Alexa is now much smarter thanks to LLM

Emre Çitak
Sep 21, 2023
Amazon
|
4

Amazon announced a new generative Alexa AI, an AI-powered version of its popular voice assistant. This new version of Alexa is powered by a custom-built large language model (LLM) that has been optimized for voice interactions.

This means that Alexa AI will be able to converse more naturally with users, and it will be able to understand and respond to more complex requests.

See the full Amazon hardware launch event in the YouTube video by amazon YouTube channel below.

Alexa AI is as personal as it gets

A new large language model (LLM) for its voice assistant Alexa was introduced by Amazon, which it claims is more conversational, has less latency, and offers real-time information than ChatGPT. Amazon also says that its LLM is more personalized and can perform tasks in the real world, such as reminding users of their favorite team's football game.

To illustrate this, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy performed a live demo where he asked Alexa about his favorite football team, Vanderbilt University. Alexa correctly remembered that Vanderbilt was Jassy's favorite team, and it also responded in a joyful voice when Jassy asked if his team had won.

Jassy also asked Alexa to write a message to his friends to remind them to watch the upcoming Vanderbilt football game and send it to his phone. Alexa performed the task within a few seconds.

Amazon also showed a promotional video where it suggested that the new Alexa LLM was "part of the family" for users.

Amazon AI
Amazon AI was able to give personalized answers to Andy Jessy's questions

What can Alexa AI offer?

The new generative AI version of Alexa is still under development, but Amazon has already announced a number of new capabilities that it will have.

For example, Alexa AI will be able to:

  • Have more natural and engaging conversations with users
  • Follow instructions and complete requests more thoughtfully
  • Answer questions in a comprehensive and informative way, even if they are open-ended, challenging, or strange
  • Generate different creative text formats of text content, like poems, code, scripts, musical pieces, emails, letters, etc.

Of course, not the whole event was dedicated to Alexa AI. Amazon also unveiled the new Amazon Echo Show 8 3rd gen and Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K at the hardware launch event.

Advertisement

Previous Post: «
Next Post: «

Comments

  1. Die Fantastischen said on September 23, 2023 at 9:08 pm
    Reply

    My last comment (22 September 2023), most likely accidentally ‘got eaten’ during “The Cleansing” period from the Ghacks breach as per […2023/09/22/notification-of-security-issue/].

    Basically I said; something on the lines of: the audience looked miserable and unresponsive, which could be related to them suffering repeated harmful overexposure of AI, etc.

    I hadn’t heard of the term “e-girl” before, bruh. Therefore, I nearly assumed it was possibly referring to Chatbots masquerading as women rather than a youth subculture. I had seen the subculture on TV prior, I just didn’t know that was the slang internet label. And that in some cases; an e-girl, is a real girl selling favours and, more…

  2. anannya said on September 21, 2023 at 9:30 pm
    Reply

    Alexa AI have bright careers :)

  3. bruh said on September 21, 2023 at 6:19 pm
    Reply

    Sad – talking to a language model, this is to me, almost such a strange, repulsive concept. It evokes the same feelings as when you see guys online throwing all their money and time on “e-girls”.

    You are spending your time (however small an amount of time it is) on something that is ultimately completely fruitless and automated. The “thing” you are speaking to is putting in 0.0000001% of the effort into the conversation, that you are putting into it.

    We have learned long ago that the language models literally do not know what they are saying, until that core principle changes, I will consider anyone that spends a decent amount of time conversing with them to be a “sucker”.

    In the digital age it is so easy to find real, human people to interact with – the amazon alexa never needed more brainpower than to be able to fulfill requests such as “add x to my shopping cart”, “remind me of y at z time”, or “play x playlist from y app”.

    Big companies have found this “shiny” new toy and they’re cramming it into every possible scenario. People are so easily swayed, like sheep almost, so you can’t blame companies for doing this, it clearly works very, very well.

    In my mind: if you spend any of your free time talking to language models for fun or engagement, you’re a weirdo, there’s probably something wrong with you. (Using it as a lazy learning or googling tool is of course a different story.)

  4. Die Fantastichen said on September 21, 2023 at 4:27 pm
    Reply

    Alexa, can you fix the gHacks comments system.

    AI has zero intellect; it sounded more like it was creating a profile to stalk Jassy [at around 16:00 minutes]. It strictly had no personality either. Major failure.

Leave a Reply

Check the box to consent to your data being stored in line with the guidelines set out in our privacy policy

We love comments and welcome thoughtful and civilized discussion. Rudeness and personal attacks will not be tolerated. Please stay on-topic.
Please note that your comment may not appear immediately after you post it.