- Alexa AI latency issues are a “critical issue”
- Leaked memo claims Alexa AI missed three launch dates in 2024
- Amazon wants to give Alexa supercharged skills
Generative AI updates from Google and Apple have made their artificial assistants more useful in a number of ways – giving them new features and making them generally easier to instruct – but one big name in the world of smart assistants is noticeably absent from the upgrade list: Alexa. Amazon is reportedly working on rolling out an Alexa AI, but it’s just too slow to respond to queries that have yet to be launched.
Fortune has shared leaked internal documents highlighting a number of critical flaws with Alexa, the biggest apparently being latency – the AI takes far too long to respond when an instruction is given or a question is asked.
This issue has reportedly led to low tester satisfaction scores. Before launch, Amazon reportedly wanted to achieve an average satisfaction score of 5.5 out of 7, but testers rated the AI service at just 4.57. This is why it appears Amazon has missed its three target launch dates in 2024 – the most recent being November 14.
Another concern, not one that isn’t labeled as a “critical issue” like latency, but still a concern, is that the Alexa AI may be incompatible with some older models, which could force many users to upgrade their technology to to access the new AI. Granted, this isn’t a huge surprise since for many phones only the latest models are getting some AI improvements, but Amazon might fear this will upset customers who have wanted these kinds of updates for years and then miss them as their “smart” ones. assistant finally gets a brain.
One thing noticeably missing from the leaked memo is any mention of Claude AI. Claude from Athropic is considered one of the best ChatGPT alternatives, but lacks a voting mode; therefore, partnering with Amazon when it was plagued by leakers made a lot of sense, as it would give Amazon an edge in the AI race and provide Anthropic with help in teaching Claude to communicate with a voice.
It could mean that the Claude leak was fake, or perhaps a partnership was decided upon after this memo was published as a way to solve the problem. Be that as it may, it highlights that, as with all leaks, these details should be taken with a grain of salt; Such issues, like Alexa AI latency, could be in a much better state now than when the memo was written.
Teaching an old Alexa new skills
In addition to Alexa AI delays, the leak also teases upgrades to Alexa services involving Amazon partners like GrubHub, Ticketmaster, and Uber (via Business insiderbehind a paywall). While these services already had Alexa skills, Amazon wants to change their relationship with the smart assistant.
Specifically, it wants AI-enhanced Alexa to do more of the task itself, rather than handing things off to a third-party app on your phone, as is the case with some skills. So you can instruct the smart speaker to give you a lift to the cinema, or reorder last week’s takeaway and it can – using data from your linked accounts – perform these tasks for you without any manual input. you.
It’s certainly an intriguing idea, but the success of this strategy will depend on whether users trust the AI to get their request completely right, and trust it not to accidentally reorder a takeaway because of something it saw from your TV belongs. It’s one thing if Alexa plays the wrong song, it’s another thing entirely if Alexa spends your money on the wrong thing.
We’ll have to wait and see what Alexa AI has in store for us when it eventually launches. All signs point to a 2025 release, assuming there are no more bumps in the road.