Amazon’s Alexa — yes, the virtual assistant — is eight years old. And smart homes, artificial intelligence, and indeed the technology surrounding the entire sector have come a long way since 2014.
What started as the original long canister smart speaker called “Echo” has evolved into a complete product line, throwing Alexa into other devices. One thing that hasn’t changed, though, is the ability to ask Alexa different things. From friendly greetings to weather forecasts and of course jokes.
You could argue there’s good and bad about the latter, but at least it’s a trick often used at parties. With 8-year-old Alexa, (AMZN) – Get Free Report We spoke with two people (Billy Brush and Will North, associate creative directors of Alexa at Amazon) who are tackling the humor of Alexa by offering deep discounts on smart speakers and displays.
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The biggest change since the Echo first came out is the volume. After all, more and more people have Smart Her speakers in their homes, and the team working on humor and personality has expanded the repertoire of jokes Alexa knows.
Today, Alexa speaks nine languages and your assistant can tell thousands of jokes around the world. The team is also working to ensure that Alexa offers appropriate humor choices in certain regions. Similar to how weather and other requests are by region.
Who’s joking? It’s his creators of content coming from Billy Brush and Will North and the broader team working on Alexa. North said of the types of jokes this team wrote:
“Alexa knows hundreds of jokes on topics ranging from animals to zombies, food, sports, science, technology, math, entertainment, and more.”
Notice how the experience expands beyond just saying, “Alexa, tell me a joke,” to more than just saying, “Alexa, tell me a Halloween joke.” As with other Alexa topics, humor and jokes can become more specific overall.
We both quickly realized that Alexa wasn’t trying to be mean or full of profanity. But make sure the jokes your virtual assistant makes are suitable for all ages in your family. However, if you have a profile setting and know what your child is asking, you can elicit jokes aimed at a younger sense of humor.
Another important point is that, unlike stand-up comedians and everyday people who tell jokes, Alexa doesn’t listen to your reactions. It doesn’t work like “Hunches” when the assistant might hear a follow-up. Alexa ultimately has no idea how the joke landed out of laughter or lack thereof.
If you want to provide that feedback, you have to be specific. For example, you should say, “Alexa, that was fun” or “Alexa, I hated that.” Or tell more jokes and Alexa can get hints that you enjoy them.
What’s your favorite joke? Amazon didn’t share them by location, but got some favorites from the team.
- If you have a lot of math geeks in your family, it means you have square roots.
- I tried to make a joke about the value of Pi, but it went on and on. And all the way… and all the way…
- How many software developers does it take to change a light bulb? None. They prefer dark mode.
- Why did the continent split up? They wanted to keep the relationship purely tectonic.
- I really dig for worms, but I’ve never met one without a dirty mouth.
Aside from the Halloween theme, it’s been a pretty busy month for Alexa to tell jokes. Here are her three most popular jokes that came out in October 2022.
- Why was the zombie so stressed out? It bit more than it could chew.
- What happens when Thor breaks the wind? Thunder from below!
- Why didn’t the T-Rex cross the road? It wasn’t a chicken yet.
Some are better than others, but I’ll leave the decision up to you. When a screen is available, the interface shows captions for what Alexa is saying, but these days it’s combined with visuals.
For example, if it was Halloween and it was a joke about zombies, the screen would show one of the cartoons. Amazon said it will continue to roll it out and evolve it based on customer feedback.
When it comes to rolling out new material, the team at Brush and Norths are delivering new jokes every week. These can be just classics, or they can be tied to the development of the topic.
Jokes and humor as a whole are clearly a big part of Alexa and fit with the virtual assistant’s overall personality. As with conversations with friends and family, the flow and cues of that conversation are important. And that’s clearly something Amazon is working on.
And since we’re still in Alexa’s birthday week, it’s also a time when Amazon is offering discounts on a range of Echo speakers and displays. Choose one to get started with Alexa and get a feel for it, extend your smart home ecosystem, or even hear a few jokes.
Amazon
It’s not the newest model, but this Echo Dot is the size of a hockey puck or a donut and can push out amazingly clear audio. More importantly, you can get instant access to Alexa for less than $20. You can also get Amazon Music Unlimited free for 6 months.
amazon.com
The latest Echo Dot features an improved audio experience, a new sphere design, and a few new tricks to act as a Wi-Fi access point for your Eero system.
Prices are accurate and in stock at the time of article publication.
