Amazon: Improved Alexa not making progress according to report
The development of a new Alexa AI is stalling, reports Fortune. The voice assistant could become a "digital relic".
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Is Alexa becoming a "digital relic"? A report by Fortune casts a poor light on the development of Amazon's revamped voice assistant. According to the report, progress is slow and promised features are still a long way off.
Amazon presented its revised Alexa AI for the first time last September. A new AI model should finally allow Amazon's voice assistant to have more natural conversations with users. During a demo, Amazon showed that Alexa no longer needs to be addressed as "Alexa" to engage in a conversation. The voice assistant is also set to develop a stronger personality. During the live demonstration, for example, she explained that she is a fan of the Seattle football team. Finally, the naturalness of the voice output should also be increased.
Amazon falls behind the competition
However, the development of the features stalled, reports Fortune, after discussions with over a dozen former Alexa developers. Amazon has not managed to keep up with the AI progress of Meta, Microsoft and Google. Instead, the company, which was once a pioneer in voice assistants with Alexa, now has to catch up.
One of the obstacles to the development of the new functions is the existing Alexa system: Because the voice assistant should also retain its old features, developers still have to work with the old technology stack. In addition, the various development departments are too isolated from one another, meaning that the LLM team behind the AI model has sometimes received counterproductive ideas and suggestions.
Amazon already cut jobs last year to focus more on the development of the new Alexa AI.
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