Amazon relies on "Claude" for AI Alexa - and probably charges money for it
3/9/2024
Translation: machine translated
Amazon plans to announce new features for its Alexa voice assistant in October. Users will only receive generative AI if they take out a paid plan.
Amazon appears to have decided to rely on an external solution for its Alexa devices in order to upgrade them with generative AI. According to a Reuters report, the chatbot "Claude" will be used in the new AI-powered Alexa planned for October. This is the development of the US start-up Anthropic, founded in 2021 by former employees of OpenAI. Amazon announced an investment of four billion US dollars in Anthropic in September 2023 and later injected billions more. So the two companies already know each other.
Call-enabled for a fee
The new Alexa, known internally as "Remarkable", is designed to allow longer conversations, remember previously asked questions and respond to new questions in context. "Remarkable" will also make it possible to summarise messages, formulate emails or shop for the right clothes for specific holidays.
All this will probably not be free. In the USA, the smarter Alexa will cost between five and ten US dollars a month. The familiar kitchen timer/weather Alexa version, on the other hand, will remain free of charge.
It remains to be seen how much people will be willing to pay. And how large the base of active users actually is. Amazon itself does not disclose any figures, but analysts assume that there are 100 million people who use Alexa regularly. According to estimates, ten per cent of these people could be won over to a plan, which could bring hundreds of millions of US dollars into Amazon's coffers. However, there is a lot of subjunctive in play here. It will depend crucially on whether the "Remarkable" Alexa with upgraded software actually becomes a smart assistant.
Few purchases via voice control
There are millions of Echo devices in households around the world today. It is estimated that Amazon has sold well over 500 million Echo Dots, Echo Shows and Echo Pops since their launch in 2014, often at cost price or below. Alexa, the smart assistant, "lives" in the devices, fed with knowledge from the internet. One day, according to Amazon's plan, people will be able to order everything from the next pack of nappies to washing-up liquid by voice command - from Amazon, of course.
Alexa should not just be a shopping aid, but part of everyday life. It was supposed to switch on the light, start our favourite music on demand and remind us that the orange juice in the smart fridge was running low. That's how it sounded back then.
Ten years later, the disillusionment is great. Very few Alexa devices are likely to control the Internet of Things. Most are probably just good enough to start a timer for the spaghetti or predict the weather for tomorrow. After all, Alexa can also make a few funny Fritz jokes or footballer sayings.
Internal impasse, external solution
But the plans at Amazon were more ambitious. Especially since the emergence of tools with generative artificial intelligence such as Chat GPT, Amazon had to step up its game. Even with apps on my smartphone, I can now have more intelligent conversations than with my outdated Alexa. That's why the voice assistant should be pimped up with AI. However, Amazon has clearly not made any significant progress in its in-house development, as insiders told Reuters. In some cases, it took seven to eight seconds before a prompt was processed and resulted in a response. According to reports, By 2022 alone, Amazon will have incurred losses of around ten billion dollars in the Alexa segment.
Would you take out a plan for a really smart Alexa? Do you have an Alexa in your home? What does it do there? Let me and the Community know in the comments section.
Header image: Martin Jungfer
Martin Jungfer
Head of Content
Martin.Jungfer@digitecgalaxus.chJournalist since 1997. Stopovers in Franconia (or the Franken region), Lake Constance, Obwalden, Nidwalden and Zurich. Father since 2014. Expert in editorial organisation and motivation. Focus on sustainability, home office tools, beautiful things for the home, creative toys and sports equipment.