A Amazon On Wednesday (26) revealed the first major reformulation of his voice assistant Alexa since it was launched for over a decade, incorporating her general artificial intelligence.
The effort has a significant weight for Amazon, which invested billions of dollars in Alexa Since its launch in 2014, hoping to put the service in a variety of devices and finally boost sales on its main e -commerce site.
“Alexa knows almost every instrument of your life, your schedule, your smart home, your preferences, the devices you are using, the people you are connecting, the entertainment you love, and use many of the apps you use, many of the services you need,” Panos Panay, chief of Amazon, said at a New York launch event.
The new service is called Alexa+, Panay said, echoing the highest level nomenclature of many technology e streaming.
O Alexa+ It is free for Amazon Prime members and costs $ 19.99 a month for non -prime users.
The service, which was airing on Wednesday, will be available in March to some users, with the launch expanding to more people over time.
Panay demonstrated how Alexa can store, through prompts, client preferences – for example, that a family member is vegetarian and prefers Greek and Italian food, but avoids peanut butter.
The device can also be used to make dinner reservations and send timed texts or reminders.
The service can connect to Amazon products, such as Ring bells, to show camera recordings.
Alexa’s director, Mara Segal, said the assistant can review documents such as owners’ association contracts, so that a resident knows what is allowed – for example, the installation of solar panels.
Amazon shares rose about 2%to $ 217.02.
Apple and Google competition
The event marked the revelation of a secret project internally known as “Banyan”, with the aim of making Alexa more conversational. Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence that can learn from data and improve over time.
Although Alexa da Amazon was launched three years after Apple’s Siri reaching the devices of the iPhone manufacturer, she helped make the use of voice assistants more popular.
Still, the lack of solid improvements and revisions in Alexa over the years has meant an erosion in the use of consumer service, especially in the AI era.
Apple has already incorporated its set of AI resources, called Apple Intelligence, in its Siri voice assistant, while Google reformulated its voice assistant using .
Alexa is voice-controlled software installed on products such as smart speakers that can provide answers to user questions, play music, set time.
And serve as a hub for residential automation by connecting internet devices so that, for example, a light can be lit with voice commands only.
The new service will be able to respond to several prompts in sequence and even act as an “agent”, performing actions to users without their direct involvement.
This contrasts with the current iteration, which usually deals with only one request at a time.
Executives debated charging up to $ 10 a month for the new service, people told Reuters to recover part of the investment sunk in the deficit business. Amazon did not immediately address the price details.
The company said that there are about 500 million devices compatible with Alexa in the hands of consumers, which means that the reformulation is both a great opportunity to make money for the Seattle retailer and a great financial risk if it does not meet expectations.
Daniel Rausch, Vice President of Alexa and Echo, recognized the contribution of the Startup of Ia Anthropic to the construction of Alexa+, confirming news from Reuters that Anthropic’s Claude Language model was one of the main responsible for the service.
