- Rohit Prasad, Amazon’s AGI team, promised that a major Alexa upgrade is on the horizon.
- He spoke to the FT about issues forcing a delay in publication, mainly in the area of hallucinations.
- When the new Alexa arrives, the hope is that it will be used for more than just basic tasks.
Amazon has spent years touting Alexa’s capabilities as a voice assistant, though it seems most people use it primarily to set timers and check the weather.
Still, that hasn’t stopped Amazon from planning a much bigger place for Alexa in your life. Amazon wants Alexa to upgrade from its relatively simple life of timers and trivia to the big AI leagues as a true personal concierge by leveraging the latest AI models, as Amazon’s head of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) Rohit Prasad explained to FT.
Prasad and Amazon want to fully transform Alexa’s brain through a kind of ‘transplant’ to replace the old question-answer engine with generative AI models. If all goes according to Amazon’s ambitious plan, Alexa 2.0 will be the digital butler that is constantly promised, rather than an audio stopwatch and remote control. Prasad admitted it won’t be easy, although he is confident Amazon can overcome the obstacles on the way.
If he’s not hallucinating, Alexa has to remove any hallucinations created by the AI. An assistant that produces answers that sound plausible but are completely wrong won’t be of much use. When you ask about the best route to the airport, “plausible but wrong” won’t cut it. Also, Alexa needs to be reliable if people ask it to do more than just play their favorite music. The wrong song isn’t a problem, but if you’re requesting dinner reservations, adjusting your lights, and double-checking your babysitter’s arrival time, make sure it’s not getting anything wrong.
At the same time, caution with mirages cannot slow down the reactions. According to Prasad, while Alexa responds quite quickly now, the new AI brain is a bit slower, sometimes taking up to ten seconds to answer a query. The company will need to bring the new Alexa up to speed to make it attractive to users.
Ambitious Alexa AI
One thing Amazon is particularly keen on is keeping Alexa’s personality intact. Prasad said Amazon is hiring experts to fine-tune her voice, diction and overall personality to make the transition to a more conversational AI. That said, generative AI is probabilistic, meaning it predicts answers based on patterns rather than absolute truths. That makes it great for casual conversations, but a bit difficult for high-stakes tasks like managing smart homes or relaying emergency alerts. The stakes are high, and any misstep could damage Alexa’s reputation.
As good as the new Alexa is at helping users, there’s a very glaring problem facing Amazon’s plans to make Alexa the ultimate digital concierge. Microsoft, OpenAI, Google, Meta and others are working towards many of the same goals. Google in particular has almost overwritten Google Assistant with Gemini across the board. Amazon had a big lead over its rivals in terms of smart speakers and smart displays. That might not matter, though, if no one thinks to use Alexa when they can turn to Gemini, ChatGPT, or other assistants with similar capabilities.
Still, Amazon has some assets that can make up for any existing gap. The company recently debuted the Nova AI models, which were built in-house and designed specifically for Alexa. Amazon has also deepened its partnership with Claude AI developer Anthropic, bolstered by $8 billion in investment funds.
Whether this is enough to leapfrog the competition remains to be seen, but time will surely tell.
