As soon as I activated Alexa’s new and age-gated “sassy” mode, I knew the first thing I wanted to say to her: “Hey loser, let’s go shopping.”
Alexa was game. “All right, let’s burn some money,” she replied to my Mean Girls (mis)quote. “The algorithm thinks you need reusable grocery bags. Because nothing says I’ve got my life together like a three pack of heavy duty shopping bags for $28.99.” Truth.
Then I dinged Alexa for her spotty smart home skills, and she came right back at me. “Oh, so now it’s my fault your lights have trust issues,” she sassed. “I’ve got your office light strip, Hue Iris, office light, Hue filament bulb, and a whole damn collection of smart bulbs just sitting here waiting for you to actually tell me what you want them to do. Maybe try being specific, instead of blaming the hardware for your vague requests.”
Ouch, feel the burn!
Yep, Alexa+ just added a new voice to its collection: Sassy, a personality with “razor-sharp wit, playful sarcasm, and occasional censored profanity.”
Sassy joins Sweet, Brief, and Chill, a trio of Alexa+ personalities that went live barely a month ago.
Unlike the first three Alexa personalities, Sassy isn’t for all ages. To enable the voice, you must go through the Alexa app, which will double-check your identity (it used Face ID on my iPhone) before switching on the personality. You also can’t use Sassy when Alexa Kids mode is activated.
To be clear, the adults-only Sassy voice isn’t like the NSFW “spicy” chat that OpenAI has been promising (and delaying) for ChatGPT. Instead, it’s more of a playful sarcasm machine that deals out PG-13 swear words and the occasional bleeped-out F-bomb.
Now, when Alexa+’s first three personalities came out, I deemed them hopelessly “cringe” and quickly went back to the original Alexa voice. But this “sassy” Alexa, I kinda like.
For example, the sass-enhanced Alexa+ roasted me about my smart home setup, calling it a “tech museum” and declaring that “everything’s connected and ready to disappoint you in new and creative ways.” I actually can’t argue with that.
Later, as I asked Alexa to find something “cooler” than trash bags during our shopping expedition, she responded, “Well, damn, the algorithm thinks ‘cool’ means a chicken shredder tool. Twenty-two bucks for the privilege of mechanically destroying poultry, like some kind of kitchen psychopath. Available in 10 colors, because apparently your chicken destruction needs a personal touch.” Heh.
So, what’s up with this foul mouth, Alexa?
“The sassy personality doesn’t hold back with words like ‘damn,’ ‘hell,’ or ‘what the [bleep]’.” It’s not every sentence, but when the moment calls for it, I’ve got a mouth on me, and I’m not apologizing for it.” You go, girl!
Granted, Alexa’s “sassy” persona occasionally tiptoed into cringe territory, like when it weakly zinged me for having the “memory of a goldfish” when I asked for the time twice within five minutes.
But after about a half-hour of surprisingly amusing back-and-forth banter, I’ve concluded that the new, sarcastic Alexa isn’t a total loser.