The Daily Valet. - 9/21/23, Thursday
✔️ Alexa for the ChatGPT Era
Thursday, September 21st Edition
By Cory Ohlendorf, Valet. Editor
Alexa, put on some good “newsletter reading music” …
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Today’s Big Story
Alexa for the ChatGPT Era
Amazon Is Upgrading Alexa with generative AI to make it more conversational, helpful, and entertaining
Alexa is about to come out of its shell. Amazon is bringing generative AI inside the house, as the company introduces sweeping changes to how its ubiquitous voice assistant both sounds and functions. I guess it's time, right? As WIRED points out, when Amazon launched Alexa nine years ago, “its ability to decode voice commands to set a timer or play a song seemed almost magical. Today, the bar for impressive language skills is much higher, thanks to OpenAI's ChatGPT.”So the company is giving the faceless virtual assistant a reboot that takes advantage of the technology behind this new wave of chatbots that can engage in remarkably lifelike conversation. Amazon announced the upgrade Wednesday at an event held at its new campus in Arlington, Virginia. The assistant will now be able to answer much more complex questions and engage in more flowing, open-ended conversations.It will be able to respond more quickly, learn user preferences, field follow-up questions and change its tone based on the topic. Alexa will even offer opinions, such as which movies should have won an Oscar but didn't. The goal is to make the assistant more natural and expressive, while dropping the annoying need to keep repeating “Alexa” each time you speak.According to The Verge, this kind of shake-up is desperately needed to keep these voice assistants from fading into oblivion. “A general lack of innovation and barely imperceptible improvements around comprehension have turned them into basic tools,” writes Jennifer Pattison Tuohy. “This is a big moment for the smart home, as it could take home automation to the next level, moving it from a remote control experience to a home that's, well, actually smart.”Justine Cassell, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who studies the way humans interact with AI agents, told WIRED it will be fascinating to see how people respond to a voice-enabled chatbot capable of richer responses. “The goals are great, and I'm excited to see what they do,” she says. However, Cassell says some of the things Amazon is promising, like responding to body language, remain extremely challenging. “There is no grammar of body language, the way there is for spoken and written language,” she says. If Alexa misreads someone's posture or movements and responds incorrectly, well ... things could get awkward.
Dig Deeper:
The keynote was jam-packed with new hardware. Here's everything else Amazon announced yesterday.
You Can Order Free COVID Tests (Again)
Biden administration announces $600M to produce COVID tests and will reopen website to order them
The Biden administration said Wednesday it is relaunching a program that allows Americans to order free COVID-19 tests through the mail, ahead of a potential surge of infections this winter. The website, Covidtests.gov, will relaunch for new orders on Monday. Every household will be able to secure up to four tests, which are intended for use through the end of the year.That's good news for many, since the expiration of the public health emergency this spring meant most insurers no longer had to fully cover the cost of tests. The announcement comes as COVID hospitalizations have continued creeping up, passing 20,000 for the first time since March, reports ABC News.While they may not be needed, as infections are decreasing in some areas, there has typically been a spike in COVID cases during colder months. The Associated Press also points out that the new effort illustrates the political balance President Biden is trying to strike as he seeks reelection next year between trumpeting his administration having led the country through the worst of the pandemic while also trying to better prepare for the effects of a nagging virus that continues to hang around.
FYI:
The U.S. government has already shipped more than 755 million free COVID-19 tests to people who requested them.
Partner
The team at MR PORTER shares the key pieces you need to refresh your wardrobe.
How Far Can You Go on Creative License?
Hasan Minhaj’s penchant for making up stories in his Stand-up goes beyond embellishment. Does it go Too far?
Does comedy need to be true or is funny good enough? Hasan Minhaj is about to find out. In a recent interview with the New Yorker, the comic confessed to bending the truth—some would say to the point of lying—in his stand-up. They ranged from being dumped by a prom date because of the color of his skin to befriending an FBI informant who'd been surveilling Muslim people in his community. But neither happened. Coupled with allegations of fostering a hostile workplace for staffers, the story was an exposé of sorts. And it's now raising some thorny questions about the actor/comedian.At first, it seemed like a forced scandal. Do people really expect the truth, and nothing but the truth, from a comic? But as the New York Times points out, when real people and real stakes are involved, a different standard applies. Writing for Slate, Nitish Pahwa said that “Minhaj took what real, everyday brown folks were going through and led those people to believe that he'd also been there—earning his fame and plaudits from that very trust, as well as the trust that engendered among those who wished to understand brown Americans.”A big reason why these revelations about Minhaj are of such importance is because last month, Variety broke the news that he was being eyed as “a potential candidate” to replace Trevor Noah as host of The Daily Show—a show that has blurred the lines between comedy and news. And sources close to the show confirmed to Rolling Stone that Minhaj is still “one of three top candidates” for the hosting job. Of course, all artists teach their audience how to view them, by the way they tell jokes, their style, the level of absurdity. The Times says what makes this such a troubling example is that “Minhaj's style, onstage and often off in interviews, suggested we should believe him.”
