Sep 20, 2023 - Technology

Amazon enters consumer AI race with new devices, updated Alexa

man standing in front of a screen with an image collage of Amazon devices — Dave Limp, senior vice president of devices and services at Amazon.com Inc., speaks during the Amazon Devices and Services event at the HQ2 campus in Arlington, Virginia, US, on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. Photo: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Amazon held its annual fall event to show off the company's latest smart speakers, displays and tablets. But the company's plans to bolster its voice assistant Alexa using generative AI was arguably the biggest news of the day.

Why it matters: The popularity of Alexa helps boost the company’s hardware strategy and e-commerce business. The Alexa changes will also help demonstrate just how well — or not — Amazon’s generative AI capabilities are keeping pace with Google and other rivals.

Driving the news: Alexa will soon be able to understand body language, including gestures and eye contact through devices such as the recently launched Fire Max 11 tablets.

The platform will also soon be able to understand and express more human conversational norms, including the use of phrases such as "uh huh."
Alexa will also be able to respond to prompts for tasks like providing ideas for a date night or writing a poem.

What they're saying: "For many years now, we've been steadfast in our vision about ambient intelligence ... how customers interact with technology around them," Amazon's head of devices Dave Limp, who will step down later this year, said on stage.

The company saw a need for a "superhuman assistant who is there when you need it, and disappears when you don't, and is always working on your behalf in the background. ... With generative AI [a superhuman assistant] is now within reach."

Ina's thought bubble: The key is whether Amazon can deliver on the promise to use AI to make Alexa more modern, relevant and useful.

The big picture: Amazon is already building its own custom chips for AI and training its own models as it looks to expand its already massive cloud computing business, Amazon Web Services.

CEO Andy Jassy has also taken care to note this year that "every single one" of Amazon's businesses has "multiple generative AI initiatives" to help the company become "more cost effective and streamlined."

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Amazon enters consumer AI race with new devices, updated Alexa

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