Alexa from Amazon has been undergoing her biggest review since she made her debut more than a decade ago.
Wednesday, Amazon said he was giving Alexa a new brain fueled by artificial generative intelligence. The update, called Alexa+, is destined to make the virtual assistant more conversation and useful to book tickets for concerts, coordinate the calendars and suggest that food is delivered. Alexa+ will cost $ 19.99 per month or will be included for customers who pay for the Amazon Prime Subscription program. Will use next month.
“Until this moment, right now, we have been limited by technology,” said Panos Panay, the head of Amazon devices, in a multimedia event. “Alexa+ is that trusted assistant who can help you lead your life and your home.”
With changes, Amazon aims to achieve generative artificial intelligence for everyday users. While in recent months the company based in Seattle has compensated for the lost time in artificial intelligence products and services that sells to companies and other organizations, its grip on products to consumers has been narrower. Alexa’s updates, which were made fun of for the first time in 2023, are Amazon’s largest bet on how to become a force in the artificial intelligence of consumers
The moves are also an opportunity to restart Alexa, who has been perceived as he fell behind other virtual assistants. In recent years, Alexa’s growth in the United States According to the research company for the research partners of the intelligence consumer, he generally restored with the people who turn to the assistant only for a few main tasks, such as setting timers and alarms, playing music and asking questions about time and scores sportsmen.
At Wednesday’s event, Mr. Panay and other Amazon managers showed how Alexa+ could do those things in a more personalized way. Alexa+ could identify those who spoke and know their preferences, such as favorite sports teams, musicians and foods, they said. They also showed how a device powered by Alexa+ could suggest a restaurant, book a booking on Opeentable, order a Uber and send an invitation on the calendar.
Alexa, who was an idea of Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, made his debut in 2014, stupid people with his ability to take verbal requests and translate them into actions. It has become a symbol of Amazon innovation. Over the years, the company has highlighted some devices connected to Alexa, including Eco speakers, a connected microwave oven, wall watch and teddy bear.
But the wild experimentation came out since Bezos resigned from the Amazon CEO in 2021 and delivered the company to Andy Jassy, a longtime manager. Jassy Reined in Amazon’s expenses, killed some projects that seemed not to have obvious perspectives and supervised the layoffs. In 2023, Mr. Panay, a Microsoft manager, took on to supervise the devices.
The maximum responsibility of Mr. Panay was bringing to the generative to Alexa and unlocking the promise of the all -elposo assistant that Amazon had for some time imagined. Shortly after the beginning of Mr. Panay, Amazon said he was reconstructing Alexa’s brain with the type of technologies that supported the chatbot of Openai.
“The re-architecture of all Alexa took place,” Panay said on Wednesday.
While Amazon worked to update Alexa, the competitors browsed him. Chatgpt, for example, can contain extensive and in-depth conversations, with some people who develop emotional and even sexual relationships-with artificial intelligence people.
(The New York Times sued Openi and its partner, Microsoft, supporting the violation of the copyright of news related to artificial intelligence systems. The companies denied the statements.)
Bringing generative artificial intelligence to Alexa was not easy because the virtual assistant has to face challenges that a chatbot does not do so. Alexa could serve more users in a family, for example, so he must distinguish who is speaking.
Amazon also wants Alexa to be at the center of people’s lives and connects to multiple intelligent devices, which is complicated. Rohit Prasad, who directs the development of Amazon’s artificial intelligence systems, said in an interview last year to have 23 different devices, such as intelligent bulbs, controlled through its Alexa system.
“It is extremely difficult to do it well, with high reliability, every day,” he said.
Generative artificial intelligence has also been afflicted by “hallucinations” or when artificial intelligence systems need incorrect information. Since Alexa interacts with the real world – playing a song, ordering a product, deactivating an alarm – customers have to see Alexa as a reliable assistant, said Prasad.
“You can’t afford the type of hallucination rates that can occur if you are performing light switches,” he said.