Artificial intelligence is built into the gadgets we use every day from companies like Microsoft and Google. But what about Amazon’s Echo?
The Alexa voice assistant that millions rely on to set timers, keep shopping lists and much more doesn’t yet have an AI story to tell – but recent reports say that could change come October.
Tech expert Omar Gallaga wrote about the rumors for CNET and joined the Standard with more.
Highlights from this segment:
– Reports from the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and Reuters have suggested from insiders at Amazon that Alexa is about to get a major revamp after losing billions of dollars on it.
– As early as October, the company will introduce a new version of Alexa that will include a premium “Remarkable” version for $5 to $10 a month.
– The revamp will be leaning on Claude AI from Anthropic, a company based in San Francisco that Amazon invested in last year. Amazon had been testing its own version of AI that had long delays and was not working well.
– The new AI would go beyond voice commands and be more like ChatGPT or Perplexity, “like more of an ongoing conversation … and it would remember things about previous conversations,” Gallaga said. “So it would kind of build on that knowledge” in addition to being able to do more complex things like helping order food or craft emails.
