Amazon launched Alexa Podcasts on Monday, a new feature that allows Alexa+ users to create AI-generated podcasts on virtually any topic within minutes.
Amazon reports that its AI podcasts pull from over 200 news publications and a wide range of sources in order to make sure that the content generated is accurate and up-to-date. According to the company, it has partnered with the Associated Press, Reuters, the Washington Post, Time, Forbes, Business Insider, Politico, USA Today and a number of other Condé Nast, Hearst and Vox outlets, as well as over 200 local newspapers across the United States, to create the knowledge base that Alexa+ now uses to create its AI podcast episodes.
Apparently, the podcast generator requires no extensive prompts, pre-existing knowledge or supporting documents from its users. All listeners have to do to generate their episodes is tell Alexa what topic they want to learn more about. The generator will then provide users with an overview of the generated episode before it is created, allowing listeners to adjust the length and direction of the episode ahead of time. Once the user provides approval of the plan, a podcast episode featuring AI-generated host voices is created within minutes.
Users can subsequently listen to the episodes on their Echo Show devices, the Alexa App and Amazon’s Music and More section. Amazon also boasts that topics can range from the trending news of the day to breakdowns of a recent sporting event, rundowns of the latest top music releases, deep dives into historical events, practical tutorials and complex scientific lessons.
Alexa Podcasts is available to Alexa+ customers in the U.S. now. On Monday, Amazon teased that the new Alexa feature is just the next step in its ongoing venture into AI-generated audio, hinting that users may be able to generate personalized news briefings in the future as well.
The move notably comes the same week Spotify began rolling out its new “Verified” podcast badges, which are intended to inform users of when a podcast comes from an authentic creator, publisher or brand and does not have fraudulent or bot-driven listenership. In April, the music streamer started rolling out the same “Verified” badges for musical artists with the same purpose in mind — namely, to inform listeners of when they’re listening to music that has been created by fraudulent sources or AI.
On Tuesday, Spotify also announced it would be removing from this point on any podcasts that impersonate another creator or host’s likeness without their permission, regardless of whether said impersonation is created through AI generation or another method.
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