Alexa+ reaches 100,000 users but misses key features
Amazon’s Alexa+, a digital assistant powered by generative AI, has been rolled out to over 100,000 users, CEO Andy Jassy revealed during the company’s earnings call on Thursday. This upgrade aims to enable users to interact with Alexa in a more natural style and potentially allow it to use third-party apps on their behalf.
The rollout, which began in February, is part of Amazon’s effort to enhance Alexa’s capabilities beyond its current predetermined responses. Alexa+ is designed to generate original responses, similar to those found in OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. However, the current version lacks some features initially demoed, such as integrating with third-party apps like GrubHub, creating bedtime stories, or suggesting gift ideas.
Jassy acknowledged that the technology is still “primitive” and “inaccurate,” with most multi-step AI agents having an accuracy rate between 30% and 60%. He set a goal for Nova Act, the web-browsing agent powering Alexa+, to achieve 90% accuracy. “We have a lot more functionality that we plan to add in coming months,” Jassy said, indicating ongoing development.
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The challenges faced by Amazon are not unique; Apple is also experiencing delays with its LLM-powered Siri. During Apple’s earnings call, which occurred simultaneously with Amazon’s, CEO Tim Cook attributed the delay to the need for “more time to complete the work.” Both companies are reportedly struggling with integrating large language models (LLMs) with other systems to enable practical tasks.
Amazon’s progress with Alexa+ is notable, especially when compared to Apple’s rollout of its new Siri features. While the number of Alexa+ users is significantly lower than the 600 million Alexa devices in use, the company is making headway in its deployment.