- Amazon has revealed Alexa’s most asked questions in Britain in 2024
- Some unexpected entries include Henry VIII and cake pops
- The list of ‘surprise interactions’ is of great concern to us
Amazon has just revealed the most popular Alexa questions UK fans asked the voice assistant in 2024 – and it’s an often unnerving glimpse into the strange minds of Alexa users.
The questions, which Amazon has broken down into categories like “people,” “assets,” “spouses,” “recipes,” and more, naturally include some very predictable entries similar to last year’s. It won’t surprise anyone that Taylor Swift topped the search list, or that “happy birthday” was the most popular song request.
But among the bland entries are some telling and worrying details. For example, the top three “surprise” Alexa interactions are “fart,” “roast me,” and “marry me.” If this is any hint of how we’ll deal with the likes of ChatGPT Voice Mode, it points to a dark, troubled future for our poor voice assistants.
On the plus side, the Konami Code (‘Up up down down left right left right B A’) does rank in the top 10 in its category, so there’s still hope for us. But if we don’t let ourselves be drawn into a toxic, co-dependent relationship with voice assistants, the most popular Alexa recipe questions suggest that calorie intake might be our downfall.
This year, pancakes took the number one spot over Yorkshire puddings in terms of recipes. But new arrivals this year include ‘cake pops’ (a trend we thought would be gone by 2023) and ‘mango ice cream’. Clearly, 2024 has been a year of comfort food.
Perhaps most worryingly, “scrambled eggs” are also on the list, suggesting we’re in for an episode of Chef’s table soon.
An innocent voice assistant age
While there are some strange entries in these Alexa ‘most asked’ questions, and accepting that they only reflect the warped minds of UK users, I suspect these questions will soon seem strange compared to the conversations we’ll soon be having with AI – powered assistants.
Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently said: “That kind of obsession is possible” when asked the potentially worrying prospect of ‘perfect’ AI girlfriends, and there are lots of them a dark side of AI friendships that claim to cure loneliness. Maybe it’s a good thing that Alexa AI has been delayed until 2025.
Still, on balance, this year’s most asked Alexa questions show a largely positive relationship with Amazon’s voice assistant, with “sing a song about dogs” coming in second among the most requested songs and “thank you” incredibly topping the ” personality’. graphs.
Geographical quirks also still persist despite our increasingly globalized world, with Henry VIII beating Cat Deeley and Ed Sheeran in Britain to top the ‘husbands’ questions (possibly helped by a new series of Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light on BBC iPlayer).
But the biggest takeaway is that Yorkshire puddings, last year’s most requested recipe, will have to step up their game in 2025 by regaining the top spot in the battle against new queries such as ‘roasted cauliflower’ and ‘stuffed peppers with halloumi’.