For better or worse, Amazon Alexa and Google Home's smart voice assistants have been imbued with the powers of generative AI. The promise is that you can use natural language with your smart speaker to adjust your thermostat, lock the doors, and find out what your pets have been up to. The reality is smart home voice assistants seem to be going through an identity crisis. Senior reviewer Jennifer Pattison Tuohy invites Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel onto his own podcast to compare notes on life with Alexa Plus vs. Gemini for Home.
Further reading:
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Google’s Pet Memory forgot who my cats are
I tasked Alexa Plus with tackling my to-do list — it was hit or miss
With Alexa Plus, Amazon finally reinvents its best product
How AI broke the smart home in 2025
I let Gemini watch my family for the weekend — it got weird
Google built a great smart speaker, but Gemini isn’t ready for it
Jony Ive’s first OpenAI gadget is reportedly a hockey puck-sized smart speaker
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