Alexa is a "colossal failure" for Amazon, on pace to lose $10 billion this year (Ars Technica)

[Kal-El814]

7 hours ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

I just gated Kinect because I hate dancing

 

We get it, you were raised Mormon

[GeneticBlueprint]

30 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

We get it, you were raised Mormon

Mormons actually love dancing doe. Like wayyy too much for how generally white they are. 

[SuperSpreader]

7 hours ago, Ominous said:

 

Never had an issue with that either.

 

[Keyser_Soze]

3 minutes ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

Mormons actually love dancing doe. Like wayyy too much for how generally white they are. 

 

Helps them warm up for that armpit sex or whatever they're doing.

[Bloodporne]

9 hours ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

Because I'm actually a technophobe at heart, I have never and will never use any of these types of devices

Came to post the same thing. I can't tell you where my line actually is but for some reason, something like Alexa is full Black Mirror dystopia to me. My girlfriend has one of these things in her house and it creeps me out. I still have a fucking Galaxy S8 for christ's sake 

[Anathema-]

I really want to get one of those vacuums that maps your floor and you can go tell it to mop the kitchen or sweep the living room or whatever.

[SuperSpreader]

2 minutes ago, Anathema- said:

I really want to get one of those vacuums that maps your floor and you can go tell it to mop the kitchen or sweep the living room or whatever.

 

It's called a mom

[Bloodporne]

3 minutes ago, Anathema- said:

I really want to get one of those vacuums that maps your floor and you can go tell it to mop the kitchen or sweep the living room or whatever.

An East European wife? 

[Bloodporne]

1 minute ago, SuperSpreader said:

 

It's called a mom

 

Just now, Bloodporne said:

An East European wife? 

Remind me to trash both of us the next time we try to get on a moral high horse 

[Anathema-]

[Bacon]

31 minutes ago, Anathema- said:

I really want to get one of those vacuums that maps your floor and you can go tell it to mop the kitchen or sweep the living room or whatever.

Same, but make it human looking AI-android that I can fuck 

[Anathema-]

[AbsolutSurgen]

Alexa is awesome.  The kids use it to stream music.  It's used as an intercom.  We use the reminders with the kids all the time  It's used to create our shopping lists.  We use it to turn on and off lights.

 

We could do everything with another services, but Alexa makes it so much easier.

[GeneticBlueprint]

 

[TwinIon]

I like voice assistants. I had a bunch of Alexa devices around my home, but they've now been replaced by Google devices since Alexa has gotten so needy (constantly asking to do more or telling me to set something up or to ask for one more thing) and it seems to have gotten way more sensitive over the years, more often waking when no one asked for her. That said, the vast majority of my interactions with any home voice assistant is to: control lights or other smart home things and to set kitchen timers. I've never had any desire to buy anything or order an uber or do any of the other monetizable actions that Amazon was looking for.

 

Now, it doesn't surprise me that Alexa doesn't make money, but it does surprise me that it cost them so much to run it. $10B is what Zuck spent on the metaverse, and say what you will about what they've made so far, but they're working on really hard technology problems that have the potential to turn into enormous businesses. Losing that much money on an established product that hasn't shown any potential for profit is wild.

 

Google an Apple have pretty good incentives to keep building these things, but unless Amazon can figure something else to do with it, I don't see why they'd keep throwing money at it. Maybe white label the voice recognition tech?

[Nokra]

I have a Google Nest Hub in the kitchen and a couple Nest Minis throughout my apartment and in no particular order of importance, I find them great for:

1. Controlling the smart plugs (lamps)
2. Playing synchronized music throughout the apartment
3. Setting timers, looking up recipes, etc. while cooking
4. Watching Netflix while doing the dishes
5. Scheduling a time to turn off my TV at night when I'm watching in bed (my TV doesn't have a sleep timer, somehow)
6. Using the Hub as a digital photo frame.

 

I'm not sure how they make money off of it either, other than selling my (hopefully anonymized) data. 

[Ominous]

As a dad saying "Turn off all the lights" and "set the thermostat to 60" while I'm walking out the door with my hands full in the morning is great.