Amazon has launched its advanced edition, integrating generative artificial intelligence, “Alexa Plus”, which offers Amazon Echo device users direct and rapid interaction with their smart home devices through voice commands in their everyday language.
Alexa Plus will be able to understand users' voice commands to accomplish quick tasks such as ordering household items from stores or sending invitations to an upcoming event to their friends. It will also learn users' preferences and personal life details to provide a personalized experience that matches their differences and varied tastes.
The new version of Alexa is initially coming to the United States, with a monthly subscription of $20, and free for Amazon Prime subscribers, whose subscription costs $15 per month. Alexa Plus will be available on various Amazon home devices, starting with the Echo Show 8, 10, 15 and 21 models. Additionally, Amazon announced a dedicated site for using Alexa via the web, as well as the launch of new smartphone apps.
The features of “Plus”
The new version integrates the well-known features of Alexa, such as responding to voice commands and requests as soon as the user pronounces the activation word "Alexa". It also offers the ability to take photos and analyze what is captured by the camera lens, as well as process images.
The American company also presented the capabilities of the new generation of its intelligent assistant at a press conference held on Wednesday in California.
The user will be able to count on Alexa Plus as a manager of their smart home devices. With this new version, they will even be able to set up a daily routine adapted to their lifestyle. The new assistant also allows you to create music playlists and access a specific scene in a movie via the Amazon Prime Video service.
At the conference, Banus Banai, head of Amazon's devices and services business, asked Alexa Plus if anyone had taken their dog for a short walk. The personal assistant checked the home camera system, verified that such an action had been taken recently, and immediately provided its answer.
For her part, Mara Seigal, director of the Alexa sector, said that the intelligent voice assistant is able to process and analyze various text documents, whether they are digitally written documents or photos of handwritten documents. This allows the user to ask questions about them and Alexa Plus to provide direct and rapid assistance.
Seigal has also used Alexa Plus to create events and reminders in his calendar app for his kids’ soccer games, using natural voice commands, without requiring any interaction with the screen. This is what makes Alexa Plus an intelligent assistant that can use digital tools and services to accomplish the tasks assigned to it.
New UI
Amazon has made a major design update to the Alexa user interface. It now consists of widgets that appear on the screen of Echo devices, which can be freely manipulated and moved from one screen to another for easier access, in addition to a dedicated interface for controlling home devices.
The move keeps Amazon in step with the ongoing efforts of companies in the smart home market, such as Google, which has rolled out a number of updates that make it easier to control your home from any device with a smart display running Google systems.
Reports indicate that Apple is preparing to unveil an iPad-like device this year that will serve as the primary control platform for Apple HomeKit-compatible smart home devices.
Amazon also attempted to create a visual identity for Alexa, introducing a floating blue strip that appears at the bottom of the screen when activated, accompanied by a set of blue buttons called "Alexicons."
Agent intelligent
The head of Amazon's devices and services sector explained that Alexa Plus works as a digital agent capable of performing tasks on behalf of the user upon request. It is based on an architecture integrating the Amazon Nova model of artificial intelligence, as well as several intelligent models developed by the company Anthropic, in which Amazon has invested nearly $15 billion so far.
Amazon is working with a variety of partners to empower Alexa Plus with a better understanding of the different forms of information a user might need in their daily digital lives, including news organizations such as the Associated Press, Politico, Reuters and The Washington Post.
The arrival of the next generation of Alexa is seen as a major milestone for Amazon in its race to compete in the artificial intelligence market, especially since the company had so far failed to make a significant impact on the market for consumer services and products related to generative artificial intelligence, since the boom that began with the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022.
