If you’re wondering what happened to the new and improved version of Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant, you’re not alone. reports that the new Alexa is still in development, and Amazon has cut access to the beta phase, including the new “Let’s Talk” phase. As a result, the planned release at the end of 2024 was pushed back to next year.
The problem seems to be in its large language models (LLM). Designed for the new Alexa users, but are more likely to miss some of the most basic things that the older version could easily do, like creating a timer or controlling smart lights. .
Amazon originally planned to introduce the new version of Alexa AI in October, but now the timeline has been extended to next year. (As you can see, October has come and gone.) The original timeline had the next evolutionary step in Alexa’s progress scheduled to premiere on October 17, but Amazon decided to pivot and use that date to show off its new Kindle readers. Then in August, reports surfaced that the new Alexa would be powered up and come with a monthly subscription fee.
As ChatGPT began to gain popularity in the summer of 2023, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wanted to see if Alexa could compete if it was enhanced with artificial intelligence. Jassy reportedly began peppering Alexa with sports questions “like an ESPN reporter at a playoff press conference” and her answers were “less than perfect.” He even arranged the final game score for Jassy.
Even so, Alexa has fared well enough that Jassy and his executives feel their engineers will be able to build a beta version by early 2024. Unfortunately, Amazon failed to meet its deadline.
Even with the new deadline, the new Alexa still has a long way to go to solve its problems. Some workers said Bloomberg Outside of Alexa’s inner workings, the problem is Amazon’s overcontrol and lack of a “compelling vision for AI-powered Alexa.” .
