Source: Caijing News Author: Niu Zhanlin.
①This is Amazon's final attempt to revitalize the Alexa service. Amazon has requested employees to prepare the latest version of Alexa by the end of August; ②Amazon has also encountered some problems in developing AI and other challenges.
According to sources, $Amazon (AMZN.US)$It is planning a major overhaul of its voice assistant Alexa service, which has been losing money for a decade, by incorporating AI chatbots and offering two levels of service that charge $5 to $10 per month.
This will be the first major overhaul of Alexa since its launch in 2014, and the new voice assistant will be called 'Remarkable Alexa'.
Some Amazon employees involved in the project said this is Amazon's last attempt to revitalize the Alexa service. Amazon has requested employees to prepare the latest version of Alexa by the end of August.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is interested in revitalizing Alexa, promising to launch a 'smarter, more capable Alexa' in April, but did not provide more details.
Insiders claim that the company's plans for Alexa, including pricing and release dates, may change or be canceled depending on the project's progress.
According to leaked information earlier this year, Amazon set a deadline of June 30 to release a new version of Alexa and invited 15,000 external customers to help test the product.
An Amazon spokesman said they have integrated generative AI into different components of Alexa and are working hard to achieve mass application, providing more proactive, personalized and reliable services to customers on more than 500 million devices that support Alexa in homes around the world.
Keeping up with competitors in the generative AI field is crucial for Amazon. So far, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI have received more attention in this tech race, with Amazon and Apple lagging behind.
At the end of last year, Amazon announced that it would cut hundreds of jobs in its Alexa voice assistant business unit, citing a change in its business focus that would devote more resources to generative AI.
Some Amazon employees said that revitalizing the Alexa service is a 'desperate attempt.' The service has never made a profit and has been caught off guard in the rise of super-intelligent generative AI in the last 18 months.
Amazon has also encountered some problems in developing AI and other challenges, such as hallucinations (producing false or misleading information) and low morale among department employees.
Amazon executives pointed out that this year is a crucial year for Amazon, and the device department must prove that it can bring meaningful sales to the company.
Editor/Lambor