Amazon's Alexa is underway for its biggest overhaul since its debut more than a decade ago.
On Wednesday, Amazon said it gave Alexa a new brain powered by generative artificial intelligence. The update, called Alexa+, will make virtual assistants more conversational and beneficial in booking concert tickets, coordinating calendars and suggesting food delivery. Alexa+ costs $19.99 per month, or to pay for customers on Amazon’s premium membership program. It will be launched next month.
“Up to this moment, this moment, we have been constrained by technology,” Panos Panay, head of Amazon’s equipment, said at a media event. “Alexa+ is a trusted assistant that can help you live and your home.”
As the changes have changed, Amazon’s goal is to catch up with the generation of AI for everyday users. While Seattle has made up for waste of AI products and services it sells to businesses and other organizations in recent months, its control over consumer AI products has been narrow. Alexa's upgrade was first teased in 2023 and is Amazon's biggest bet on becoming the power of consumer AI
These moves are also a chance to restart Alexa, which is believed to be behind other virtual assistants. Alexa's growth in the United States in recent years People often stagnate, and people only complete some major tasks such as setting timers and alerts, playing music and asking questions about weather and sports scores, according to research firms’ consumer intelligence research partners.
During Wednesday’s event, Mr. Panay and other Amazon executives showed how Alexa+ can do these things in a more personalized way. They say Alexa+ can determine who is talking and knows what that person likes, such as favorite sports teams, musicians and food. They also show how the Alexa+ powered device suggests a restaurant, book a considerable reservation, order Uber and send calendar invitations.
Alexa is the creative of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who debuted in 2014, enabling people to accept verbal requests and turn them into action. It has become a symbol of Amazon's innovation. Over the years, the company has highlighted a few devices connected to the Alexa, including an Echo speaker, a connected microwave, a wall clock and a twisted teddy bear.
But since Mr. Bezos became Amazon CEO in 2021, the wild experiment has been carried out and handed over the company to longtime executive Andy Jassy. Mr. Jassy, with Amazon's expenses, killed some projects that did not seem to have obvious prospects and oversee the layoffs. In 2023, he hired Microsoft executive Mr. Panay to oversee the equipment.
Mr. Panay’s primary responsibility is to bring Generative AI to Alexa and to lift the promise of Amazon’s long-conceived full-powered assistant. Shortly after Mr Panay started, Amazon said it was rebuilding Alexa's brain with the kind of technology it provided for OpenAi's Chatgpt Chatbot.
“All the restructuring of Alexa happened,” Mr Panay said Wednesday.
When Amazon struggled to update Alexa, competitors crossed it. For example, Chatgpt can have in-depth conversations with certain people in emotional or even sexual relationships with AI characters.
(The New York Times has sued Openai and its partner Microsoft, claiming that it infringes on copyrights for news content related to AI Systems. The companies have denied the claims.)
Bringing generated AI to Alexa is not easy, as virtual assistants face challenges faced by chatbots. For example, Alexa may serve multiple users in the home, so it is necessary to distinguish who is speaking.
Amazon also wants Alexa to be the center of people's lives and connect to multiple smart devices, which is complicated. Rohit Prasad, head of development at Amazon's AI systems, said in an interview last year that he owns 23 different devices, such as Smart Lightbulbs, controlled through his Alexa System.
“It's very difficult to do the right thing every day with high reliability,” he said.
The generated AI is also plagued by “illusions” or when the AI system provides incorrect information. Mr Prasad said that because Alexa interacts with the real world – playing songs, ordering products, closing alerts – customers must see Alexa as a reliable assistant.
“If you perform the lighting switch, you won't be able to afford the illusion rate that may occur,” he said.