Dig Deeper:
This past May, Minhaj spoke to the Sundance Institute and said he uses satire to “make sense of the chaos that’s happening in our country.”
Ephemeral Tattoo Is Closing Its Studios
They will shift to selling the “Made-to-fade” ink direct to existing tattoo studios
I thoroughly enjoyed my experience getting a tattoo at Ephemeral's LA studio. Nearly two years in, it's almost entirely faded and while it was longer than originally promised, I have no complaints. But plenty of others on Reddit and TikTok did—worrying that their ink was lasting beyond the quoted 15 months. However, the brand's CEO says that's not why Ephemeral is shuttering all of its studios.The brand broke the news this week on Instagram, saying that retail space is expensive and “as a young startup we're highly dependent on what has been an increasingly tight fundraising market, so we've had to assess what makes sense to continue to bring our innovative ink to people around the world.”Ephemeral might be closing its physical shops, but the company isn't gone for good. Moving forward, it will focus on licensing its disappearing ink to tattoo studios and artists (so you could simply decide when getting a tattoo, do you want it to fade or be permanant?) And it's continuing to offer the ink to cancer patients receiving radiotherapy tattoos—those are marks that help radiation therapists deliver treatment to the right location. Until now, they were sometimes painful reminders of cancer, but now they'll fade away once the treatments are over.
FYI:
The company says its Regret Nothing Guarantee—which offers complimentary touch-ups, replacement tattoos, and refunds if your Ephemeral tattoo fades too quickly or slowly—is still in effect.
In Other News
The House Judiciary Committee pressed him on Trump, Hunter Biden and Jan. 6th.
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Partner
Your Fall Wardrobe Updates
The team at MR PORTER shares the key pieces you need to refresh your wardrobe
Are you ready for fall weather to arrive so you can (say it with us) really start dressing? We asked the buying team at MR PORTER what they're most excited about after stocking some of the coolest pieces from Autumn/Winter '23 collections. While there are definitely some trends they're excited about (think eye-catching sweaters and relaxed wide-leg trousers), they said that it's always a good idea to invest in “carefully and intentionally crafted clothing that vibes with your lifestyle.” Put another way, they pulled out the best, most wearable, most exciting trends of the season from the world's top designer brands. Here's what they're recommending.
This cardigan fits like a jacket and has been knitted in Italy from the finest virgin wool blended with cashmere for a soft, insulating handle.
$3,595 by Brunello Cucincelli
A soft, relaxed shirt jacket has an understated elegance to it.
$470 by Mr P.
Think workwear pants, but a whole lot more luxe thanks to leather accents.
$1,100 by Loewe
The season calls for a good pair of boots. And these are inspired by vintage military styles, with a smart yet supple suede upper grounded by thick Vibram rubber soles for traction.
$470 by Mr P.
This all-season staple takes new form for fall with a waved knit pattern adding depth and texture to any look.
$410 by Mr P.
Tom Ford updates the endlessly versatile trucker jacket with upsized pockets and Italian tailoring.
$2,350 by Tom Ford
Update Your Wardrobe:
Shopping
What We’re Buying
Italian Cookware
This is the closest we'll probably come to cooking with the always-cool Stanley Tucci. The actor and known foodie—who hosted one of our favorite culinary travel shows—just collaborated with GreenPan on his own line of cookware. Each pan is meticulously handcrafted in (where else?) Italy and made with the brand's innovative ceramic coating that's non-stick yet omits all the questionable chemicals that are harmful to both the environment and our health. But it's the style that really sold us—that rich blue color of the pans and the grooved stainless steel handles.
Get It:
GreenPan by Stanley Tucci, starting at $99.95 at Williams Sonoma
Morning Motto
Get wild.
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