Amazon Plans to Unveil Next-Generation Alexa AI Later This Month

Amazon today sent out invites for an AI-focused event that will be held on February 26, and according to Reuters, the company plans to introduce its next-generation Alexa generative AI service.

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Since Amazon introduced Alexa in 2014, it has become one of the most widely available voice assistants, but it has been falling behind with the proliferation of generative AI products like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.

Revamping Alexa into a generative AI service will mark the biggest change Amazon has made to the product since its launch. Alexa will be able to hold complex, context-aware conversations with users, and will be able to handle multi-faceted requests.

Amazon is using AI models from Anthropic's Claude rather than relying solely on its in-house AI technology, as early versions of Amazon AI had trouble responding in a timely manner. Amazon initially planned to roll out the updated version of Alexa last year, but ended up pushing the debut back.

It is important for Amazon to get changes to Alexa right, because there are more than 100 million active Alexa users and over 500 million Alexa-enabled devices have been sold. Amazon is aiming to convert some of those Alexa users into paying customers, with plans to eventually charge a subscription fee for the new Alexa. At launch, Amazon will test the new Alexa with a small number of users and won't charge for it.

The new version of Amazon Alexa will come just ahead of when we are expecting Apple to begin testing a new iteration of Siri that's equipped with new Apple Intelligence capabilities. Apple says that ‌Siri‌ is going to be updated with on-screen awareness, personal context, and the ability to do more in and with apps, all of which are expected to allow ‌Siri‌ to do more for iPhone, iPad, and Mac users.

Next year, rumors suggest Apple will roll out an updated version of ‌Siri‌ trained using large language models, so ‌Siri‌ will be able to better compete with ChatGPT and chatbots.

Tags: Alexa, Amazon

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Top Rated Comments

turbineseaplane Avatar
9 months ago
I'll pass on Amazon "anything" in this category

I want ZERO of their devices around listening to me so they can harvest all my data and advertise to me
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
McWetty Avatar
9 months ago
Alexa is a non-starter as long as Amazon insists on pushing ads and other trash to Echo devices.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Daalseth Avatar
9 months ago
An Alexa listening device in my home? No.
An Amazon product in my home? No.
An AI “enhanced” device from Amazon that will listen to what’s going on and then randomly do whatever s*** it thinks it should?
Oh hell no.

No, just no.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Daalseth Avatar
9 months ago

SIRI is still the biggest load of crap of AI there is. Far from useful. Maybe some of you nerds love it, but for everyday things its a crappy experience. Such a shame.
Will be interesting to see if Amazon can push ahead with their implementation.
Honestly I use Siri every day. “Set a timer for XX minutes”, “Start a walking workout”, “What time do the XXX play”, for that sort of thing it works great. I also use it for dictation. It’s very good for that. A couple of years ago I had to make a list of my Geology textbooks. “The Devonian Extinction”, “Mineralogy of Sulphate Minerals”, “Introduction to Mineralogy”, “Lunar Science, a Post Apollo View”, there were around fifty of them with highly technical and obscure names. It didn’t make a mistake on any of them.

Siri is good, as long as you know what to use it for.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nfl46 Avatar
9 months ago
A lot of AI news today. Hopefully, Apple is ready to bring it at WWDC in June.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
psxp Avatar
9 months ago
SIRI is still the biggest load of crap of AI there is. Far from useful. Maybe some of you nerds love it, but for everyday things its a crappy experience. Such a shame.
Will be interesting to see if Amazon can push ahead with their implementation.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)