Earlier this year, rumors began circulating claiming that Amazon was improving Alexa by giving it new generative AI features. We haven’t heard much about it since then until recently CNBC spoke to people familiar with the project’s development. The new report provided insight into what the company wants to do with the upgraded Alexa, how much it will cost and why Amazon is doing this.
CNBC’s sources remained tight-lipped. They didn’t reveal exactly what the AI can do, but they did mention the tech giant’s goals. Amazon wants its developers to create something “that will hold up amid the new AI competition,” referring to ChatGPT, for example. Company CEO Andy Jazzy was reportedly “disappointed” with modern Alexa and he’s not the only one who wants the assistant to do more. Reportedly, the development team seems concerned that the model is currently just an “expensive alarm clock.”
To facilitate the new direction, Amazon reorganized large parts of its operations within the Alexa team, shifting its focus to achieving artificial general intelligence.
AGI is a concept from science fiction, but it’s the idea that an AI model could one day match or surpass the intelligence of a human. Despite their lofty goals, Amazon appears to be starting small by wanting to create its own chatbot with generative capabilities.
The sources state: “Amazon will use its own major language model, Titan, in the Alexa upgrade.” Titan is only available to businesses as part of Amazon Bedrock. It can generate text, create images, summarize documents and more for enterprises. users, similar to other AIs. Following this line of thinking, the new Alexa could bring the same features to regular, non-entrepreneurial users.
Potential costs
Previous reports have said that Amazon plans to charge people for access to the supercharged Alexa; however, the cost or plan structure were unknown. Now we learn that Amazon plans to launch the Alexa upgrade as a subscription service completely separate from Prime, meaning people will have to pay extra to try out the AI, according to this new report.
Apparently there has been some discussion about exactly how much to charge. Amazon has not yet determined the monthly costs. One of the sources told CNBC that at one point there was “a price of $20 floating around,” while another suggested lowering the cost to “single-digit dollar (amounts). for example, the brand to undercut rivals charges $20 per month for it Plus plan.
There’s no word on when Alexa’s update will launch or even be formally announced. But if it comes out, it could be the first chatbot accessible through an Amazon smart speaker, like the Echo Pop.
We reached out to the company to see if it would make a statement regarding CNBC’s report. We will update this story if we hear back.
Until then, check out Ny Breaking’s roundup of the best smart speakers for 2024.