Alexa went straight from being a somewhat common if trusted digital assistant to a powerful walking. Alexa+ replaces the ploding of the original with conversation intelligence, proactivity and genuine AI. It is a lot to go in and raise many questions. I managed to get some answers from Daniel Rausch, Amazon’s VP for Alexa and Echo and of the people who helped build Alexa Plus to get some answers.
Although I caught Rausch at the end of a long day, he seemed energetic and clearly quite proud of Amazon’s creation.
I started by asking him something that was blowing me since the launch: How much of Alexa+ is Claude? Anthropic, Claude’s Developer, was touted as a partner in the development of Alexa Plus and listed during the presentation with Amazon Nova, Amazon’s own large language model.
However, Rausch quickly separated me for that view.
“You saw Amazon Nova models up there, and they are definitely where we start at Amazon,” Rausch started, “We always start with our own technology.”
Raushhe explained that there is “incredible price performance in these models, incredible latency, incredible accuracy.”
Bottom basic principles
However, it goes further than that. Rausch explained that Amazon’s bedrock is a kind of cloud-based foundation for all its generative AI work. Anthropic is a “really important partner,” Rausch said, but the system Amazon built is “Model Agnostic.”
“Bedreven’s goal is to serve very skilled, advanced models,” he said. This means that the system chooses and chooses the best models for the job.
It makes sense that this may also have been Rausch’s way of not identifying which models, including claude, are used when. “With Alexa,” he added, “We have access to the full suite.”
However, it goes further than that. Large language models are not the end or destination. Rausch told me that Alexa+ experience extends and builds on them. He discussed the idea of ”information experts” that was introduced during the launch event. The models use these experts to collect relevant and factual information. Rausch used the example of his constant inquiries about baseball, specifically Yankees, but added that the system is smart enough to know that in his house he only likes to talk endlessly about baseball while his daughter has no interest.
“I would say that the models help orchestrate the overall experience and are the foundation and help us build the rest,” Rausch told me.
The art
During the children’s section of the reveal or the part that described the new “Exploration and Stories with Alexa,” I noticed what looked like generative AI art.
Rausch confirmed that Alexa+ generates this art on the go based on children’s ideas. During the development, Rausch put the tools in front of some relatives to measure their reactions: “It’s super fun. A child describes the story, Alexa helps them explore, ‘Hello, what do you want to write a story about?'” For example, the child describes a bearded dragon playing a saxophone. “Alexa is drawing some creative works of art and asking about the path of history, ‘Where does the bearded dragon live?’ or ‘What city does the bearded dragon visit?’ Of course, children are unlimited in their imagination.
Sounds like fun. I noticed that the pictures I saw looked like generative AI, and Rausch told me that was exactly what they were. However, he would not reveal which generative image model Alexa+ is using. All Rausch would only say that “it’s from the models at Grundfjeld.”
Security
As with any generative AI, the key to Alexa +’s tool is data or rather your data. Generative tasks will be handled in the cloud, but Raush told me it will all be encrypted “during transit.”
“It’s incredibly safe and meets our standard practice in general, which includes deep security and privacy,” he added.
“We always start with our own technology.”
Daniel Rausch, Amazon VP Alexa & Echo
Of course, this made me ask about children’s technology and what protects Amazon has built up around the creation of generative image.
Rausch described it as “incredibly safe” and said there are many protective measures to ensure that “children are always kept in safety.”
I know many companies say their generative image platforms are safe, but Amazon has a track record in developing child -friendly platforms and systems. “Explore and stores with Alexa” is an extension of all that work.
Not always a screen
It was hard to ignore the thorough use of Echo Show 21 Smart Display throughout the Alexa+ demo. Of course, I’ve been wondering about all Echo Smart speakers out there, at least those new enough to support Alexa Plus. How will the experience be with them?
Under the demos, Amazon actually turned up the length of the answers for Echo 21 screens to show what Alexa knows. But no one will stand around staring at a speaker and waiting for these answers. Rausch told me that they designed Alexa Plus to deliver more concise answers to the speakers. All this can be customized.
“The idea is that we chose the right kind of answers and the right interactions for the device and the modality you are in,” he added.
Is Amazon ready
When Amazon delivers Alexa+ in March, it could mean that millions of echo owners suddenly have generative AI conversations with the latest chatbot on the block. It is potentially a big calculation lift. Is Amazon ready?
“Yes,” Rausch smiled, “It’s very nice to have AWS at Amazon.”
Amazon’s massive cloud computing platform supports countless sites and services and now delivers the bandwidth to Alexa+. Still, it won’t be everything everywhere, all at once. Amazon plans to roll out Alexa+ into waves.
And now I feel that I will understand Alexa+ a little better when these waves first hit the digital coast.
