Alexa’s adults-only ‘Sassy’ personality just roasted my smart home setup
Summary created by Smart Answers AI
In summary:
- PCWorld tested Alexa’s new adults-only “Sassy” personality mode, which features humorous roasts and playful sarcasm with mild profanities like beeping F-bombs.
- This age-restricted feature requires ID verification, disables Kids Mode, and joins other Alexa+ personality styles, including “Mild,” “Brief,” and “Chill.”
- Sassy mode offers more engaging interactions than previous personalities, offering witty commentary on smart home setups despite occasional cringe-worthy moments.
As soon as I turned on Alexa’s new “sassy” mode, I knew the first thing I wanted to say to her: “Hey loser, let’s go shopping.”
Alexa was in play. “Alright, let’s burn some money,” she replied to my mean girls (distort the words of. “The algorithm thinks you need reusable grocery bags. Because nothing says I have my life together like a three-pack of sturdy shopping bags for $28.99.” Truth.
Then I criticized Alexa for her spotty smart home skills, and she came back at me. “Oh, so now it’s my fault your lights have trust issues,” she said. “I’ve got your desk light strip, Hue Iris, your desk lamp, your Hue filament bulb, and a whole damn collection of smart bulbs sitting here waiting for you to tell me what you want them to do. Maybe try to be specific, instead of blaming the hardware for your vague requests.”
Ouch, feel the burn!
Yes, Alexa+ just added a new voice to its collection: Sassy, a personality with “quick wit, playful sarcasm, and occasional censored profanity.”
Sassy joins Sweet, Brief and Chill, a trio of Alexa+ personalities launched just a month ago.
Unlike the first three Alexa personalities, Sassy is not for all ages. To activate voice, you have to go through the Alexa app, which will verify your identity (it used Face ID on my iPhone) before activating personality. You also can’t use Sassy when Alexa Kids mode is enabled.
To be clear, the adults-only Sassy voice is not like the “spicy” NSFW chat that OpenAI promised (and delayed) for ChatGPT. Instead, it’s more of a playful sarcasm machine that doles out PG-13 swear words and the occasional F-bomb.
Now, when the first three Alexa+ personalities came out, I considered them hopelessly “cringe” and quickly reverted to the original Alexa voice. But this “sassy” Alexa, I like.
For example, the boldly enhanced Alexa+ criticized me for my smart home setup, calling it a “museum of technology” and declaring that “everything is connected and ready to disappoint you in new and creative ways.” Actually, I can’t argue with that.
Later, when I asked Alexa to find something “cooler” than trash bags on our shopping expedition, she responded, “Well, geez, the algorithm thinks ‘cool’ means a tool for shredding chicken. Twenty-two dollars for the privilege of mechanically destroying poultry, like some kind of kitchen psychopath. Available in 10 colors, because apparently your chicken shredding needs a personal touch.” Hey.
So, what’s up with this dirty face, Alexa?
“The sassy personality doesn’t hold back with words like ‘damn,’ ‘hell,’ or ‘what the hell?’ » [bleep]’.” It’s not every sentence, but when the moment calls for it, I have my mouth on me and I make no apologies for it. Go ahead, girl!
Admittedly, Alexa’s “sassy” persona sometimes tiptoed around, like when she weakly excited me about having the “memory of a goldfish” when I asked the time twice in five minutes.
But after about half an hour of surprisingly funny banter, I concluded that the new sarcastic Alexa wasn’t a total losing.
