This week, Amazon will launch new Echo hardware designed to supercharge Alexa Plus, the AI-powered upgrade to its voice assistant. I've been using Alexa Plus for the last few months as part of its Early Access program, and while the new assistant is off to a promising start, it's still clearly a work in progress.

To fix Alexa, Amazon had to break it apart and rebuild it. The result is a hybrid smart home assistant and personal assistant, as well as Amazon's answer to ChatGPT. Right now, it's not doing any of those things well enough.

This is most obvious in the smart home. Controlling my lights, locks, and robot vacuum with natural langu …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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