The biggest surprise at Amazon’s press conference was the lack of ads for devices. Traditionally, Amazon announces dozens of new tools in their events, but this time, Amazon spent 70 minutes talking about programs. especially, Alexa PlusAlexa Voice Assant Alexa. That was exactly the right step.
Over the past decade, the company has spent A lot of money Building cheap devices for Alexa that no one really loves, Development of home robots and An internal cameras flying No one really needs, wasting efforts on failed ways for people to interact with Alexa (episode, microwave, watch, and so onAll this while the basic technology itself was stagnant.
Imagine what would have been if Amazon focused all of that time and money To make Alexa really good. For a start, we will be much closer than Jeff Bezos’s original vision of repetition Star Trek“Computer” And away from what Alexa is today, a Expensive temporary to build.
But with the launch of Alexa Plus, Amazon recently took a big step towards this goal. “One hundred percent of its re -imagination” said in an interview with “a hundred percent of re -photographing”, “One hundred percent of it was re -imagined.” Drilling. “Alexa needed to improve. She needed to grow. He needed to reach the next level.” “It was not only our goal to have Chatbot; Alexa was supposed to be able to accomplish things.”
According to Demos Amazon showedAlexa plus conversation, proactive, capable of reason and reasoning, and you can learn from the context. It seems that it seems more capable than its predecessor – which is what you adhere to, if you prefer the devil you know. But the new Alexa can plan history, reserve a restaurant, send a text message to the children’s cliff, create a travel line, add it to everyone’s evaluation, read your study guide and test you on answers, remember your favorite food, as well as find all your smart devices and take measures.
Not only that Alexa has The full host of the new capabilities; It is also best to do this All that was used to doBut without having to use microscopic formulation or repeat the word “Alexa” continuously.
Now, instead of skillsOur ExpertsAnd from which the different large language models can benefit from Alexa smartly to submit your requests, as you express them – from asking for food and running the lights to telling you who was on your door and what should be cooked for dinner. The company claims to have Tens of thousands of integration through applications programming facades As well as new “Agent’s experiments” Alexa allowed the mobility and filling of web models on your behalf to do things like a cleaner or reformer.
A decade ago, Amazon as a “Better” audio assistant with virtue of the vast overlapping operation.
As part of the new program batch, we too finally Get a new Alexa application, which will host Alexa Plus on your phone, and Alexa.com new site Where you can interact with the assistant from the keyboard comfort – each of them must be better input methods for the new Alexa device Multimedia capabilities. All this can take the audio assistant closer to his goal of being a personal assistant rather than just a home benefit.
This long laser may focus on improving the basic software product to the Panay effect, which was It was installed after a short period The first attempt to launch the new Alexa in September 2023. With a background in devices development, it is possible that it came, a look at a group of poor products in the echo squad, and issued a stop order.
Banai said Drilling His vision of new echo devices are the products that people are enthusiastic about and love them. “Seeing the design is more consistent in the shape and appearance and … I believe in the screens. I think they are important in a huge way. So you will see some investment there.” Shortly after the event, the CEO of Amazon and Jassy confirmed this “Beautiful devices“This fall will come. No one has the current echo devices as” beautiful “.
However, the most likely reason for the intense voltage of the launch of the new Alexa is external pressure such as Openai’s Chatgpt, Gemini Creeping In Google HomeApple intelligence It comes slowly to Siri. A decade ago, Amazon as a “best” vocal assistant to a large extent virtue of the vast interconnection. Alexa can work with almost everything – but this doesn’t always mean.
However, this new smarter Alexa is still just a promise. The illustrations that I saw a lot were on bars, although they were happening directly. regardless of A little reactions with Alexa PlusNo one was able to try all the new capabilities and will not do it until late March as soon as possible. A The footnote on the Alexa plus page He notes that it will not come at one time as well, saying: “Some of the features are under development and will be released in future updates.”
We still don’t really know what Alexa will do as soon as it is millions of houses. This is not ancient Alexa. Amazon made this shift by rebuilding the sound aid from A to Z. According to Panay, none of the “classic” Alexa there. “There was a way to do this – keep the old Alexa and have a new Alexa who does nothing but a great conversation. But this seemed to be absent from the point.”
“No feature will be released unless we know it will reach 100 percent there.”
Instead, Amazon built a new voice assistant On the founding llmS, develop a way to integrate it with applications to give Llm Alexa the ability to do everything possible to classic Alexa. Banai said this structural change is a long time why it took a long time.
“Take temporarily,” he said. “Alexa” temporarily, put a timing device for … “, to” Alexa, I cook Türkiye “, and asks you Alexa,” Do you want me to put temporarily? “She puts it in time for the size of your plane. But calling this timer is not a trivial task, he says. He said:” The engineering team had to connect the API to LLM and make sure it could do everything without hallucinations. “
This leads me to the biggest question: Will Alexa, which is supported by LLMS, will be safe to use in our smart homes, where it can reach our thermostat, our ovens, our doors locks, and other vital infrastructure in our homes? Banai says he does not have any fear that Alexa Plus will tend in people’s homes. But he said, “There is always a danger. I cannot say that there will be no danger.”
This is why we may not see all these new features at the same time. “You need a level of accuracy in unprecedented smart homes in this industry. We need to lock the door when you ask.” “We have done this for years, so we understand it. How do you manage claims, how to re -train models, and how to make sure of the Alexa models mainly on specific smart home scenarios so that hallucinations do not occur. Take some time. Make sure it is right. No feature is not known unless we know that it will reach 100 percent there.”
Alexa plus pricing and availability
Amazon Alexa Plus costs $ 19.99 a month, and it is included in Prime membership. It will be available through an early arrival program in late March, in the United States only, for customers with Echo Show 8, 10, 15 or 21. Amazon says it will come to another Echo devicesIncluding echo buds and echo frames, and will be compatible with fire TVs and firefighting devices. some The oldest echo devices You will not work with Alexa Plus.
