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Amazon's Alexa Plus is drawing sharp criticism this week, with prominent tech reviewer David Pogue calling the upgraded assistant a buggy embarrassment. After years of promises around a smarter, more capable Alexa, early users are finding the AI-powered version stumbles on basic tasks — a rough start for Amazon's bid to stay relevant in the voice assistant race.
Shifting to the AI coding space, Meta has entered a crowded field with its new agent called Muse, designed to handle complex tasks across large codebases. The tool runs in your terminal, coordinates multiple subagents, and is built to survive crashes mid-task. Impressive on paper — but independent benchmarks suggest it still trails Anthropic's Claude Code and OpenAI's Codex in real-world performance.
And in a story touching immigration and artificial intelligence, the Justice Department has gained oversight of OpenAI's green-card sponsorship program. The DOJ alleges the company failed to make meaningful efforts to hire American workers before sponsoring visa-holding employees for permanent residence. It's a notable development as scrutiny of tech industry hiring practices continues to intensify in Washington.
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