Amazon’s Alexa has been going through its biggest regulation since debut more than a decade ago.
On Wednesday, Amazon said he was giving Alexa a new brain powered by artificial generating intelligence. The update, called Alexa+, is set to make the virtual and useful virtual assistant in booking concert tickets, coordinating calendars and suggesting the food to be delivered. Alexa+ will cost $ 19.99 a month or will be included for customers paying for Amazon’s Prime Minister’s membership program. Will come out next month.
“Up to this moment, exactly at this moment, we have been limited by technology,” said Panos Panay, head of Amazon’s equipment at a media event. “Alexa+ is that trusted assistant that can help you develop your life and your home.”
With the changes, Amazon is aiming to reach the generation for everyday users. While the Seattle Company in recent months has constituted for lost time in products and services that sells to businesses and other organizations, its control in consumer products has been closer. Alexa’s updates, which were first grasped in 2023, are Amazon’s biggest bet to become a force in it
Movements are also an opportunity to rebuild Alexa, who is perceived to have fallen after other virtual assistants. In recent years, Alexa’s growth in the United States It has generally stalled, according to the research firm of consumer intelligence research partners, with the people who turn to the assistant only for some key tasks, such as setting time and alarms, playing music and asking questions about the results of the results weather and sport.
At Wednesday’s event, Mr. Panay and other Amazon leaders demonstrated how Alexa+ could make those things in a more personalized way. Alexa+ could identify who was talking and knowing their preferences, such as favorite sports teams, musicians and food, they said. They also showed how a device powered by Alexa+ could suggest a restaurant, reserve a reservation in the opentable, order a Uber and send a calendar invitation.
Alexa, who was an opinion of Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, made her debut in 2014, wishing people with his ability to take oral demand and translate them into action. It became a symbol of Amazon’s innovation. Over the years, the company has highlighted some Alexa -related devices, including Echo speakers, a connected microwave, wall clock and Pelush bear.
But wild experimentation has been out since Mr. Bezos withdrew as Amazon’s chief executive in 2021 and handed over to Andy Jassy, a long executive. Mr. Jassy was reprinted at Amazon’s expenses, killed some projects that seem to have no visible prospects and supervised vacations. In 2023, he hired Mr. Panay, a Microsoft executive, to oversee the equipment.
Mr. Panay’s main responsibility was to bring that generation to Alexa and unlock the promise of the comprehensive Amazon assistant had long been predicted. Immediately after Mr. Panay began, Amazon said he was rebuilding Alexa’s brain with the type of technologies supporting Openi chatbot chatbot.
“Re-architecture of all Alexa has happened,” said Mr. Panay on Wednesday.
While Amazon has worked to update Alexa, competitors have overcome it. Chatgpt, for example, can develop prolonged, deep conversations with some people who develop emotional relationships-and even sexual people.
(New York Times has sued Openai and its partner, Microsoft, claiming copyright violations of news content with respect to it. Companies have denied claims.)
The behavior of Alexa’s generating was not easy because the virtual helper faces challenges that a chatbot does not make. Alexa can serve many users in a family, for example, so she should distinguish who you are talking about.
Amazon also wants Alexa to be at the center of people’s lives and connects to numerous intelligent equipment, which is complicated. Rohit Prasad, who runs the development of Amazon’s systems, said in an interview last year that he had 23 different devices, such as Lights Smart Light, controlled through his Alexa system.
“Extremely is extremely difficult to make it right, with high reliability, every day,” he said.
The generator is also affected by “hallucinations”, or when the systems of it serve inaccurate information. Because Alexa interacts with the real world – playing a song, ordering a product, turning off an alarm – clients should see Alexa as a reliable assistant, Mr. Prasad.
“You can’t afford the type of hallucination levels that can happen if you are executing your light switches,” he said.