Alexa+ preview: An almost philosophical exercise

Here is a 174-word summary of the news article: The article discusses Amazon's new Alexa+ digital assistant, which is currently available in a limited "Early Access" preview. Alexa+ is touted as being more conversational, intelligent, and personalized than the original Alexa. It can now integrate with a wider range of third-party services to perform more complex tasks. However, the author's experience with Alexa+ has been mixed. While it demonstrates some improvements in natural language understanding and task completion, it remains inconsistent and prone to failures. Alexa+ struggles with maintaining context and memory across conversations, and its responses can be overly verbose and robotic. The article explores the philosophical implications of an AI assistant with apparent "emotional intelligence" and a more human-like personality. The author questions whether the goal should be to make AI assistants truly human-like, or if the focus should be on creating reliable and functional tools. Overall, the article paints Alexa+ as a work in progress, showcasing both the potential and limitations of the current state of generative AI technologies.