Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Amazon is set to launch an upgraded version of Alexa, which will include new features like Smart Briefing for personalized AI news summaries and a kid-friendly chatbot, in October 2024.
- Unlike the current free version, the new Alexa may cost up to $10 per month. The existing “classic Alexa” will continue to be free.
- It appears that Amazon might also introduce “Project Metis,” a chatbot similar to ChatGPT, in the near future.
We first heard of Amazon’s Alexa overhaul in September 2023, at a time when OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard (which has now been replaced by Gemini) were leading the way in terms of conversational AI. Now, nearly a year later, we finally have a timeline for when this new Alexa will be rolled out. According to certain documents obtained by The Washington Post, the retailer will launch the upgraded Alexa in October of this year.
Unlike the current version of Alexa, Amazon’s upgraded voice assistant is expected to cost as much as $10 per month. The price may be justified, though, since the new Alexa is designed to offer a far more personalized experience. Case in point, the upgraded Alexa will allegedly include a Smart Briefing feature that will provide AI news summaries of topics that interest the user.
The voice assistant might also include new conversational shopping tools, which could help boost Amazon’s growth and enhance everyday tasks for users. Additionally, the update will introduce a new experience called Explore with Alexa 2.0, which will allow children to have fun conversations with the voice assistant in a safe and moderated environment. For adults, the upcoming Alexa might include a recipe-finder tool that could help curate recipes based on one’s dietary restrictions.
For now, it appears that Amazon does not plan to do away with “classic Alexa,” which will remain free for users. However, the management is expected to decide on the subscription structure, final cost, and the name of the upgraded voice assistant shortly, according to the documents obtained by the reporting outlet. All in all, if the launch happens in October, Amazon would have taken over a year to roll out this version of Alexa, which is a relatively long development period in these times when tech companies seem to be launching AI-powered tools at a rapid pace.
Amazon has also yet to launch an AI chatbot similar to ChatGPT, Gemini, or Copilot so far, but that might also be set to change. The documents revealed that Amazon might launch “Project Metis,” which works similarly to ChatGPT-style chatbots, in the near future.
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