assistant
to
connect
to
and
control
devices
in
our
homes.
Saying
“Alexa,
Tea.
Earl
Grey.
Hot,”
and
having
a
toasty
cuppa
in
your
hands
a
few
moments
later
felt
closer
than
ever.
This
was
genuinely
exciting.
While
tea
from
a
replicator
wasn’t
here
yet,
asking
Alexa
to
turn
your
lights
off
while
sitting
on
the
couch
or
to
turn
up
your
thermostat
without
getting
out
from
under
the
covers
felt
like
living
in
the
future.
We
finally
had
something
that
resembled
Star
Trek’s
“Computer”
in
our
homes
—
Amazon
even
let
us
call
it
“Computer.”
In
retrospect,
Alexa
brought
with
it
the
beginnings
of
the
modern
smart
home.
Simple
voice
control
made
the
Internet
of
Things
accessible;
it
brought
technology
into
the
home
without
being
locked
behind
a
complicated
computer
interface
or
inside
a
personal
device.
Plus,
Amazon’s
open
approach
to
the
connected
home
—
in
a
time
of
proprietary
smart
home
ecosystems
—
helped
spur
a
wave
of
new
consumer-level
connected
devices.
Nest,
August,
Philips
Hue,
Ecobee,
Lutron,
and
LiFX
all
partly
owe
their
success
to
Alexa’s
ease
of
operation.
But
the
ecosystem
that
sprang
up
around
Alexa
grew
too
quickly.
Anyone
could
develop
capabilities
(which
Amazon
calls
skills)
for
the
assistant
with
little
oversight.
While
some
skills
were
simple
and
fun,
many
were
buggy
and
unreliable,
and
specific
wording
was
needed
to
evoke
each
one.
It
all
added
up
to
an
inconsistent
and
often
frustrating
experience.
Asking
Alexa
to
turn
up
your
thermostat
without
getting
out
from
under
the
covers
felt
like
living
in
the
future
Then
Alexa
hit
a
wall.
There’s
an
assumption
with
technology
that
it
will
just
keep
improving.
But
instead
of
developing
the
core
technology,
Amazon relied
on
third-party
developers to
make
Alexa
do
more,
focusing
its
resources
on
putting
the
voice
assistant
in
more
devices
and
making
it
capable
of
controlling
more
things.
The
more
devices
that
worked
with
Alexa
and
the
more
capabilities
Amazon
added
to
the
platform,
the
harder
it
became
to
manage,
control,
and
access
them
all.
Voice
control
is
great
for
simple
commands,
but
without
easier
ways
to
talk
to
Alexa,
these
new
features
were
lost
on
most
users.
Alexa
Routines
emerged
as
a
solution
to
corralling
all
the
different
gadgets
and
functions
you
could
use
Alexa
for,
but
this
relied
on
you
spending
time
programming
in
an
app,
alongside
constantly
troubleshooting
devices
and
their
connectivity.
Hearing
“‘Lamp’
isn’t
responding.
Please
check
its
network
connection
and
power
supply”
after
issuing
a
command
is
beyond
frustrating.
And
spending
hours
a
month
configuring
and
troubleshooting
your
smart
home
wasn’t
part
of
the
promise.
This
is
what
a
smart
computer
should
be
able
to
do
for
you.
We’ve
had
to
learn
how
to
speak
to
Alexa
rather
than
Alexa
learning
to
speak
to
us
Amazon
masked
Alexa’s
failure
to
get
smarter
with
an
ever-ballooning
line
of
Echo
hardware.
New
smart
speakers
arrived
annually,
Alexa
moved
into
a
clock
and
a
microwave,
and
new
form
factors
attempted
to
push
customers
to
take
Alexa
outside
of
the
house
in
their
ears
(Echo
Buds),
on
their
fingers
(Echo
Loop),
on
their
faces
(Echo
Glasses),
and
in
their
cars
(Echo
Auto).
Many
of
these
devices
were
forgettable,
did
little
to
advance
Alexa’s
capabilities,
and
mostly
served
to
lose
Amazon
money.
The
Wall
Street
Journal
reported
earlier
this
year
that
Amazon
has
lost
tens
of
billions
of
dollars
on
its
broader
devices
unit.
Even
with
this
“throw
everything
at
the
wall
and
see
what
sticks”
approach,
Amazon
never
cracked
that
second
must-have
form
factor.
In
2017,
it
invented
the
smart
display
—
an
Echo
with
a
touchscreen
that
added
benefits
like
video
calling,
watching
security
cameras,
and
showing
information
rather
than
just
telling
you.
But
sluggish
processors,
finicky
touchscreens,
and
too
many
ads
meant
the
smart
display
never
really
furthered
Alexa's
core
benefit.
Today,
many
users
complain
that
Alexa
has
become
measurably
worse
at
its
core
capabilities.
People
seem
to
buy
Echo
devices
primarily
because
they’re
cheaper
than
the
competition,
and
they
can
use
them
to
do
basically
what
Alexa
could
do
in
2014:
set
timers,
check
the
weather,
and
listen
to
music.
There’s
no
expectation
for
something
better
from
a
device
that
costs
as
little
as
$18.
Dave
Limp,
Amazon’s
former
head
of
devices
and
services,
at
the
company’s
last
big
hardware
event
in
September
2023.
