To more sceptical onlookers, the machine might be seen as a gimmick to rekindle stalling interest in Alexa. First unveiled in 2014, Amazon’s voice assistant - capable of playing music, controlling houses and searching for information - has become a daily companion for some and a dystopic symbol of surveillance for others. It has received marriage proposals and been accused of killing regional accents.

More than 100 million Alexa-equipped devices had been sold by 2019, according to Amazon - a number that is since believed to have more than doubled, with the pandemic prompting more people to kit out their homes with smart gadgets.

But it was recently claimed that desire was slowing, with the technology past its “growth phase” and many purchasers losing interest within a week.

Limp rejects this. “We have more monthly active Alexa users than ever before,” he says. “It continues to grow both in the US and internationally. People interact with it billions of times a week. I know that because I get my AWS [cloud computing] bill every month.”

But Limp is bound to be protective of Alexa, having been there at its inception. After stints at Apple, Palm, a personal digital assistant maker, and venture capital company Azure, he joined Amazon’s hardware team in 2010. Andy Jassy, who succeeded Jeff Bezos as chief executive last year, was among those who interviewed him.

Like so many things at Amazon, the idea for Alexa began with a two-sentence email from Bezos, its billionaire founder. “He said, ‘Let’s build a very small device that’s super-simple, very low cost, with a voice chip and intelligence in the cloud,‘” Limp says.

That was easier in theory than practice. Prototypes would typically fail to recognise voices in noisy environments, such as with the TV or dishwasher running, according to Limp, and would often wake up without request. “I had one for two years in the bedroom. That put a strain on the relationship because this thing would go off in the middle of the night.”

Loading

Any idea with Bezos’s backing, however, gets the time and money it needs: Amazon has more than 10,000 employees working on Alexa. And despite Bezos relinquishing his role at the helm last summer to become chairman, Limp says the two still talk weekly. They last spoke on the phone about the company’s satellite internet project, Kuiper, which falls under Limp’s remit.

“I’m happiest when I get to live in the future, and he’s always said that too. The projects where he’s spending time with me and the team is where he can live in the future,” he says.

Bezos’s replacement, Jassy, is seen as a different quantity: less excited about expensive tech projects. But the changing of the guard “doesn’t feel that different”, according to Limp, except that Jassy, a sports fanatic, is pushing him to improve the way Alexa answers questions about recent matches. Bezos, in contrast, demonstrated little interest in sports.

What remains an open question is whether Alexa has been a financial success. Amazon’s Echo devices are sold at low margins, as are services such as its audiobooks and music subscriptions. People can use the assistant to shop on Amazon, but reports suggest a minuscule fraction do so.

And while the assistant has become increasingly capable, able to listen for home intruders or read bedtime stories to children, surveys suggest that many people are using their devices as glorified egg-timers and music speakers rather than the all-seeing Star Trek computer envisaged by Amazon.

Many have also expressed privacy concerns, particularly after it emerged in 2019 that Amazon was sending recordings of customers’ speech to human workers to review. The company later altered its privacy settings to let users delete stored recordings.

Limp says the company’s focus is on continuing to improve the technology and making it easier to use: “Do I wish that customers were discovering all the new things we’re building? Yes, for sure. We have to work harder at [that].”

For all its ambitions, Amazon is not diving head first into the “metaverse” - seemingly unlike every other tech company on the planet. The online virtual worlds accessed through virtual reality and multiple computer screens are what Mark Zuckerberg and others are attempting to build.

“Whatever the metaverse becomes, Amazon will participate. But one of the things we’re focused on is, maybe if you can get your head out of your phone a little more, maybe a little less screen time and a little more family time wouldn’t be terrible.

Dave Limp

Limp suggests the concept is somewhat half-baked. “If you put 10 people in this room and ask them what the metaverse is, you might get 11 answers. It’s a little ambiguous.

“Whatever the metaverse becomes, Amazon will participate. But one of the things we’re focused on is, maybe if you can get your head out of your phone a little more, maybe a little less screen time and a little more family time wouldn’t be terrible. A lot of what we’re trying to do is get you to pick your head up and enjoy life in your home. It might be listening to the same song with your kid, as opposed to all of us having headphones in.”

Limp’s house is not exclusively filled with Amazon gadgets. He has a Peloton treadmill and bike - an intriguing fact given the company has been rumoured to be considering a bid for the embattled fitness equipment maker.

Loading

He bats such speculation away: “Every time there’s a company out there that has a tough quarter or something, there’s these kinds of rumours and inevitably our name comes up. They [Peloton] need to focus on what they’re doing.”

Limp probably has enough on his to-do list. Convincing the world to put Amazon’s camera-toting robots in their houses is not likely to be easy.

Telegraph, London

Get news and reviews on technology, gadgets and gaming in our Technology newsletter every Friday. Sign up here.