Rumors started circulating earlier this year claiming Amazon was working on improving Alexa by giving it new generative AI features. Since then, we haven’t heard much about it until very recently when CNBC spoke to people familiar with the project’s development. The new reporting provided insight into what the company aims to do with the upgraded Alexa, how much it may cost, and the reason why Amazon is doing this.
CNBC’s sources were pretty tight-lipped. They didn’t reveal exactly what the AI will be able, but they did mention the tech giant’s goals. Amazon wants its developers to create something “that holds up amid the new AI competition,” referring to the likes of ChatGPT. Company CEO Andy Jazzy was reportedly “underwhelmed” with the modern-day Alexa and he isn’t the only one who wants the assistant to do more. Reportedly, the dev team is seemingly worried the model currently amounts to just being an “expensive alarm clock.”
To facilitate the new direction, Amazon reorganized major portions of its business within the Alexa team, shifting focus toward achieving artificial general intelligence.
AGI is a concept from science fiction, but it’s the idea that an AI model may one day match or surpass the intelligence of a human being. Despite their lofty goals, Amazon seems to be starting small by wanting to create its own chatbot with generative capabilities.
The sources state, “Amazon will use its own large language model, Titan, in the Alexa upgrade.” Titan is only available to businesses as a part of Amazon Bedrock. It can generate text, create images, summarize documents, and more for enterprise users, similar to other AIs. Following this train of thought, the new Alexa could offer the same features to regular, non-enterprising users.
Potential costs
Previous reports have said Amazon plans to charge people for access to the supercharged Alexa; however, the cost or plan structure were unknown. Now, we’re learning Amazon is planning 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’s been debate on exactly how much to charge. Amazon has yet to nail down the monthly fee. One of the sources told CNBC that “a $20 price point was floated” around at one point while someone else suggested dropping costs down to “single-digit dollar [amounts].” So, in other words, less than $10, which would allow the brand to undercut rivals. OpenAI, for example, charges $20 a month for its Plus plan.
There is no word on when Alexa’s update will launch or even be formally announced. But if and when it does come out, it might be the first chatbot accessible through an Amazon smart speaker like the Echo Pop.
We did reach out to the company to see if it wanted to make a statement about CNBC’s report. We’ll update this story if we hear back.
Til then, check out TechRadar’s roundup of the best smart speakers for 2024.