Amazon announces new Alexa that will take your smart home to the next level
Back in 2023 Amazon announced that its smart home assistant Alexa would be receiving a massive upgrade using AI. After a few delays and reports of the company struggling with the update, the new Alexa is now finally here.
Powered with an unspecified AI model (as of yet), Alexa — or Alexa+ as Amazon is calling it — is now able to understand natural conversations and context much easier. You can now also chain multiple commands at once and Alexa will be able to keep up and execute the requested actions.
These changes are something that other companies have been testing for their own smart home assistants as well. Alexa — already a hugely popular assistant — is now better than ever and will give its rivals an even greater run for their money.
Powered with an unspecified AI model (as of yet), Alexa — or Alexa+ as Amazon is calling it — is now able to understand natural conversations and context much easier. You can now also chain multiple commands at once and Alexa will be able to keep up and execute the requested actions.
Panos Panay of Amazon — who leads the devices and services business — was very confident about the new assistant. After announcing Alexa+ Panay went on to conduct a live demo with it. Panay showed off how much more natural it is now to talk with the assistant as he asked for pizza recommendations around New York.
The Echo line of products from Amazon is perfect for using Alexa. | Video credit — Amazon
Panay also claimed that the new Alexa is a much more helpful assistant, saying that Amazon had to use more than just a simple AI chatbot to realize its vision for it. Alexa+ can now remember conversations and make suggestions accordingly while also carrying out actions with less probability of messing up.
The most impressive bit of the live demo was when Panay asked Alexa to play a song but didn't give the assistant the name. He instead described it and Alexa was able to accurately identify the song immediately.
After that Panay told Alexa to move the music to the right side of the room. Alexa responded — correctly again — by simply shutting off the speakers on the left of the room. Alexa can even integrate with your Ring camera and you can ask questions like whether any packages have arrived or if someone's walked the dog.
All in all I think Alexa+ is definitely a massive and much needed improvement over Alexa. It's what Apple has been trying to do with Siri but having trouble doing so. Amazon will announce new features soon and we can talk in detail about everything new coming with Alexa+.
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