Yes, the new, “remarkable,” and for-pay version of Alexa is apparently still coming, but when it finally does arrive, much of its generative-AI tech may wind up coming from somewhere other than Amazon.
According to Reuters, the new and far more conversational Alexa is poised to arrive in October, a little over a year after the “remarkable” version of Amazon’s voice assistant was first unveiled.
And as has been previously reported, the revamped Alexa will likely cost extra: think anywhere from $5 to $10 a month, while the “classic” Alexa will remain free.
But when the new Alexa does finally go public, it will do so without an in-house Amazon LLM doing the heavy AI lifting, Reuters reports.
Instead, the “remarkable” Alexa will be powered “primarily” by Claude, a generative AI model from Anthropic, according to the Reuters story.
If true, the decision to switch to Claude for the new Alexa’s AI smarts would be a major about-face for Amazon, which had gone to great pains during its Alexa demo last year to detail the capabilities of its home-grown LLM.
Reached by TechHive, an Amazon rep said the company uses “many different technologies” to power Alexa.
“When it comes to machine learning models, we start with those built by Amazon, but we have used, and will continue to use, a variety of different models—including Titan and future Amazon models, as well as those from partners—to build the best experience for customers,” the Amazon spokesperson said.
The “Remarkable Alexa” (which was, at least at one point, the proposed branding for the revamped voice assistant) has been beset with bad buzz from almost the moment it was first unveiled, starting with the revelation that Amazon was considering charging extra for it.
By early 2024, word leaked that doubts about the new Alexa were brewing within Amazon, with the gen AI-powered assistant said to be “deflecting answers” and “often giving unneccessarily long or inaccurate responses.”
In its latest report, Reuters said that the new Alexa running on Amazon’s AI tech had “simply struggled for words, sometimes taking six or seven seconds to acknowledge a prompt and reply.”
Ultimately, Amazon “turned to Claude,” the Reuters story says.
Of course, the origin of the new Alexa’s AI smarts won’t matter to Alexa users if the final product is a good one.
But “good enough” is different from “good enough to pay for,” and some of the AI-powered features that have been floated—such as “AI-generated summaries of news articles,” recipe-finding functionality, and an AI chatbot for kids—sound somewhat shy of remarkable.
We’re expecting to get a closer look at the new Alexa soon–potentially next month, when Amazon is expected to hold this year’s edition of its annual hardware event.
Meanwhile, Amazon is facing generative AI threats from all sides, with Google taking a decidedly more measured approach in blending Gemini with Google Home, while Apple is about to debut Apple Intelligence in its latest iPhones, iPads, and Macs.
Updated shortly after publication to add a comment from Amazon.
Author: Ben Patterson, Senior Writer, TechHive
Ben has been writing about technology and consumer electronics for more than 20 years. A PCWorld contributor since 2014, Ben joined TechHive in 2019, where he has covered everything from smart speakers and soundbars to smart lights and security cameras. Ben's articles have also appeared in PC Magazine, TIME, Wired, CNET, Men's Fitness, Mobile Magazine, and more. Ben holds a master's degree in English literature.