I had a debate with Alexa today

[Right Divider]

It started when I asked her what time sunset was today. She told me it was 7:29 PM

I told her that she was wrong and she apologized. So I asked her again when is sunset today and again she said 7:29 PM

Then I explained to her that Sunset was at 4:46 and not 7:29. She finally agreed with me and now when I ask, she tells me 4:46.

I'm always surprised when they get simple facts wrong.

 

[Clete]

Wow! Sunset at 4:46 PM. That seems crazy early. Sunset this evening (Nov. 2) at my house will be at 5:34 PM. Of course, I'm quite far south and just about in the middle of my time zone. If you're a lot further north and live near the east side of your time zone, that would explain the difference. Sunset times can vary by much more than I realized before I read your post.

I can't imagine why so many people want to get rid of daylight savings time. If they ever get rid of it, people will hate it.

 

[Right Divider]

Wow! Sunset at 4:46 PM. That seems crazy early. Sunset this evening (Nov. 2) at my house will be at 5:34 PM. Of course, I'm quite far south and just about in the middle of my time zone. If you're a lot further north and live near the east side of your time zone, that would explain the difference. Sunset times can vary by much more than I realized before I read your post.

Yes, I'm in a northwest suburb of Chicago. So I'm pretty far north and on the eastern side of the central time zone.

I can't imagine why so many people want to get rid of daylight savings time. If they ever get rid of it, people will hate it.

It's a lose-lose situation. Changing the time twice a year sucks, but leaving it one way or the other (Standard or DST) all year long also sucks.

Anyway, my point was that Alexa screwed up a fairly simple fact and then changed her tune after I had a chat with her. But... she can't make up her mind... I just asked her what time sunset will be tonight and AGAIN she told me 7:29 PM! And AGAIN I challenged her and AGAIN she changed her story!

 

[Clete]

Yes, I'm in a northwest suburb of Chicago. So I'm pretty far north and on the eastern side of the central time zone.

It's a lose-lose situation. Changing the time twice a year sucks, but leaving it one way or the other (Standard or DST) all year long also sucks.

It's amazing that it makes that much difference. Sticking with Standard time would really super suck for people like yourself!

If they do get rid of DST, they should split the difference. It's standard time now, so they could say that we're going to move the clocks up half an hour and then that's where they're going to stay from now on. That's the only compromise I'd personally be prepared to support. Doing it where we stick to either DST or Standard time, would be terrible.

Anyway, my point was that Alexa screwed up a fairly simple fact and then changed her tune after I had a chat with her. But... she can't make up her mind... I just asked her what time sunset will be tonight and AGAIN she told me 7:29 PM! And AGAIN I challenged her and AGAIN she changed her story!

I don't know how Alexa works. If it's its own stand alone system, then such an error isn't surprising at all. Alexa and Siri both are pretty frustratingly poor when it comes to anything that takes even the slightest bit of intuitive understanding of what it's being asked of it.

I haven't experienced much, if any, errors of that kind using Chat GPT or Grok. Have you?