Amazon is holding an Alexa-centric press event in NYC on Wednesday. Given that the company has not held a major device presser for nearly two years, the last presser was in September 2023 – we look forward to some flashy announcements.
The event will not be live streamed. However, TechCrunch is reported on the ground. The festivities will begin at 10am, with Amazon’s new device and service chief Panos Panay, formerly prime minister of Microsoft Surface Fame chief Panos Panay.
Amazon’s interests are high, and despite selling hundreds of millions of devices, it reportedly lost billions of dollars in its Alexa business. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is said to have pushed the company’s hardware team to find ways to boost profits through monetized subscriptions, fees and other add-on services.
You may hear about one of these subscriptions on Wednesday.
Amazon is planning to introduce a codenamed Alexa experience, designed to make your assistant interact more natural and intuitive, along the CHATGPT line. The expanded Alexa is said to be able to respond to multiple requests with a single command and perform actions autonomously, at a price ranging from $5 to $10 a month.
Amazon teased some of the features in 2023 at its last TentPole device event. The company has committed to using generative AI technology to ensure future Alexa experience is compatible with existing devices and personalize its responses considering the context of the request.
Improved smart home features could also be towed by the new Alexa. Verge reports that multiple companies are working on integration with the new Alexa using developer tools announced by Amazon in 2023. At the time, Amazon said it was working with brands including Irobot and Philips to simplify scene control and enable improvements to Alexa. Understand what users want for their devices.
The big question is whether new, generative AI-injected Alexa can overcome some of the more obvious flaws in the underlying technology. Reports later last year show that at one point the new Alexa struggled with basic commands like turning off the smart light.
Because they tend to get things wrong and hallucinate from time to time, today’s generative AI is usually less reliable than the stiffer systems that make up Alexa’s current technical scaffolding. Many delays in the upgraded Alexa allow Amazon plenty of time to deal with the most likely worst impulses, but there is always an element of unpredictability.
Luckily, the new Alexa is not a required upgrade. The report suggests that Amazon allows you to stick to the “Classic Alexa” experience if the device owner chooses.
As for when they are presented with that choice, it may take a little. The upgraded Alexa launch was delayed earlier this month after an assistant gave incorrect answers to several test questions, according to the Washington Post. Sources told the publication it may not be deployed after the end of March.