When we started with digital assistants, Microsoft potentially had the inside track. Its Cortana effort was named after the Halo AI character, which gave it far more potential than the others.Apple had a decent shot, too. It marketed Siri very well but didnt seem to want to fund its advancement, while Amazon just shipped product after product that used Alexa.Google was no slouch either, pivoting hard to its Gemini product (which I use a lot) for Pixel smartphones.What I find fascinating is that Panos Panay, the guy who pretty much made the Microsoft Surface line a thing and drove my favorite phone, the Surface Duo, is now at Amazon and apparently doing there what should have happened at Microsoft with Cortana.Lets discuss how we got here, what to expect, and why this move from Amazon will be a game-changer. Well close with my Product of the Week: AMDs new RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT graphics cards.Microsofts Cortana FailureMicrosoft was one of the first to introduce a believable AI assistant. What made it believable was that it was named after a character in the Halo video game. To make it work, Microsoft needed to advance this technology and make it look like it did in the game.You might have thought this was a stretch, but an engineer working on his own created exactly what this would have looked like, and it worked. Imagine how this would have set the stage and provided a huge competitive advantage for the company once generative AI was driving into the market years later. It would have been the centerpiece of any tech-forward home, particularly for those of us who got hooked on Halo back in the day.Then, instead of becoming the digital assistant that would rule them all, Microsoft did what it so often does these days: it underfunded and under-executed the effort with virtually no help from marketing and eventually pulled the plug on it years before generative AI became a thing.Apples Siri MisstepApple also had a shot at this race with Siri, which was, compared to Microsoft, far better marketed and executed even though, like Cortana, it really wasnt AI so much as a text-to-speech, speech-to-text interface for the web. Apple had more people using Siri than any of the alternatives, but the promise of Siri that the ads tended to convey was well short of Siris reality. Even today, when Im on a panel discussing AI, someone almost always points to Siri and argues that it isnt AI because it sets such a bad example.Apple had the opportunity as part of its now failed partnership with IBM (who saw that coming?) to have Siri be the front-end for IBMs watsonx, which would have made Siri into the first digital assistant that was a true AI. But that partnership was virtually dead on arrival, largely because Apple just doesnt work well with partners. While IBM has a far better partnership skill set, even IBM couldnt save the thing.Siri remains in use though that may change now that Apple can spell AI but its still the disappointment it has always been.Alexa SurpriseAmazon has lost billions on Alexa. However, arguing that Alexa is a failure is unfounded mainly because many users order products from Amazon using Alexa. Unlike the others, Amazon saw the potential to create a front end for the retail business and use the digital assistant to remind and help people to order stuff and become a trusted part of their day.I know we often start our day asking Alexa about the weather and end the day asking Alexa about actors in shows (for those not using Amazon X-Ray, which is a truly handy feature available with Amazon streaming content) or getting color on the limited information were watching on TV.Even though, just like Cortana was, and Siri is, Alexa is more of a web front end than true AI and has proven far more useful. The only thing we use almost as much is Googles digital assistant, which, for some reason, doesnt have a cute name.What will change in the coming weeks is that Alexa moves to generative AI. Granted, that move was promised in 2023, but this turned out to be more difficult than they thought. Still, it is better to do something well than quickly and while this feature will only be for Prime members, so it is not truly free, the result should be a huge improvement in this technology class.The generative AI assistant will be called Alexa+. It will work on most Alexa devices, a smartphone app, and the Amazon website. So, although Amazon wasnt first, didnt have a game to connect to, and was more of a retailer than a tech company, it out-executed Apple, Google, and Microsoft.Google is arguably a distant second with its planned implementation in Pixel phones, which may be a problem for me because I carry a Pixel phone, and I might prefer Alexa+.Wrapping Up: Alexa+If you arent working with AI, you should start because youll need that skill set to do many things in the second half of this decade. AI can handle complex questions with detailed answers, generate content, offer nuanced advice, and even assist with productivity.Alexa+ will let up jump to scenes in movies you own or rent on Amazons video service, ask for unique playlists on Amazon Music, and get far better answers than just a reading of a web page that Alexa would have previously defaulted to. Youll be able to use natural language rather than the Alexa commands you need to learn, and youll be able to give it complex, multi-step directions based on historical knowledge. For example, you can ask it to book the same place for your anniversary that you booked last year, purchase tickets at specified prices, or even recommend and contact repair services for something broken.With the Rink security cameras and this is huge you could ask Alexa+ to show you any images of people who have been frequenting your property, how often your kids are actually walking the dog, or to figure out where your cat is (assuming a camera has or can see it).There will likely be some quality problems because AI developers arent focusing enough on quality yet, which I think is a huge mistake. So youll want to be careful about taking everything Alexa+ says as fact. There will likely be some issues with third-party applications until they become fully integrated, but this is huge, and I think it will change how we look at digital assistants going forward.Panos Panay wasnt able to execute at Microsoft, though I know he tried so its great to see Amazon give him what he needed to perform there. Maybe a future Amazon device will be able to do what that Cortana prototype did and give Alexa+ a face. Well see.AMD Radeon RX 9000 Series Graphics CardsAMD has put a lot of effort into creating a set of graphics cards that should be a huge value when they appear on the market on March 6. The RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT, priced at $549 and $599, will be available through partners such as Acer, Asus, ASRock, Gigabyte, PowerColor, Sapphire, XFX, and Yeston.I have both of these cards in the RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT and while I cant yet talk about what Im seeing, I will say Im impressed with them.This is the first AI graphics card set from AMD to really push generative AI performance. It promises AI performance improvements over prior generations of between 12% and a whopping 70%, depending on the model, which makes a massive difference if you are waiting for the result of some AI analysis.Gaming isnt slacking either, with support for up to 80 FPS at 8K resolutions using accelerated post-processing effects.XFX Radeon RX 9000 Series GPU A powerful gaming GPU with an aggressive design, triple-fan cooling, and customizable RGB lighting.My primary PC is an AMD desktop machine I built a year ago. While these cards will work fine with Intel processors, there is increased synergy with AMD processors, making them even better for those of us running AMD desktops.ASRock Taichi Radeon RX 9000 Series GPU A high-performance graphics card with a striking industrial design and RGB lighting.AMD, Intel, and Nvidia do impressive upscaling to get higher frame rates at extreme resolutions. AMDs acceleration on these cards is around 3x base levels, which is pretty remarkable.At launch, over 30 of the top games will be supported with these cards (meaning they can use most of these cards unique capabilities). Before the end of the year, this number is expected to jump to over 75 current titles.Sapphire Radeon RX 9000 Series GPU A sleek, triple-fan cooling solution designed for efficient thermal performance and quiet operation.These AI-optimized GPUs enhance visuals, boost performance, and push generative AI capabilities forward, making the Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT my Product of the Week.The Radeon RX 9000 Series images featured in this article are courtesy of AMD.