He
demoed
a
“new”
Alexa
that
is
more
conversational
and
less
transactional.
It
has
yet
to
arrive.Photo
by
David
Pierce
/
The
Verge
After
all
these
years,
just
talking
to
Alexa
remains
the
biggest
hurdle.
We’ve
had
to
learn
how
to
speak
to
Alexa
rather
than
Alexa
learning
to
speak
to
us.
Case
in
point,
my
connected
kitchen
faucet
still
requires
me
to
say,
“Alexa,
ask
Moen
to
dispense
2
cups
of
hot
water.” As
my
husband
points
out,
if
Alexa
really
was
“smart,”
wouldn’t
it
just
know
that
I’m
standing
in
front
of
the
kitchen
sink
and
doing
what
I
ask
without
the
need
for
hard-to-remember
phrases?
The
good
news,
at
least
on
that
front,
is
that
technology
is
catching
up.
Large
language
models
and
generative
AI
could
bring
us
an
Alexa
we
can
talk
to
more
naturally.
Last
year,
Amazon
announced
that
it’s
working
on
a
“new”
LLM-powered
Alexa
that
is
more
proactive
and
conversational
and
less
pedestrian
and
transactional.
This
alone
would
be
a
big
leap
forward.
But
while
generative
AI
could
make
voice
assistants
smarter,
it’s
not
a
silver
bullet.
LLMs
solve
the
basic
“make
sense
of
language”
problem,
but
they
don’t
—
yet
—
have
the
ability
to
act
on
that
language,
not
to
mention
the
concerns
about
a
powerful
AI
hallucinating
in
your
home.
What
Alexa
really
needs
to
become
“Computer”
is
context
What
Alexa
really
needs
to
become
a
“Computer”
is
context.
To
be
effective,
an
omniscient
voice
assistant
needs
to
know
everything
about
you,
your
home,
and
the
people
and
devices
in
it.
This
is
a
hard
task.
And
while
Echo
speakers with
ultrasound
tech and
smart
home
sensors
can
provide
some
context,
there
is
one
crucial
area
where
Amazon
is
way
behind
the
competition:
you.
Unlike
Google
and
Apple
—
which
have
access
to
data
about
you
through
your
smartphone,
calendar,
email,
or
internet
searches
—
Amazon
has
largely
been
locked
out
of
your
personal
life
beyond
what
you
buy
on
its
store
or
select
data
you
give
it
access
to.
And
its
privacy
missteps
have
kept
people
from
trusting
it.
But
Google
and
Apple
haven’t
cracked
the
smart
home
yet,
and
while
they
are
making
serious
moves
in
the
space,
Alexa
still
has
a
sizable
head
start.
According
to
Amazon,
the
“New
Alexa”
can
complete
multistep
routines
you
can
create
just
by
listing
tasks.
Add
in
context
about
who
lives
in
your
home,
where
they
are
at
any
point,
and
what
they
should
be
doing,
and
it’s
feasible
that
the
assistant
could
handle
a
task
like
this
with
just
one
command:
Alexa,
tell
my
son
not
to
forget
his
science
project;
set
the
alarm
when
he
leaves.
Disarm
the
alarm
and
unlock
the
back
door
for
the
plumber
at
4PM,
then
lock
it
again
at
5PM.
Preheat
the
oven
to
375
degrees
at
6PM,
but
if
I’m
running
late,
adjust
the
time.
This
type
of
capability
would
bring
a
whole
new
level
of
utility
to
Alexa,
maybe
enough
to
justify
charging
for
it,
as
the
company
has
said
it
plans
to.
It’s
time
for
Alexa
to
boldly
go
where
no
voice
assistant
has
gone
before
However,
despite
last
year’s
splashy
launch
of
this
LLM-powered
assistant,
we’ve
heard
nothing
more.
Amazon
even
skipped
its
big
hardware
event
this
year,
where
it
traditionally
announces
dozens
of
new
Alexa
and
Alexa-compatible
devices
and
services.
This
is
likely
because,
based
on
reports,
Amazon
is
far
from
achieving
its
promised
“New
Alexa.”
But
it
needs
to
pull
off
its
promised
reinvention
of
Alexa,
or
Apple
and
Google
will
overtake
it.
In
2014,
Amazon
set
the
stage
for
voice
control
in
the
home
and,
over
the
last
decade,
laid
the
groundwork
for
a
smarter
home.
Today,
Alexa
is
the
most
popular
voice
assistant
inside
a
smart
speaker
—
with
over
two-thirds
of
the
US
market.
Outside
of
the
home,
Google’s
Assistant
and
Apple’s
Siri
dominate.
As
those
companies
invest
more
in
the
smart
home
and
eventually
bring
Apple
Intelligence
and
Gemini
smarts
to
their
home
products,
Alexa’s
days
of
dominance
may
be
numbered.
The
path
to
a
generative
AI-powered,
context-aware
smart
home
is
fraught
with
pitfalls,
but
with
all
its
history
here,
Amazon
feels
best
poised
to
pull
it
off
—
if
it
can
get
out
of
its
own
way.
The
home
is
the
final
frontier,
and
it’s
time
for
Alexa
to
boldly
go
where
no
voice
assistant
has
gone
before
and
become
truly
intelligent.
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