Here’s everything new that Amazon announced or showed off for Alexa+.
More brains behind the machine
Thankfully perhaps the biggest problem with Alexa today is finally being fixed. Much like other smart home assistants, Alexa’s understanding of requests you ask of it can be…finicky. It’s quite a popular joke that Amazon’s assistant is known for often misinterpreting what the user says.With an LLM (Large Language Model) AI now powering Alexa+, Amazon is poised to bring the real deal to our homes. Alexa will understand what you say with much less repetition and will also remember context for the conversation you’re having. You won’t need to prompt it with “Hey Alexa” every time and you can give a handful of commands together and Alexa will carry them out.
Much more natural command structure
Along with more brains comes the ability to converse more naturally. Alexa+ won’t require you to give it specific commands anymore and will instead make do with limited information. At the event this was shown off by asking Alexa to play a song but instead of the song’s name it was only given a description. Alexa was able to correctly determine what song this was and started playing it.When asked to move the music to the right side of the room Alexa was able to identify what it needed to do. It proceeded to shut off the speakers situated on the left side of the room and, as asked, moved the music to the specified direction.
Not just a chatbot
When the presentation began the audience was told that Amazon couldn’t simply rely on a simple chatbot to realize the company’s vision for Alexa. As such Alexa has been rebuilt from the ground up to truly become the AI agent of the future. In simpler terms: Alexa can now interface with third party apps and hardware.
Alexa+ will support “tens of thousands” of other platforms at launch including big names like Samsung, Uber and Xbox. The assistant was shown off booking an Uber ride and reserving a table at a restaurant autonomously. Then it scheduled a text to notify a contact about the booking. Very cool stuff in my opinion.
Alexa can even use your Ring camera to answer some very specific questions. During the demo the assistant was asked whether it had seen anyone walking the dog recently. Alexa was also asked whether any packages had been brought to the house. In both instances it was able to find recordings of the events.
Lastly, Alexa is capable of looking up reputable businesses for any problem you may have in your house and booking an appointment. This will naturally also translate to doctor’s visits and other real world needs as well.
I’m betting that Alexa+ will soon be given the autonomy seen in the AI agents that OpenAI is working on. In the near future you could let Alexa call up customer service and deal with the long waiting times until it can connect to a representative. Now that’s a future I want to live in!
No new Echo
Alexa works great with Amazon’s Echo. | Video credit — Amazon
Surprisingly there was no new Echo product announced today. I thought, what with an entirely new Alexa, that a new Echo was long overdue as well but Amazon is focusing solely on AI for now. Right from the get go the entire presentation was about Amazon’s work with and for Artificial Intelligence.
Pricing for Alexa+
AI products require a lot of servers and as such also require some form of fees to keep them going. Apple Intelligence and Galaxy AI will both likely be locked behind a paywall very soon but Amazon isn’t offering any free demos at all.
Fortunately if you have an Amazon Prime account you will get Alexa+ for free. This is just another way that Amazon incentivizes consumers to sign up for Prime, another being the free subscriptions available on Twitch for Prime members.
If you don’t have a Prime membership and are not interested in getting one then Alexa+ will cost you $19.99 a month. While it’s a bummer to see yet another subscription service, at least this one isn’t absolutely necessary.
People who love their smart home appliances and think that the new Alexa is super neat won’t mind paying $20 a month. And those who aren’t too enthusiastic about this industry won’t be missing out on anything.
Alexa+ will begin rolling out from March but may take several months to become available everywhere. If I wanted Alexa+ for my home I’d honestly just get a Prime membership. It seems like the best deal right now.
