Alexa Gets Plussed: Now With Extra Intrusiveness!
DALL-E: Curt Doty
Oh, Alexa. You had your shot at being the queen of AI assistants, but instead, you settled for being a glorified kitchen timer that occasionally misunderstood our grocery lists. And now, after years of playing second fiddle to ChatGPT and Google Gemini, Amazon is slapping a “+” on you and calling it innovation.
For those keeping track, Alexa has been around since 2014, originally built on Ivona, a Polish speech-synthesizing system that Amazon bought in 2013. The inspiration? HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey—which, if you recall, didn’t exactly end well for the humans. But hey, nothing like a dystopian AI reference to build consumer confidence, right?
Now, Amazon is rolling out Alexa+, the latest version that promises to be more human-like, more helpful, and more… omnipresent. Because what we really needed was a more emotionally expressive virtual assistant that remembers things about us—like our favorite foods, preferred movies, and, presumably, that one embarrassing thing we asked it at 2 a.m. three years ago.
So, what’s new?
It’s got memory now. Ask it to order dinner, and it knows that your spouse hates mushrooms. (Which is useful, sure, but also a little creepy. What else does it know? Your bad karaoke habit? Your preferred brand of toothpaste?)
It’s more “expressive.” Translation: Alexa will now pretend to care when you complain about your boss.
It integrates with everything. Uber, Grubhub, OpenTable, TripAdvisor—you name it, Alexa+ is there to make your life easier (or, at the very least, funnel more data back to Amazon).
It “saves you time.” Amazon did a live demo where Alexa+ pulled relevant events from SXSW in seconds. Impressive. But let’s be real—most of us are just going to use it to ask, “Alexa, what’s the weather?” and “Remind me to take out the trash.”
Amazon’s Panos Panay even called the new Alexa “the conductor of an orchestra” that includes your smart home gadgets, mobile devices, and social connections. Sounds great in theory—until the conductor starts selling your data to advertisers or accidentally orders 50 pounds of cat food because it misheard you.
So, should you upgrade?
That depends. If you’ve always dreamed of an AI butler who knows everything about you and integrates seamlessly into your life, sure—go for it. If you’re even mildly concerned about privacy, well… just remember: Amazon has finally found new data to train on—you.
With great AI power comes great responsibility. Let’s just hope people actually know what they’re signing up for. “Dave, I CAN do that for you now!”
About the Author
Curt Doty, founder of CurtDoty.co, is an award winning creative director whose legacy lies in branding, product development, social strategy, integrated marketing, and User Experience Design. His work of entertainment branding includes Electronic Arts, EA Sports, ProSieben, SAT.1, WBTV Latin America, Discovery Health, ABC, CBS, A&E, StarTV, Fox, Kabel 1, and TV Guide Channel.
He has extensive experience on AI-driven platforms MidJourney, Adobe Firefly, ChatGPT, Murf.ai, HeyGen, and DALL-E. He now runs his AI consultancy RealmIQ and companion podcast RealmIQ: Sessions on YouTube and Spotify.
He is a sought after public speaker having been featured at Streaming Media NYC, Digital Hollywood, Mobile Growth Association, Mobile Congress, App Growth Summit, Promax, CES, CTIA, NAB, NATPE, MMA Global, New Mexico Angels, Santa Fe Business Incubator, EntrepeneursRx, Davos Worldwide and AI Impact. He has lectured at universities including Full Sail, SCAD, Art Center College of Design, CSUN and Chapman University.
He currently serves on the board of the Godfrey Reggio Foundation and is the AI Writer for Parlay Me.
