Screenshot of Alexa's Intro Screen on Amazon App |
My first query: "weather tracking for the home", followed by "weather tracking apps"
I don't like Alexa's color bar acknowledgement followed by its electronic beep. For the few seconds it takes to execute these robotic response commands, it is an unnecessary feature. Alexa responds by verbally giving me the weather forecast for Salem Oregon.
The response is puzzling because I was just adding/removing items from my wish lists in the app which one could assume that I am already logged into my account which has my mailing address in it (and I don't live in Oregon). Even if location services were turned on for this app, surely the developers would have programmed that into Alexa -- to be able to give regional information based on already known criteria.
My next query: "search Amazon for home weather tracking"
That brought up a relevant search list on Amazon's store.
Artificial Intelligence is only as good as the team that builds it.
I can just visualize the disconnect between the business user story and what got implemented by the development team. Maybe I'm just disappointed because I'm so used to Google search providing accurate, relevant results from text or voice queries.
At least Alexa can tell jokes (Siri cannot):
"Tell me a funny cat joke"
Alexa: What does a cat say when it gets hurt? Me-ow.