Home Assistant is arguably the best choice for anyone looking to start a smart home, but this is especially true for power users. If you want unhindered freedom to decide how your smart home functions and you’re not afraid to get your hands dirty, there’s no better choice.

Amazon is counting on its Alexa footprint to help it gain traction in the consumer AI race.

This week on the GeekWire Podcast: Amazon and Microsoft are racing to define the next era of consumer AI, on multiple fronts. We discuss Amazon’s attempt to upgrade Alexa into a true generative AI home chatbot — complete with a new web portal and updated Alexa app — while Microsoft tries to win over retailers with a new Copilot Checkout feature.

Plus, we explore Google’s upcoming “AI Inbox” for Gmail, which promises to act like an executive assistant for your email. We talk about our smart bird feeder experiment that resulted in “fuzzy birds,” due to improper focal length. And we share our initial experience with AI automation on the Windows PC desktop using Vy from Seattle startup Vercept.

Finally, we offer a Netflix recommendation, Cover-Up, the documentary about legendary investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. We couldn’t help but wonder: what would uncover if he could digitize all those notes and put them through an AI model?

And on that theme, we lament the loss of a major American newspaper, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and reminisce about the time GeekWire made an appearance on its editorial page.

Subscribe to GeekWire in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

With GeekWire co-founders Todd Bishop and John Cook. Edited by Curt Milton.

The fresh investment comes less than six months after the startup’s seed funding announcement.

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