ChatGPT shatters Amazon’s dream! Microsoft CEO: Alexa, Siri, Cortana are as stupid as rocks

"As dumb as a rock!"

This is what Microsoft CEO Nadella said about the first wave of voice assistants in an interview with the Financial Times ——Rebuke from the likes of Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Microsoft’s own Cortana.

Yes, in front of ChatGPT, these once "star products" instantly eclipsed them.

It’s clear that as the tech world goes crazy regarding generative AI as “The next big thing,” Today's Silicon Valley has become much more utilitarian.

Amazon’s Big Dream for Alexa Fails

It’s been a while since Bezos excitedly sketched out his vision for Alexa on a whiteboard at Amazon headquarters Ten years.

Alexa voice assistant helps people complete various tasks, such as online shopping, controlling gadgets, and even reading bedtime stories to children.

But it’s clear that Amazon’s founder’s grand vision for a new voice-controlled computing platform has come to nothing.

With the advent of ChatGPT, the hype in the tech world has turned feverishly to generative AI. Obviously, the new “The next big thing” is AIGC.

The previous "The next big thing", the voice assistants of Amazon, Google, Apple, and Microsoft, have gone from being highly sought after to being ignored.

Yes, the popularity of ChatGPT has changed the entire culture of Silicon Valley.

According to a former Amazon Alexa marketing director, the previous "growth" culture has now transformed into how products can help the company make money.

A current employee on the Alexa team said that the leadership’s recent order was: “If you have anything that can directly benefit you, do it now.”

Under the tenure of new CEO Andy Jassy, ​​this new order directly led to major layoffs of the Alexa team late last year, as executives reviewed each product's direct contribution to the company's bottom line.

The e-commerce giant has cut 18,000 jobs as it faces pressure to boost profits during the global tech downturn.

Nadella denounced voice assistants: too stupid

And in the mouth of Microsoft CEO Nadella, whether it is Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, or Microsoft My own Cortana is already "dumb as a rock."

None of these voice assistants work, Nadella said. "Our product was supposed to be the new front-end for a lot of information, but it didn't work."

This merciless rebuke was in stark contrast to his remarks in 2016 In contrast, at that time, Nadella once said that "bots are the latest apps."

Yes, in those years, voice assistants were quite popular.

Now, Nadella is blunt: After Microsoft Bing integrated ChatGPT, Microsoft has become the leader in the field of AI chatbots, although before, it was almost used by most Internet users have forgotten.

Nowadays, ChatGPT’s ability to understand complex commands makes all voice assistants look stupid instantly.

Siri CEO Adam Cheyer said, "No one knows what they can and can't do. They don't know what they can and can't do."

A glorified radio

And Alexa often blurts out "you know what" on inopportune occasions. This kind of clever additional function will annoy users.

"People have a limit to their patience, and they get angry," said Carolina Milanesi, president of market research group Creative Strategies. "That's not the job you asked it to do. It crosses the line." Benedict Evans, an independent technology analyst, pointed out that for many users, Alexa is just a "glorified clock radio." ”.

Despite this, Amazon still said that the company remains committed to the development of Alexa and is "as optimistic as ever."

"In fact, the number of Alexa users has continued to grow. By 2022, global participation has increased by more than 30%; more than 50% of Alexa customers now use it to shop .”

In many ways, Alexa can be said to be Amazon’s extraordinary success.

According to Insider Intelligence, Alexa is now the leader in voice assistants in the United States, with approximately 66% market share.

Insider estimates that since the product was first launched in 2014, calling "Alexa" will now get a response in one-fifth of American homes.

And Amazon said that third-party manufacturers have made more than 140,000 Alexa-compatible products, and these operating systems control more than 300 million smart devices, such as lights or cameras.

Research firm IDC estimates that more than half of Alexa users interact with it at least once a day, a usage rate higher than that of Apple Siri and Google Assistant.

But two people familiar with Alexa said the direct value of these interactions to Amazon was not high, and there were disagreements within Alexa about how to measure Alexa’s impact on Amazon’s spending.

The current complex emotions are in sharp contrast to the era when Bezos was passionate about Alexa.

At that time, Bezos even directly guided the testing and development of Alexa, and personally designed the appearance and language of marketing materials.

“Our goal is not to make the Alexa program profitable,” said the former Amazon marketing executive. “It’s about selling devices — and we sell a lot of devices.” Can Amazon’s dream come true?

Having missed out on the smartphone boom, Amazon has been hoping Alexa will open up a vast new ecosystem of lucrative new voice-driven apps. Amazon named these apps "Skills" and opened Alexa to third-party developers.

Amazon said in November that the Amazon store now has more than 130,000 skills. Google has made a similar move with its Assistant, which it calls "conversational behavior."

But Skills on Alexa are essentially free, developers say it’s nearly impossible to make a profit, and users The process of finding new apps to try can also be difficult.

"I think there are still a lot of people who don't even know what Skills is," said Brian Tarbox of Wabi Sabi Software, the developer of Skillls. 》

Google has also encountered similar challenges. In June, it will end access to third-party "Conversation Actions" made specifically for voice assistants, instead directing them to add voice capabilities to Android smartphone and tablet apps.

IDC analyst Adam Wright said that without smartphones, Amazon has no similar escape route, and continued competition from Apple and Android "could erode sales gains from smart speakers."

But the renaissance of voice assistants may come from generative artificial intelligence, which may make them smarter.

"ChatGPT has caused a stir," a current Amazon employee said. "Executives issued a directive asking the team to brainstorm ways to make Alexa smarter."

Siri co-founder Cheyer added that this technology has the potential to bring voice assistants back to on the sci-fi track they originally envisioned for it.

"It's really about quality. Fundamentally, this technology will enable a breadth, flexibility and sophistication that the previous generation of voice assistants didn't have. Voice assistants may have a A revival."

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