Has Alexa gotten dumber?

I ask because it seems she has.  I suspect that, while we were away in L.A., there was some sort of “upgrade” that resulted in a subtle change in her voice as well as a not-so-subtle change in her ability to understand and respond.  Half the times now, she doesn’t hear (or simply chooses to ignore) our questions.  And it now takes a good 3-5 seconds for her to answer.  It’s as if she’s regressed.

Speaking of regression, are any of you making use of AI agents?  And if so, what for?  I’ve been mainly using them for research and stock market purposes.  Yes, I’m well aware of their propensity to hallucinate which is why I reference across three different models – Grok, Gemini, and Claude.  Initially, I thought Gemini far superior but, over the past few weeks, Claude seems to have surpassed it.  Grok I find amusingly testy at times.  I’m looking to inform and educate myself but have been overwhelmed by how much there is to learn. If you’re using, what has been your experience so far?