Alexa 'killed my fish': Tales from Amazon employee beta testers
Business Insider••business
Key Points:
- Amazon employees beta-testing Alexa+ reported numerous technical issues, including the assistant turning off entire power strips, failing to respond to commands, and playing music at inappropriate times, causing frustration and product malfunctions.
- The Alexa+ beta-testing Slack channel, with over 6,400 Amazon employees, served as a forum to share candid feedback on unreleased features, revealing widespread problems such as erratic behavior, connectivity issues, and slow response times.
- Amazon stated that the beta version discussed by employees differs from the current public release, which is available to tens of millions of users, and claimed that most customer feedback has been positive.
- CEO Andy Jassy highlighted increased user engagement with Alexa+ compared to the classic version and noted that the service is free
