Amazon Plans to Revamp Alexa with ChatGPT
Amazon CEO, Andy Jassy, is planning to revamp the voice assistant Alexa with ChatGPT-like features. This leaked information comes after the layoffs of just under 2,000 employees across Alexa and the devices unit late last year.
The company is aiming to make Alexa even smarter, with the goal of having users feel like "Alexa is thinking vs fetching from a database". One area of focus in this revamp is entertainment features, such as more conversational video search, personal recommendations, storytelling and news reading capabilities.
The company's underlying artificial-intelligence technology, Alexa Teacher Model, is set to power Alexa. The technology is the company's own homegrown large language model and generative-AI technology, which will make Alexa more proactive and conversational.
Amazon is using LLMs (the type of generative-AI tech that powers OpenAI's ChatGPT) to help Alexa understand complex entertainment requests, context on content, and offer more accurate, personalized search results across video and audio.
Amazon envisions more robust search results for users who ask Alexa for a show similar to Netflix's "Emily in Paris" but less focused on fashion. The revamped Alexa would suggest Prime Video's "Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" as an alternative. Echo models with screens could provide users with a visual map of what makes the show a good recommendation.
One of the features listed in the document is semantic search and personal recommendations. Users can ask Alexa to find an HBO or Netflix show where rich people go on vacation to Sicily or Hawaii. Alexa will respond with suggestions such as "The White Lotus," an HBO series that takes place at a luxury resort in Hawaii and follows the vacation experiences of wealthy, privileged guests.
The revamped Alexa will also provide better news-summary and Q&A content. Alexa could "present a summary of personalized news highlights for customers and can help customers dig deeper into each story by retrieving related news and information".
Amazon plans to go after the family audience with a new storytelling feature as well. The company is working on an Alexa feature that tells bedtime stories, such as a story about "Mittens, the first cat to ever go to the moon". Alexa can recognize toys like an Olaf toy and incorporate Disney characters into the story.
All these changes are part of a broader effort to boost the revenue opportunities from Alexa's enormous installed base. Amazon had sold over 100 million Alexa-powered devices around the world, according to Jassy during last week's earnings call.
