Amazon hinted that they’d announce the next iteration of Alexa at today’s Amazon devices event so heavily that I was more surprised by the sun rising this morning than when Panos Panay, who leads Amazon’s Devices & Services division, took the stage and instantly launched into a love song dedicated to Alexa’s last 11 years.
Amid swirling rumors that the newest Alexa would require a paid subscription, something Amazon had never before required for Alexa, Panay left the audience baited on the hook until the very end of the 70-minute presentation to confirm the rumors.
The bad news is that Alexa Plus (the official name for “Alexa 2.0,” as folks had been calling it) will cost $20 per month. Don’t stop reading just yet—it’ll be free for Prime subscribers.
Had there been no free (or heavily discounted) inclusion for Prime users, I’d say Amazon would have had a tough time convincing enough people to pay for Alexa. But with that bullet dodged, let’s dig into the improvements that Alexa Plus brings to the table.
smarter and faster
“The new Alexa knows almost every instrument in your life, your schedule, smart home, devices, and people you’re connected to, and brings them together into what is an incredible symphony,” said Panay early in the presentation.
Before now, Alexa had a goldfish memory. Every prompt you pitched it started anew, as if you hadn’t spoken before. What looks to be a major upgrade is that Alexa will now remember details about you gleaned from your past inquiries.
If you’ve made Alexa aware that you’re a vegetarian, when you ask for pizza recipes Alexa will know enough to not pitch you a pepperoni pie. You won’t need to ask specifically for vegetarian pizza recipes; Alexa will just know. Ostensibly, this will include other dietary restrictions, too, judging from Panay’s comments.
Alexa Plus is more insightful into your emotional state, too, which is borderline creepy. Panay demonstrated to the assembled crowd that the new Alexa can analyze people’s tone to determine their emotional state and then adjust its voice to calm them down.
Have I been frustrated enough to speak sharply to my voice assistants? Yes, often. Do I want them talking me down like a preschool teacher? No, not really. I’ve had a lot of dystopian predictions for the future on my bingo card, but getting condescended to by a disembodied robot wasn’t one of them.
It’s hard to demonstrate over text, so hopefully we’ll have some video in the coming weeks to show off not just the quicker speed with which Alexa responds, but the more human-sounding attitude and tone Amazon has imbued it with.
more features
There was an interesting demonstration whereby Mara Seagal, Director of Product Management—AI Services, asked Alexa about installing solar panels in her home, and Alexa brought up homeowner’s association regulations.
It apparently remembered that Mara lives in a neighborhood governed by an HOA and stored the specifics for future relevant conversations, such as this one.
There’s some obligatory generative AI shoved in, as well, which impressed me less than the more useful features. Giving the example of a child asking Alexa to create an original story just had me wondering about all the ways in which it could go wrong, and seeing the demonstration of asking Alexa to create an original song from prompts didn’t move me.
I’m wondering who, exactly, would prefer this to the billions of human-created songs out there. Although I was into the fact that when linked to a smart TV, Alexa Plus can find a specific scene in a show or movie just by describing the scene.
That’s what I want AI to do, not bore me with AI-generated, bland mush distilled from the human-generated, bland mush already choking the internet.
Can’t wait to try it out? You won’t have to wait for long. Early access opens “next month,” and since we’re on the cusp of flipping over the calendar page, next month will be here very soon. It’ll continue to roll out in waves over the next few months.
We’ll bring more details about what that entails as we receive them. Until then, enjoy your dumb Alexa while it’s still dimly innocent, like the dimwitted but lovable runt of the litter that it’s always been. College-educated Alexa is right around the corner.
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