Wrong answers: Amazon's AI Alexa has to be postponed again

Amazon's new AI Alexa is probably coming later: According to a report in the Washington Post, Amazon has postponed the internally planned release date at the end of February after the new Alexa answered questions incorrectly in tests. The new Alexa will now be available in the USA on March 31 at the earliest.

According to the Washington Post, however, it is conceivable that Amazon's AI Alexa will be delayed even further. Amazon's new Alexa version was announced a year and a half ago, since when its release has been repeatedly pushed back. What is explosive in the current case is that Amazon has invited international journalists to an Alexa presentation in New York on February 26. This event is still scheduled to take place, reports the Washington Post.

The upcoming premium version of the voice assistant is expected to cost a monthly fee. It will offer a number of additional functions compared to the standard version, which will enable more natural conversations. According to the Washington Post, the new Alexa will be able to take on personalities, remember past conversations or order food.

AI from Anthropic

The AI foundation for this comes from Claude, the AI model from French company Anthropic, among others. Amazon's previous version of Alexa will be offered alongside the new Alexa and will remain free of charge. It is still unclear how much the new Alexa will cost for a monthly subscription. A German launch would only be expected after the US launch – if at all.

There have beenreports of problems with the development of the new Alexa for months. Bloomberg reported last October, for example, that the revised AI Alexa often takes too long to respond. The revised voice assistant is also susceptible to hallucinations typical of AI. Participants in a beta were therefore unimpressed, writes Bloomberg. The smart home integration also caused problems.

(dahe)