AI assistants often make mistakes while responding to a user’s command. They also struggle to respond to certain questions they don’t have an answer to. But Amazon is trying to address the issue by giving its personal assistant, Alexa, an upgrade.
In an effort to advance the capabilities of Alexa, Amazon has confirmed rolling out a new feature called ‘Answer Update’. This will notify users when Alexa learns an answer to the questions it previously didn’t know. Alexa usually replies with statements such as “I don’t know, I’m always learning” while replying to a question it doesn’t know. But with the new update, it will answer those questions when it figures them out and notify the user about it.
The feature is still “rolling out”, so you may or may not receive the update on your Alexa powered device. But if you want to confirm or try it out, simply say “Alexa, turn on Answer Update.”
If it has received the update, it will notify you. Otherwise it will tell you it doesn’t know what you’re talking about.
Even though Alexa powered devices are the best selling smart speakers, they lag behind in the smartness of their AI. In an AI IQ test conducted by Loup Ventures, Google Assistant consistently outsmarted Alexa in answering and understanding questions correctly.
This update gives users the assurance that Amazon is finally taking steps to improve its AI assistant. Many people trying a personal assistant for the first time expect it to know all the answers, so this step will help managing expectations.