Tech company Amazon has announced a major update for its Alexa voice command assistant. However, the company stated that the new updated Alexa will only be accessible to users through a monthly subscription, according to unnamed sources.
Amazon is enhancing Alexa to make it more conversational. The updated digital assistant will have AI capabilities similar to ChatGPT, Google's Gemini, and Microsoft's Copilot, according to CNBC. However, the article does not mention when Amazon will introduce the update. The improved digital assistant will use Amazon's large language model, Titan.
"The team is now tasked with turning Alexa into a relevant device that holds up amid the new AI competition, and one that justifies the resources and headcount Amazon has dedicated to it," CNBC reported.
"It has undergone a massive reorganisation, with much of the team shifting to the artificial general intelligence, or AGI, team, according to the three sources. Others pointed to bloat within Alexa, a team of thousands of employees."
The CNBC article mentioned that Amazon plans to charge monthly fees for its advanced Alexa assistant but did not specify the subscription cost. It was however clarified in the article that this fee would not be included as part of the company's Amazon Prime subscription service, which costs $14.99 a month.
It should be mentioned that earlier several big tech companies like OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft made big splash on the front of generative AI features. These companies made available to everyone their advanced AI features at no additional charge. This includes the new ChatGPT-4o model that OpenAI launched just last week.
The article said the current update was at the behest of Amazon's current CEO Andy Jassy, who was not happy with the current capabilities of Alexa. The company first launched Alexa in 2014. The article pointed out that Jassy's dissatisfaction with the voice command assistant surfaced in a meeting when he asked about the current score of a live sports game. However, it could not provide the required answer. Jassy expressed his displeasure as it was quite easy to find the answer.
The article says that Amazon's voice command assistant has a large user base that includes over 500 million devices, from smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, smart speakers, and displays. The article did not offer any info on when the Alexa AI update might launch.