What you need to know
- Amazon is tapping into the power of generative AI to improve the responsiveness of its Alexa virtual assistant.
- Alexa will be able to better understand context and perform multiple actions from a single query.
- These new Alexa features will be available to preview in the United States "soon."
Generative AI has been all the rage lately, and while companies like Google and Microsoft are practically leading the conversation around it, Amazon is reminding us that it's also putting in some work with its own AI efforts. At the company's fall 2023 devices and services event, the company showed off ways that it plans to give Alexa a much-needed boost using generative AI.
The biggest takeaway from the announcement is that Alexa is set to become even smarter than before on your Echo smart speakers and devices, and we should be able to have more natural conversations with the virtual assistant. For instance, you won't have to say "Alexa" every time you want to tell it something, and you can interrupt Alexa if you have something you want to add or change to your query. And users should notice that Alexa sounds more realistic and less robotic.
This is all thanks to Amazon's large language model (LLM), which is the crux of generative AI. While generative AI chatbots like Bard and Bing (Chat-GPT) are focused on text-based responses, Amazon's LLM is optimized for voice interactions, which is much of what you'll be doing with Amazon's devices like the new Echo Show 8. Additionally, developers will soon be able to integrate their APIs and content into Amazon's LLM, which promises to deliver "richer and more engaging experiences using a simple no-code solution."
Because of this, Alexa should be able to respond faster and more naturally while understanding more complex queries. Alexa will also be able to understand more ambiguous queries and take context into account, particularly when it comes to what it knows about you and your family members based on previous conversations. It can use the things it has learned about you based on the information you've shared with it, like your preferences and the services you interact with, in order to provide you with the most relevant information.
Amazon even gave Alexa some personality, so it should, for instance, be able to sympathize with you if your Football team loses a game.
These upgrades should give Alexa the boost it needs to remain a relevant force in your smart home, particularly as we wait for Google Assistant to get its own generative AI upgrade. That said, the new Alexa features are not ready for prime time just yet, although Amazon says Echo users in the United States will be able to preview these new capabilities "soon,"
