Last March, in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, the website Venturebeat wrote a story about how such digital assistants as Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant could better talk about the pandemic.

The author of that asked Alexa where they could get tested for the virus. Alexa responded with a set of local business listings, while Google’s counterpart simply said “sorry, I’m not sure how to help.”

It’s taken nearly a year, but it appears things have improved when it comes to getting answers, at least from Alexa. Or perhaps, there are just more places to get tested.

CNBC reported Friday that Amazon recently added a feature to Alexa that provides more reliable answers when it comes to finding a testing location. It works on both phones with Alexa apps and on Echo speakers, while providing data drawn from GISCorps, as well as from Yelp.

When I asked my Echo the question of “Where can I get tested for Covid-19?,” it listed a diagnostics lab, and a pair of pharmacies within a few miles of my house, while also saying that I could ask for the addresses for the first one.

The mobile app version brought up eight results.

Apple’s Siri, however, appears to be less accurate. When I asked it the same question, the top result was an “investigations and armed security” firm, located 114 miles away from me, although the next four results were indeed nearby urgent care centers, and one hospital that performs lab testing.

When I asked Alexa where I could get vaccinated near me, the answer wasn’t nearly as specific.

“Following CDC recommendations, vaccines are being allocated first to health care personnel and long-term care facility residents. For information on local vaccination sites, visit vaccines.gov.”

Ever since the start of the pandemic, sluggishness in the progress of testing has been a major problem in the fight against the coronavirus.

“You’re paying billions of dollars in this very inequitable way to get the most worthless test results of any country in the world,” Bill Gates said in August on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” on Sunday. “No other country has this testing insanity… “It’s mind-blowing that you can’t get the government to improve the testing because they just want to say how great it is.”

Amazon, on the other hand, the maker of Alexa, has posted blockbuster financial results throughout the pandemic. For the fourth quarter of 2020, Amazon posted revenue of $125.56 billion, for its first-ever quarter of over a billion dollars. CEO Jeff Bezos also announced that he is stepping down later this year.

Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.

Image: Reuters.