Well, the #Bidenomics beat goes on.

This week it’s Amazon employees in the Alexa department who are feeling the literal disconnect.

And how cheery of Grinchy VP Rausch – right before Christmas! Nice touch when you shiv the working man.

Amazon on Friday began laying off “several hundred” people in its Alexa division as part of broader belt-tightening that’s been underway since last year, the company confirmed.

Daniel Rausch, Amazon’s vice president of Alexa and Fire TV, sent a note to staffers informing them of the job cuts, according to a copy of the memo shared by an Amazon spokesperson.

“As we continue to invent, we’re shifting some of our efforts to better align with our business priorities, and what we know matters most to customers — which includes maximizing our resources and efforts focused on generative AI,” Rausch wrote in the memo, which was reported earlier by GeekWire. “These shifts are leading us to discontinue some initiatives, which is resulting in several hundred roles being eliminated.

Not being a geek by nature, I had to look up “generative AI”:

Generative AI refers to models or algorithms that create brand-new output, such as text, photos, videos, code, data, or 3D renderings, from the vast amounts of data they are trained on. The models ‘generate’ new content by referring back to the data they have been trained on, making new predictions.

It’s purely for creating – or “generating” – content. And I would have to imagine it does so very cheaply. Which is what analysts are saying Amazon needs to do with the Alexa division as they can’t really make any more money off the devices once they’re sold. They can’t “monetize” this Amazon thing sitting in your house to keep a cash stream coming back to the company.

Alexa layoffs. Incredible concession by @Amazon that it can't monetize its #Alexa #VBA and its #Echo devices.

I'm still bullish on the voice UI for Internet usage, but this puts a damper on monetization prospects for any VBA.

I wonder why they didn't at least try radio-like… pic.twitter.com/STrmhJpXbX

— Karsten Weide (@KarstenW) November 17, 2023

They are tweaking around the edges with the Alexa AI, but there really is only so far they can go before it becomes intrusive. I personally do not want a Hal 9000 in the house in any event. We’ve got one Alexa hub in the kitchen that checks the weather, the front door Ring, and tells me when the muffins in the oven are done. I even have the shutter for the camera facing the kitchen shut.

Did you know…?
Amazon settled w FTC for $5.8M for allowing its employees & Police full access to customers Ring videos without the owners consent & another $25M for violating childrens privacy rights w Alexa recordings. Police claim use is for emergencies only. Do you believe? pic.twitter.com/bCE4hao54R

— A. Rios (@easternair355) November 17, 2023

That’s the sum total of our tech immersion for a reason.

I also won’t be dictating emails to it. I figure Gmail and Google snooping is enough.

…Alexa and digital assistants like it were once groundbreaking technology, but they face increasing competition from generative artificial intelligence and chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. In September, Amazon teased updates to Alexa that are tied to generative AI, such as composing messages on behalf of users. The unit overseeing Alexa also has a new leader, after longtime devices head Dave Limp left to join Bezos’ rocket company Blue Origin. Limp was succeeded by veteran Microsoft executive Panos Panay.

At least these folks are getting some sort of severance packages.

…Amazon is offering severance packages that include a separation payment, transitional health insurance benefits, and paid time to conduct job searches.

Honestly, though – it looks like AI is tough everywhere at the moment.

The leading generative AI company OpenAI announced it was parting ways with Sam Altman, the face of the current AI boom in San Francisco and globally.https://t.co/St9LbDmKNf

— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) November 17, 2023

Additionally, the employees who are retained and/or choose to stick with Amazon will have to toe the corporate line. The big bosses aren’t indulging the return-to-work tantrums anymore.

Amazon says employees may not get promoted if they ignore return-to-office mandate

…“Managers own the promotion process, which means it is their responsibility to support your growth through regular conversations and stretch assignments, and to complete all the required inputs for a promotion,” one post says. “If your role is expected to work from the office 3+ days a week and you are not in compliance, your manager will be made aware and VP approval will be required.”

A separate post on Amazon’s internal career platform for employees says, “In accordance with Amazon’s overall approach to promotions, employees are expected to work from their office 3+ days/week if that is the requirement of their role.”

The post goes on to say that managers are working with Amazon’s human resources group to “monitor adherence” to the in-person work requirement, and “this will continue as we evaluate promotion readiness.”

In the general #Bidenomics sense of things, the disconnect runs all the way from Alexa engineers losing their job right before Christmas to the head of WalMart, who said their sales fell off the face of a cliff the last two weeks of October. He has no warm fuzzies to offer going forward.

JUST IN: Walmart, $WMT, falls 8% as CFO says October trends have made them "pause and rethink the health of the consumer."

More specifically, Walmart said they saw a sharp falloff in sales during the last 2 weeks of October.

Management said there is still strain on the consumer… pic.twitter.com/hYdbA2VF8X

— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) November 16, 2023

…More specifically, Walmart said they saw a sharp falloff in sales during the last 2 weeks of October.

Management said there is still strain on the consumer and they are more cautious than they were 3 months ago.

Even as the rate of inflation falls toward 3%, we are still seeing INFLATION.

Prices are building on multiple years of already high inflation.

Retail remains a key indicator of the economy.

But this is all not happening, according to POTATUS, who spent a bit of time yesterday bitching about the ingrates.

Biden Suggests Americans Unhappy With The Economy Are ‘Disconnected’ From Reality

President Joe Biden suggested Thursday that Americans who are unhappy with the economy are experiencing a “disconnect.”

Biden touted a variety of economic statistics during a speech at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit on Thursday, before acknowledging that the American people feel a “disconnect” between the “numbers, and how people feel about their place in the world right now.” As Biden and his administration continue to insist “Bidenomics” is a success, 61% of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck and 75% of U.S. adults think the economy is in a “fair” or “poor” state.

Alexa. Show me “disconnected.”

Thought so.