Amazon is bringing generative AI/LLM to its Alexa voice service, with a new preview coming to all existing Echo devices including the original 2014 model. Amazon is promising a more conversational tone with more "personality." #Alexa#Amazon#AmazonEcho#LLM#GenerativeAI
I've definitely noticed Alexa has been struggling after the layoffs and RTO policy has reduced the size of the teams supporting this service. I wonder if managers will allow the developers who are left to actually fix the problems. https://mastodon.social/@arstechnica/111093204374022996#Alexa#Echo
To my mind, that’s kinda sad. She’s not real, but she sounds real enough. And I don’t want to get out of the habit of being polite to people who help me to do things.
Also, #Apple, can Siri please learn to whisper like Alexa can? That’s a feature I'd really appreciate!
I see many people automating stuff I consider normal, such as closing windows shutters or turning on and off lights at a certain time or by using their phone.
I think these activities are normal and fine in a house. Yes, I like to open and close the shutters manually and turn on the light by using the switch on the wall.
So, which useful automations do you have in your home?
I’ve had an Echo device in my bathroom and ask for “flash briefing” every morning and for more than a month it fails most of the time. It is a pretty basic feature which has worked for years but now it falling apart. 🫤 #Alexa#Echo
While I'm in my unmedicated-for-today ADHD rant space:
A word for privacy researchers who mock folks who use products by Megacorps whose product is the user:
This isn't my thought, this comes from lots of conversations with lots of the disabled community, but it's certainly my experience as a disabled person with a disabled child:
Assistants and home automation products that can control everything are optional privacy-stealing annoyances for your average person. (more)
😈 How long could this 1 line fix take?
Good news: one-line code change to modify the API hostname
Sad news: forgot to save a states file to github so have to retrieve it from an old laptop (or recreate it)
Bad news: can't deploy without first upgrading because of outdated node lambda version #dev#aws#alexa
Ladies and gentlemen, #TheMusicBox has just sprung open and started flinging some Alan Jackson, Josh Turner and George Straight around the place on #VENOMFM! Listen at http://play.venom.fm/listen/live if using a web browser, or http://venom.fm:8000/live if using a media player. You can also ask #Alexa to open #VENOMRadio and say play live. Got something to say? Throw me a mention!
I love watching little kids interact with other peoples' #Alexa. They haven't learned the "natural" timing, diction, and commands to use it effectively, so it always ends in "Alexa... Alexa! No Alexa! ALEXAAAAAAAAA!"
Ist eigentlich richtig, was ChatGPT, Bing, Bard und Co. mir ausspucken? Die Textgenerierung durch KI-Sprachmodelle ist spannend und spaßig, sollte aber kritisch betrachtet werden. Geht es euch auch so, dass ihr im digitalen Gespräch mit einer KI „Bitte“ und „Danke“ sagt, obwohl ihr es streng genommen nicht müsstet?
@bsi Ich hab mir vor Jahren beim Aufkommen von #Alexa vorgenommen, mit Maschinen stets in einem Befehlston zu sprechen, wie ich ihn Menschen gegenüber nie verwenden würde. Halte ich für sinnvoll, um sich des Unterschieds bewusst zu bleiben.