An Amazon Echo Show 21 on a kitchen table surrounded by food
(Image credit: Amazon)
Amazon has revealed Alexa's most asked questions during 2024 in the UK
Some unexpected entries include Henry VIII and cake pops
The 'surprise' interactions list has left us deeply concerned
Amazon has just revealed the most popular Alexa questions that UK fans have asked the voice assistant during 2024 – and it's an often unnerving peek inside the strange minds of Alexa users.
The questions, which Amazon's split into categories such as 'people', 'net worth', 'spouses', 'recipes' and more, naturally contain some highly predictable entries that are similar to last year's. No-one will be surprised to hear that Taylor Swift topped the queries list, or that 'happy birthday' was the most popular song request.
But nestled in among the bland entries are some telling and concerning details. For example, the top three entries in the 'surprise' Alexa interactions are 'fart', 'roast me' and 'marry me'. If this is a hint of how we're going to be interacting with the likes of ChatGPT Voice Mode, it points to a dark, troubled future for our poor voice assistants.
On the plus side, the Konami code ('Up up down down left right left right B A') does make the top 10 in its category, so there is hope for us yet. But if we aren't taken down by a toxic, co-dependent relationship with voice assistants, the most popular Alexa recipe questions suggest that calorific intake may yet be our undoing.
This year, pancakes took the number one spot from Yorkshire puddings on the recipe front. But new entries this year are 'cake pops' (a trend we thought had fizzled out in 2023) and 'mango ice cream'. Clearly, 2024 has been a year for comfort food.
Perhaps most concerning, 'scrambled eggs' also makes the list, suggesting that we aren't going to going to be troubling an episode of Chef's Table anytime soon.
An innocent voice assistant age
Amazon Echo speaker
(Image credit: Amazon)
While there are some strange entries in these Alexa 'most asked' questions, and accepting that they do only reflect the warped minds of UK users, I suspect that these queries will soon seem quaint compared to the conversations we'll soon be having with AI-powered assistants.
Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently said "that kind of obsession is possible" when asked about the potentially worrying prospect of "perfect" AI girlfriends, and there's very much a dark side to AI friendships that claim to cure loneliness. Perhaps it's a good thing that Alexa AI has been delayed until 2025.
Still, on balance, this year's most-asked Alexa questions show a largely positive relationship with Amazon's voice assistant, with "sing a song about dogs" coming in second on the most-requested songs and "thank you" incredibly topping the 'personality' charts.
Geographical quirks still exist, too, despite our increasingly globalized world, with Henry VIII beating Cat Deeley and Ed Sheeran in the UK to the top of questions about 'spouses' (possibly helped by a new series of Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light on BBC iPlayer).
But the biggest takeaway is that Yorkshire puddings, last year's number one most-requested recipe, need to up their game in 2025 is they're to regain the top spot against new upstart queries like 'roasted cauliflower' and 'halloumi stuffed peppers'.
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Senior news editor
Mark is TechRadar's Senior news editor. Having worked in tech journalism for a ludicrous 17 years, Mark is now attempting to break the world record for the number of camera bags hoarded by one person. He was previously Cameras Editor at both TechRadar and Trusted Reviews, Acting editor on Stuff.tv, as well as Features editor and Reviews editor on Stuff magazine. As a freelancer, he's contributed to titles including The Sunday Times, FourFourTwo and Arena. And in a former life, he also won The Daily Telegraph's Young Sportswriter of the Year. But that was before he discovered the strange joys of getting up at 4am for a photo shoot in London's Square Mile.