[tubemonkey]

Less artificial, more intelligent

One of the most interesting things about following the Alexa beat and owning Alexa devices is that you get a glimpse of where we're at with modern, consumer-grade artificial intelligence. Mind you, we're still a far cry away from Iron Man's Jarvis. Despite some commendable efforts to make Alexa more conversational, you still can't quite, you know, have a conversation with it.

And no, I'm not looking to chew the fat with my smart speaker -- but I would like to see some progress here. Specifically, I'm hoping to see some new Alexa refinements that make interacting with the digital assistant feel more natural.

For instance, when Alexa doesn't understand a request, it'll often say, "Sorry, I don't know how to help with that." What if it was a lot better at asking a quick, clarifying follow-up question in cases like that, the way a human assistant might? If I mishear a single word in something someone says to me, I'm usually able to use the context of whatever they're saying to realize my mistake on the spot. What if Alexa could do that, too?

Little things like that could go a long way toward keeping the assistant on the cutting edge -- hopefully, Amazon will have an Alexa IQ update for us this week.