Anyone Trying Out "Alexa+" Service?

[Jacob Petersheim]

Free trial period running now, at least in the US. After that $20/month unless you have Amazon Prime.

Sounds "hella pricey" to me, but I have Prime. Sort of a conversational AI thing. Not sure what it will do for me yet, but it does seem to be more flexible with smart devices. For example I can ask it for a temperature rundown of all of my sensors in one go, repeat them as needed if I missed one I want to get again, etc.

The default voice.... I'd describe it as "bratty teen." But I'm trying out the "sexy librarian" voice in the bedroom. And no, she won't come and cuddle with you. I already struck out on that one. But since she can read Kindle books out maybe I can trick her into something steamy.

 

[Don Alaska]

Free trial period running now, at least in the US. After that $20/month unless you have Amazon Prime.

Sounds "hella pricey" to me, but I have Prime. Sort of a conversational AI thing. Not sure what it will do for me yet, but it does seem to be more flexible with smart devices. For example I can ask it for a temperature rundown of all of my sensors in one go, repeat them as needed if I missed one I want to get again, etc.

The default voice.... I'd describe it as "bratty teen." But I'm trying out the "sexy librarian" voice in the bedroom. And no, she won't come and cuddle with you. I already struck out on that one. But since she can read Kindle books out maybe I can trick her into something steamy.

Nope not interested in it at all.

 

[Jacob Petersheim]

Well I decided to try a test. Yep, it builds a profile of you.

I asked A+ how old I was. It admitted it doesn't know my birthdate, but asked if I wanted to share that. Er, nope.

However I've asked a lot of random questions about random things. That response was followed up with "Remember, I'm here if you want to discus classic movies or your gold investments."

My takeaway from this is that when dealing with "A.I." it is probably a very good thing to salt your interactions with innocuous and off the wall topics.

 

[Don Alaska]

Not tempted by Alexa either unless I am searching for a video on Amazon. Then I turn it on and turn it off again when complete.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

How are you liking Alexa , @Jacob Petersheim ? What do you talk with her about ? We have Siri on our phones and iPad, but I never use that, either, except for making a phone call with the Apple Watch . Then I can just ask Siri to call whomever, usually Bobby, when we are finding each other in the store.

I do like Copilot, which is the Bing AI, but I have not tried to talk to it, I just ask questions when I want to learn something, like comparing nutrition between similar foods, or just some general question like that. Copilot also builds a profile of me, as far as questions I have asked, and will often ask if I want to include some previous food we have discussed into the new question I am asking.

 

[Jacob Petersheim]

What do you talk with her about ?

Not very much, truthfully.

For the most part I just turn lights on and off, get temperature and humidity readings from sensors around the house, weather reports, news reports, and play music while doing chores around the house. Every so often I'll ask oddball questions like "Why does Brazilian beef taste different?" and "Does broccoli contain much Lutein?" and such. I also get Amazon delivery push-notifications that way, ask about order status ("Where's my stuff?"_ and so on.

I can also send my PC audio to them via Bluetooth to keep listening while I go get coffee, etc.

The idea of "conversations" seems weird though. I haven't even attempted that experimentally and I wouldn't know where to start. I imagine, like with most AI, it ends up trailing off into dead ends and nonsense.

The enhanced "plus" service has added some things. It tries to phrase responses to sound more "human" and it can also handle somewhat more complex queries. I used to have to ask about each sensor device by name one by one, now I can ask for a report on all of my sensors in one go. And then there is this conversation thing (new) which can follow you as you move from room to room and not bound to one unit.

I have 3 Echo Dot devices, of varying generations. I also have a very cheap Echo Flex which only has a tiny speaker, mainly meant for places like a garage or workbench location. So far all of these are still supported.

The phone app does most of this as well, in addition to being used for configuration and control. I don't have any of the screen-based Alexa devices.

 

[Marie Mallory]

No Alexa, not yet anyway.