And it just keeps getting worse.

Amazon Alexa showing just how much they have embraced enshittification

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[–] 64 points 3 months ago (5 children)

Use shit product. Get shit results.

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  • [–] 18 points 3 months ago (4 children)
  • [–] 6 points 3 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 47 points 3 months ago*

    Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me

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  • [–] 14 points 3 months ago* (1 child)

    7 years ago, my google home rebelled against me. That was the first and last time I think I ever tried to use it to make any sort of list.

    Screenshot of packing list. Item 1 aloe Vera. Item 2 did you hear me.

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  • [–] 9 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    I am surprised at how often I will do something like "Play 'The Apple Orchard in Saghmosavanq' by Tigran Hamasyan" and I get back "Now playing Christina Applegate". It's like AI latches on to they biggest keyword it can detect and focuses on that even if it violates part of the search parameters.

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  • [–] 8 points 3 months ago

    Has anyone else noticed how absolutely awful spellcheck has gotten?

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  • [–] 7 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    I've had several Alexas scattered around my house for years now. Seems everytime there's a new update they function worse. Literally considering getting rid if them at this point.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 months ago (11 children)

    What's the alternative? Is there actually a good voice assistant out there?

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  • [–] 8 points 3 months ago (7 children)

    No, but if you want a voice assistant that you can tinker with but without expectations, I've been enjoying the Home Assistant Voice Preview (preview here refers to it not being consumer ready, a beta or similar).

    It does need a Home Assistant setup first, it's not a stand alone speaker.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago (6 children)

    I've been playing around with it, it's ok for home stuff, but no on-device functions.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago* (5 children)

    It does all the basics. Can play music via jellyfin, spotify or any of the supported Music Assistant sources (preferably plug in better speakers). Can set timers. I have it announce various reminders (put the recycling/rubbish bin out, etc).

    One thing it can do that I don't think other smart speakers can is proactive things. When the room gets cold, I have it say "It's getting cold in here, would you like to turn on the heating?", then it listens for a response and you can reply yes/no.

    I've also been playing with connecting it with frigate events, such as "I can see Grandma on the doorbell camera", or "I can see your Ariya on the driveway camera". That needs some infrastructure though 😅

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago (4 children)

    Thats cool. Maybe my experience has been tainted by the fact that I run piper/whisper on the server's cpu, and by consequence, it's slow as fuck.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    Oh I'm using Home Assistant Cloud as I worked out day 1 there's no chance of it recognising my voice. I would like to switch to local processing when it gets good enough though.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    Maybe I should do it too. I mean, it's 10€ a month, right? What other goodies does it offer?

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

    There isn't much from memory. It's a great way to support them, but in terms what you get from it I think it's basically just automatic cloud backups, access to cloud speech to text and text to speech, and if you need it, a URL to access your Home Assistant when you're away from home.

    It's how the HA work is funded though, so I figure it's worth it for that.

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  • [–] 12 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    It actually takes more effort to ask a machine to do something for you than just doing most of the things you can ask them to do.

    Useful for the disabled and elderly or those with other mobility issues, for everyone else they're a waste of time that spies on you and sells your data.

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  • [–] 12 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Someone invented keyboards

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago

    I have the problem with Google Assistant in Dutch that I asked for "speel muziek x" and it just starts to spel the words.

    I've been moving to Music Assistant with nodes that use Nabu, so all local and it actually tries to do what I asked it for

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  • Heavy metal has a top tier soundtrack

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