Amazon presents Alexa+, driven by generative ai

Alexa de amazon is experiencing his greatest review since he debuted more than a decade ago.

On Wednesday, amazon said that a new brain driven by generative artificial intelligence was giving Alexa. The update, called Alexa+, is ready to make the virtual assistant more conversational and useful to book inputs for concerts, coordinate calendars and suggest that food will be delivered. Alexa+ will cost $ 19.99 per month or will be included for customers who pay for the Main Membership Program of amazon. It will be deployed next month.

“Until the right time, at this time, we have been limited by technology,” said Panos Panay, head of amazon devices, in a media event. “Alexa+ is that trusted assistant who can help him carry out his life and home.”

With the changes, amazon aims to update generative for everyday users. While the Seattle company in recent months has compensated the lost time in products and services that sells companies and other organizations, its control of consumer ai products has been narrower. Alexa's updates, which were <a target="_blank" class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/devices/amazon-alexa-generative-ai” title=”” rel=”noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>First mocked In 2023, they are amazon's biggest commitment to become a force in the consumer ai

The movements are also an opportunity to restart Alexa, which has been perceived as behind other virtual assistants. In recent years, Alexa's <a target="_blank" class="css-yywogo" href="https://cirpamazon.substack.com/p/amazon-customer-echo-owners-appears” title=”” rel=”noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>growth In the United States It has stagnated in general, according to the investigation firm, consumer Intelligence Research Partners, with people by resorting to the assistant only for Some main tasksHow to establish timers and alarms, play music and ask questions about weather and sports scores.

In Wednesday's event, Mr. Panay and other amazon executives demonstrated how Alexa+ could do those things in a more personalized way. Alexa+ could identify who was speaking and knowing their preferences, as favorite sports teams, musicians and meals, they said. They also showed how a device driven by Alexa+ could suggest a restaurant, reserve an opening reservation, order an uber and send a calendar invitation.

Alexa, who was a creation of Jeff Bezos, the founder of amazon, made his debut in 2014, surprising people with their ability to take verbal requests and translate them into actions. It became a symbol of amazon's innovation. Over the years, the company has highlighted some devices connected to Alexa, including echo speakers, a connected microwave, wall clock and twerking Teddy Bear.

But wild experimentation has been out since Mr. Bezos resigned as Executive Director of amazon in 2021 and gave the company Andy Jassy, ​​an executive for a long time. Mr. Jassy reigned to amazon's expenses, killed some projects that seemed not to have obvious perspectives and supervise the layoffs. In 2023, he hired Mr. Panay, a Microsoft executive, to supervise the devices.

Mr. Panay's main responsibility was to bring a generative ai to Alexa and unlock the promise of the assistant that amazon had imagined for a long time. Shortly after Mr. Panay started, amazon said he was rebuilding Alexa's brain with the type of technologies that Openai's chatbot chatbot.

“The rearquitecture of Todo Alexa has happened,” said Panay on Wednesday.

While amazon worked to update Alexa, competitors have jumped. Chatgpt, for example, can hold extended and deep conversations, with some people developing emotional and even sexual relationships with people from ai.

(The New York Times has sued Openai and his partner, Microsoft, claiming the infringement of copyright of the news content related to ai systems. Companies have denied statements).

Bringing Alexa's generative was not easy because the virtual assistant faces challenges that a chatbot does not. Alexa could serve multiple users in a home, for example, so he must distinguish who is talking.

amazon also wants Alexa to be in the center of people's lives and connect to multiple intelligent devices, which is complicated. Rohit Prasad, who directs the development of amazon ai systems, said in an interview last year that he had 23 different devices, such as smart bulbs, controlled through his Alexa system.

“It's extremely difficult to do well, with high reliability, every day,” he said.

The generative ai has also been affected by “hallucinations”, or when IA systems serve incorrect information. Because Alexa interacts with the real world, touching a song, ordering a product, turning off an alarm, customers must see Alexa as a reliable assistant, Prasad said.

“You cannot afford the type of hallucination rates that can happen if you are running your light switches,” he said.