People use smart assistants for weather, timers, and music — the same stuff we were doing a decade ago

Digital assistants can do more but not well or consistently.

8/19/25 12:08PM

Google, Amazon, and Apple are all upgrading their digital assistants — Assistant, Alexa, and Siri — to use more advanced generative-AI technology. The problem has been that even as they promise new and better capabilities, these tools for now have lost some of their initial functionality, and companies are struggling to make everything work as advertised.

So far the changes haven’t meant much to regular users.

New data from survey company YouGov shows that for the most part, people still mainly use smart/voice/digital assistants for the same stuff they did when these companies first demoed them about a decade ago: checking the weather, playing music, and setting timers. There’s slight variation by age group, but the overall pattern holds.

Back in 2018, I made pretty much the same chart as above using Adobe data — and it looks roughly the same.

What’s going on?

Some 27% of smart assistant users said their main problem with the technology is that it doesn’t understand their requests, while another 12% cited a lack of accuracy and another 10% said digital assistants aren’t as smart as they expected them to be.

Those are big obstacles to overcome if people are ever supposed to trust these assistants enough for them to become more deeply integrated into our lives and do more important work than telling us the weather.

Claire Yubin Oh & Jon Keegan

Nebius soars after signing a 5-year deal with Microsoft to supply nearly $20 billion worth of AI computing power

Artificial intelligence infrastructure group Nebius jumped more than 50% in early trading on Tuesday after the company announced after the close on Monday a major deal to supply computing power for Microsoft’s AI operations.

Under the agreement, Nebius — which rose from the ashes of Russian tech giant Yandex — will provide Microsoft “access to dedicated GPU infrastructure capacity in tranches at its new data center in Vineland, New Jersey over a five-year term.” The New Jersey data center has a capacity of 300 megawatts. The total contract value through 2031 is $17.4 billion, though, if further capacity is required, the contract value could rise to $19.4 billion.

The deal represents a sizable portion of Microsoft’s proposed annual capital expenditure on AI, which is expected to reach $120 billion by the end of fiscal 2026.

Nebius and competitor CoreWeave are both on the short list of startups that Nvidia has invested in. Nvidia’s small stake in the former is now worth about $120 million.

Nebius announces multi-billion dollar agreement with Microsoft for AI infrastructure

The deal represents a sizable portion of Microsoft’s proposed annual capital expenditure on AI, which is expected to reach $120 billion by the end of fiscal 2026.

Nebius and competitor CoreWeave are both on the short list of startups that Nvidia has invested in. Nvidia’s small stake in the former is now worth about $120 million.

President Trump hosts tech executives and their guests to a dinner at the White House in the Oval Office.

Here are the Trump ties among the tech leaders who had dinner at the White House

Many of the attendees have donated to, vocally supported, or even worked for the president.

Jon Keegan19h

Rani Molla

23h

Tesla’s EV market share declined to 38% in August

In August, Tesla’s share of the US EV market fell to 38%, according to new data from Cox Automotive reported by Reuters. Tesla’s market share fell below 50% for the first time last year, as competitors’ EVs began hitting the market. Now, as Tesla’s own sales slip more drastically than they had last year, it’s giving up even more ground. Tesla’s market share fell from 48.7% in June to 42% in July to 38% in August, according to Reuters. That slide has come even as buyers rushing to take advantage of the federal tax credit that ends this month provide a near-term boon for sales at Tesla and other EV makers.

$115B

Rani Molla

24h

OpenAI now expects to burn around $115 billion through 2029 — a full $80 billion higher than the company had previously estimated, The Information reports.

Just how much is that? It’s roughly equivalent to:

Fortunately for OpenAI, which is raising money at a $500 billion valuation, its revenue is also growing faster than expected. The ChatGPT maker now expects to make $13 billion in revenue this year and $200 billion in 2030.

An annotated photo of who attended the tech dinner at the White House.

An interactive who's-who of the tech execs at Trump's White House dinner

The White House invited a gaggle of top founders and tech executives for an intimate dinner at the White House.

Jon Keegan9/5/25