Echo no longer expressing or accurately calculating large numbers

[sbda26]

I work with large numbers sometimes, and it was handy for me to have Amazon Echo's knowledge of all of the "illions."

For example, I would say "Alexa, what is 2 to the 128th power?" And it would respond "340 undecillion, 282 decillion, 366 nonillion, 920 octillion, 938 septillion, etc..." It would give the exact answer.

Now, Alexa just gets lazy and says "340.3 trillion trillion trillion."

Anyone know what happened and why, and is there any way for Amazon Echo to go back to the way it was?

[FarmerBob]

Echo has long since stopped doing everything it could before Christmas. I heard they over sold the World and the servers are overloaded worldwide. But it's bad. 99% of the questions I ask Alexa I get the "I don't know" or the dump tone. I have many that I bought for Christmas the are still in their boxes ready to be set back. I'm working with some third party Skills makers and they are the most clueless bunch. So Amazon did no vetting nor set any level of standards for a Skill.

Google Assistant is Sharp, Really Sharp!! She and you can change the accent with not issues, hasn't misses a lick!! Alexa is pathetic compared.

[renegade600]

Echo has long since stopped doing everything it could before Christmas. I heard they over sold the World and the servers are overloaded worldwide. But it's bad. 99% of the questions I ask Alexa I get the "I don't know" or the dump tone. I have many that I bought for Christmas the are still in their boxes ready to be set back. I'm working with some third party Skills makers and they are the most clueless bunch. So Amazon did no vetting nor set any level of standards for a Skill.

Google Assistant is Sharp, Really Sharp!! She and you can change the accent with not issues, hasn't misses a lick!! Alexa is pathetic compared.

based on your postings, the problem is you don't know how to use or even properly setup the echo.  alexa is not pathetic, google assistant is not pathetic.  they both do great with what they do - if you actually know how to use and set them up

[AlanH]

I work with large numbers sometimes, and it was handy for me to have Amazon Echo's knowledge of all of the "illions."

For example, I would say "Alexa, what is 2 to the 128th power?" And it would respond "340 undecillion, 282 decillion, 366 nonillion, 920 octillion, 938 septillion, etc..." It would give the exact answer.

Now, Alexa just gets lazy and says "340.3 trillion trillion trillion."

Anyone know what happened and why, and is there any way for Amazon Echo to go back to the way it was?

Just tried your question and Alexa gave the answer in bold from your post.

[jwlv]

In the Alexa app you can turn verbose mode on/off.  Verbose mode would mean the difference between a simple beep vs saying ok after asking Alexa a command like turn off the kitchen light. Perhaps it also controls how Alexa responds to math questions when the answer is many digits.  I haven't tested this but you may want to try it.