Amazon of artificial intelligence is more intelligent, but still struggles.

This week, Amazon will Launching new echo devices Designed for high fees Alexa PlusAmnesty International’s promotion to the sound assistant. I have been using Alexa Plus in the past few months as part of Early access programAnd although the new assistant has started a promising start, it is still clear that it is a continuous work.

To fix Alexa, Amazon had to dismantle and rebuild it. The result is a hybrid smart house assistant, Personal assistantAmazon Answer Chatgpt. Currently, in the trial version stage, this new Alexa does not do any of these things as I hope.

This is the most obvious in the smart home. Control of the lights, locks, and voids of robots in the natural language instead of accurate phrases is a great improvement, as it does not have to say “Alexa” frequently and the ability to boycott the mother, and a mental change in the middle of thinking. But we are still far from the dream of the surrounding house that works on a Star Trek–style “computer”.

Today, it apparently works as deadly devices with surface level integration in my smart home, Alexa Plus is often frustrated. There is strength under this cover, but it is not largely accessible. The assistant desperately needs something to make it more convincing – the best devices can be the solution.

Alexa Plus must make the smart house more intelligent

It is supposed to be the Important IQ The moment of the water gatherings for the smart home. By overcoming the complexity of your home programming and the removal of Clunky orders, LLMS should make the smart home easier. In many ways, Alexa plus delivers.

Now I can say, “Alexa, the lights are diminished here, the thermostat lower the lower degrees, the front door locks, the lights on the upper floor. Oh, and remind me of removing the garbage in the morning,” and everything happens. This type of easy -free convenience is exactly what the smart house has promised for years.

Managing my devices is the simplest. Instead of passing through the mini image clips in the episode application, I can order an Echo 21 When the cat was the last time on the balcony And immediately watched a video on a full screen. The updated user interface in the parade 15 and 21 is a great improvement, with larger guidelines, customizable plans, and ease of access to smart home controls.

Recently, Alexa and Anna and Alexa have talked about the best ways to use my smart home tools to their full potential. I suggest possible procedures, make automation, modify them based on my notes, and test them – all of this in minutes, with no tampering with the Alexa app (which is still standing). This helped me even prepare and fold the new air purification device in one of that routine.

But there are issues. Alexa Plus is significantly slower, as some requests take up to 15 seconds to respond. While turning on the lights or setting a quick enough toxat (I assume due to the use of local communications on the material), waiting for more than 10 seconds until the weather or song is played.

Some of the basic features that are used to work reliably do not require or require a new formulation every time. for me Struggle to control the coffee machine that supports Alexa Continue, and I cannot get Alexa to run my bathroom fan for a specific period of time.

I used to say, “Run the bathroom fan for 15 minutes”, and I did so. Now, Alexa Plus told me that he had to create a routine to do so, then he does not run this routine. Or he says, “Certainly,” the fan operates, but never extinguishes it. I tried this ten times and I have no fixed response yet.

One of the surreal moments: weeks after the new Alexa Plus sound, the old Alexa appeared suddenly when the system collided with the obstacle. “Sorry, a mistake happened,” he said in that harsh and familiar tone. For one second, I wondered – is the old Alexa still there, trying to go out?

Building old over the new

The old Alexa-the inevitable model based on the rules of strict leadership and control-has been mainly given. According to Panos Panay, head of the Amazon and Services Department, with which I spoke in February, Alexa Plus is working on a completely new structure. One, based on my test, feels much stronger than the old Alexa, but it is also less reliable.

This is the LLMS paradox: It is excellent in analyzing human language, but it is not designed for harmony. Ask on ChatGPT the same question twice, and you will get different answers. Inability to predict LLMS, known as nonderminismIt is a bad seizure to control the smart home, where reliability and repetition are decisive. It is great when you think, but it is frustrated when you just want morning coffee.

The solution to the alternative solution was to use LLM models as a kind of translator. He explains what you say, then Destruction hands To inevitable systems – applications programming facades, control units, or local material connections.

I found that this works most of the time, but if LLM translates incorrectly request or there is a gap in the application programming interface, it seems that delivery can fail. I assume that this is the reason that my bathroom fan is sometimes operated as required and why Alexa sometimes insists on creating a routine but then forgets to finish the task.

This is the problem that each company deals with with an audio assistant at smart home – the old merge and can be predicted with new and exciting. LLMS is not designed to be expected, and what you want when controlling your home is the ability to predict.

Banai says they have I worked hard to bring the ability to predict To Alexa Plus and to make sure that he will not cheer in your smart home. While the first still needs work, my smart house has so far been hallucinogen. There were no strange behaviors such as opening doors, moving the heat full of heat, or doing something different from what was requested.

However, this tightly controlled structure led to Alexa Plus this is not the typical shift that I was hoped for. Of course, the first days are still, but the LLMS promise is that it will open the potential of technology inside our homes – this has not yet happened.

Alexa Plus did not change anything for me; It has made my smart home (mostly) easier to manage. It still looks like cutting and parts, and not as a coherent whole it is run by a smart machine.

It can carry the key devices

Many of my frustrations with Alexa Plus are connected to the devices, and changes here can make a big difference.

The current display devices are the leading Alexa Plus facades, specifically the 21st and 15th width. But the interaction between the sound and the screen is still not present; The device is still audio.

For example, I will ask Alexa to show me the recipe I was only using, instead, you will read the instructions. With devices that coincide with sound and visuals smoothly, Alexa Plus will be very convincing. (Also, offers are the worst echo devices in hearing orders, and Amazon really needs to fix it.)

Andy Jaci We promised new “beautiful” devices for Alexa. As the first products fully designed under Panos Panay, who told me Believe in screensWe have an idea of ​​what will happen. But in the end, it will be about the success of devices and programs together. The devices that were unveiled this week will be the moment of Alexa Plus to prove that they are more than just capabilities.

Pictures of Jennifer Patson Tuhi / Al -Haf