Amazon’s upcoming Alexa AI brain transplant could make you use it for more than just weather and timers
- Rohit Prasad, Amazon’s AGI team, promised that a major Alexa upgrade is on the way.
- He spoke to FT about issues that forced a delay in the release, mainly in the area of hallucinations.
- When the new Alexa arrives, we hope it will be used for more than just basic tasks.
Amazon has touted Alexa’s capabilities as a voice assistant for years, even though it seems most people use it mainly to set timers and check the weather.
Still, that hasn’t stopped Amazon from giving Alexa a much bigger place in your life. Amazon wants Alexa to move from her relatively simple life of timers and trivia to the big AI leagues as a true personal concierge by leveraging the latest AI models, like Amazon’s artificial general intelligence (AGI) leader Rohit Prasad . explained to the FT.
Prasad and Amazon want to completely transform Alexa’s brain through a kind of “transplant” to replace the old question-answer engine with generative AI models. If all goes according to Amazon’s ambitious plan, Alexa 2.0 will be the digital butler it’s constantly promised, instead of an audio stopwatch and remote control. Prasad admitted that it won’t be easy, though he is confident Amazon can overcome the obstacles in its way.
If he has no hallucinations, Alexa should eliminate any hallucinations caused by the AI. An assistant who makes up answers that sound plausible but are completely wrong won’t be of much use. If you’re asking about the best route to the airport, “plausible but wrong” won’t cut it. Furthermore, Alexa must be reliable when asking people to do more than just play their favorite music. The wrong song isn’t a problem, but asking to reserve a table for dinner, adjusting your lights, and double-checking your sitter’s arrival time should give you confidence that nothing will go wrong.
At the same time, caution about mirages cannot delay responses. According to Prasad, Alexa is now quite responsive, but the new AI brain is a little slower, sometimes taking up to ten seconds to answer a question. The company will have to bring the new Alexa up to speed to make it attractive to users.
Ambitious Alexa AI
One thing Amazon is particularly keen on is keeping Alexa’s personality intact. Prasad said Amazon is hiring experts to refine her voice, diction and overall personality to make the transition to a more conversational AI. That said, generative AI is probabilistic, meaning it predicts responses based on patterns rather than absolute truths. That makes it great for casual conversations, but a bit risky for high-stakes tasks like managing smart homes or relaying emergency alerts. The stakes are high and any misstep could damage Alexa’s reputation.
As good as the new Alexa is at helping users, there’s a very clear problem with Amazon’s plans to make Alexa the ultimate digital concierge. Microsoft, OpenAI, Google, Meta, and others are working toward many of the same goals. In particular, Google has pretty much overwritten Google Assistant with Gemini across the board. Amazon had a big lead over its competitors in smart speakers and smart displays. However, that might not matter if no one wants to use Alexa if they can turn to Gemini, ChatGPT, or other assistants with similar skills.
Still, Amazon has a number of assets that could close any existing gap. The company recently debuted the Nova AI models, which are built in-house and designed specifically for Alexa. Amazon has also deepened its partnership with Claude AI developer Anthropic, backed by $8 billion in investment funds.
Whether this is enough to give the competition an edge remains to be seen, but time will certainly tell.