Where’s my Star Trek computer?
Amazon Inc. and the Rise and Fall of Home Automation: The Story of Amazon in the Ages of Consumer Connected Home Products and Smart Home Appliances
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. Amazon’s open approach to the connected home aided in the development of a wave of consumer-level connected devices. August, Lutron, Ecobee, and Nest all have their success traced to the ease of operation that was provided by Amazon.
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 in May that Amazon has lost billions of dollars on its broader devices unit.
Set an alarm when my son leaves so he doesn’t forget his science project. At 4PM, lock the back door of the plumbing shop, then at 5PM you can unarm the alarm. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees at 6PM, but if I’m running late, adjust the time.
How Do You Get Your Skills? Amazon vs. Android, iOS, and Android: Why Does Facebook Advertising Make Sense? How Do LLMs Get Their Skills?
Unlike Apple and Amazon, which have access to data about you through your phone or internet searches, Amazon has largely kept its personal life out of your life. And its privacy missteps have kept people from trusting it.
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.
Hearing “‘Lamp’ isn’t responding. After issuing a command, please check its network connection and power supply. And spending hours a month configuring and troubleshooting your smart home wasn’t part of the promise. A computer should be able to do this for you.
But the ecosystem that sprang up around Alexa grew too quickly. The assistant with little oversight could be developed by anyone. Some skills were fun, but many of them were buggy and unreliable and a certain word was needed to evoke each one. It was an inconsistent and frustrating experience.
Amazon worked to make skills happen. The company paid its developers in credits and cash when they used their skills and also tried to make skill development simple, but it stopped doing so recently. And on some level, all that effort paid off: Amazon says there are more than 160,000 skills available for the platform. That pales next to the millions of app store apps on smartphones, but it’s still a big number.
The system is a little better if you know the skill you’re looking for. You can say it with your name and it will open the skill with it. If you don’t know what “EASY YOGA” is, you wont get anywhere.
The majority of the most popular skills are simple Q&A games made by a company called Volley. Volley is one of the companies that has figured out how to make skills that actually work. And Max Child, Volley’s cofounder and CEO, says that getting your skill in front of people is one of the most important — and hardest — parts of the job.
“I think one of the underrated reasons that the iOS and Android app stores are so successful is because Facebook ads are so good,” he says. The pipeline from a hyper-targeted ad to an app install has been ruthlessly perfected over the years, and there’s just nothing like that for voice assistants. The nearest equivalent is probably people asking their Alexa devices what they can do — which Child says does happen! — but there’s just no competing with in-feed ads and hours of social scrolling. You end up having to do broad marketing and build broad games because you don’t have hyper-targeted marketing. Feud and Millionaire are big brands that appeal to everyone.
These are hardly unique challenges, by the way. Similar discovery issues, issues with monetization and more can be found in mobile app stores. It was clear that the solution was to not use an app store and to use your smart speaker, such as the AmazonAlexa. You should merely be able to ask for what you want, and Amazon will take care of it for you.
While the company searches for its vision, Jassy has installed a new head of the devices and services division under which Alexa falls. A year has passed since the former head of Microsoft’sSurface division arrived at the company, and they are reporting a focus on higher-quality design.
One tester says that the hallucinations are uncalled for, and that it is the case as if Alexa is trying to show off its newfound prowess. It may say the 2004 Super Bowl if you’re asking this time before, for instance. Now, it’s just as likely to give a long-winded addendum about the infamous wardrobe malfunction.
The people who did get to talk have not been impressed by what I have said. Responses were slow, sounded stiff, and weren’t “all that useful,” they said. The new smart home integrations are messed up and apparently tries to show off. Bloomberg reports:
