Virtual assistant units have become a staple in many UK households, telling people whether it is expected to rain, what the time is, and what the result in the football was.
Among the most common used is Alexa, whose parent company Amazon has released the top questions and requests given to the software during 2024. Some were ones you would expect: “What is the value of bitcoin?”; “what is the population of earth?”; and “what does AI mean?”.
But some of the other most popular questions were slightly more leftfield, such as “how long do you cook a sausage for?”, “who was Henry VIII married to?” and “how tall is Tom Cruise?”.
In the kitchen, a lot of people used Alexa as a virtual sous chef, fielding other food-related questions and helping with recipes for pancakes, yorkshire puddings and banana bread.
Celebrities were the most discussed topic with Alexa, with David Attenborough and Paul McCartney joining Cruise in having their private lives inquired about by users.
Monarchs and world leaders were also highly searched for. King Charles III’s age, the former prime minister Rishi Sunak’s height and the US president-elect Donald Trump’s net worth were among the more commonly asked questions. Overall, Henry VIII attracted more questions than anyone else living or dead in relation to who he was married to.
One name that dominated the searches was Taylor Swift. The US megastar appeared top of the list of questions regarding celebrities’ heights and ages, as well as being the second-most searched for net worth, after Elon Musk, the richest person in the world.
On top of this, Swift was the most-played music artist on Alexa, ahead of the likes of Eminem, Ed Sheeran, Adele and Beyoncé. She also had three of her albums included in the top five most played of the year, though they all fell behind Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet, which came first.
Football dominated the sports side of the list, with all 10 of the sporting questions relating to Premier League clubs of the England national team. Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Harry Kane and Erling Haaland were all highly searched players during the year and, with the love for the sport probably peaking in the summer during England’s European Championship campaign, one of the most popular questions posed to Alexa was: “Alexa, is it coming home?”
