In short
- Amazon started rolling out Alexa+, its new generative AI-driven assistant, in a limited preview.
- As part of the Early Access phase, American customers who have an Echo show 8, 10, 15 or 21 have the first to receive Alexa+.
- The service will be free for Amazon Prime members; Non-Prime users have access to a monthly subscription of $ 19.99.
Amazon started rolling out Alexa+, his new generative AI-driven assistant, for more than 100,000 early users in a limited example, months after the company originally planned the release for last October.
The retail giant announced for the first time plans for an improved, generative AI-driven Alexa during his annual Fall Hardware event in September 2023, which positioned the assistant as a more conversation, context-conscious evolution of the original Alexa. Last year, Amazon worked with Claude AI developer Anthropic to help feed the new version of Alexa, after Amazon’s own AI had no expectations.
As part of the Early Access phase, American customers who have an Echo show 8, 10, 15 or 21 or 21 own the first to receive Alexa+. Customers with other compatible ultrasound devices are informed on the device via e-mail and notifications as soon as the improved assistant becomes available for them.
“We will expand early access to more ultrasound customers over time,” Amazon wrote. “As soon as you have access and have opt-in, Alexa+ starts working on all your compatible ultrasound devices, fire TV and brand tablets, on your web browser and the Alexa app if they become available in early access.”
Some Alexa devices from the first generation, including the first generation of Echo, Echo Show and Echo Dots, are incompatible with the upgrade.
Alexa+ users can start a conversation on one device and continue on the other and communicate with the assistant via Echo devices or browsers. According to a report from the Washington PostVarious functions, including ordering from Grubhub, brainstorming about gift ideas or generating stories for children, were pushed back because they “do not yet meet the standards of Amazon for public release.”
The service will be free for Amazon Prime members; Non-Prime users have access to a monthly subscription of $ 19.99.
Amazon said that Alexa+ contains various safety functions to tackle privacy problems. These include indicator lights and sounds to indicate when the assistant is active, physical controls to disable microphones and cameras on ultrasound devices and options to remove stored speech recordings and typed interactions.
Alexa+ can read and summarize uploaded documents. However, according to the above report, users cannot yet delete documents that upload them to Alexa+.
The launch of Alexa+ is supplied as AI developers, including OpenAi, Anthropic, Google and Meta, to create the next generation of virtual assistants who are more conversation, be aware and able to handle complex tasks.
Amazon has invested heavily in bringing generative AI to his business and consumer products, including the $ 4 billion in anthropic sinking in 2023.
Published by Andrew Hayward
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