Alexa Plus is smarter — but it’s not yet smart enough

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, personal assistant, and Amazon’s answer to ChatGPT. Right now, in its Beta phase, this new Alexa isn’t doing any of those things as well as I’d hoped.

This is most obvious in the smart home. Controlling my lights, locks, and r …

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