- Amazon is working to get Alexa to ChatGPT ranges
- The launch was initially deliberate for early 2024
- Bugs, hallucinations, and easy duties are nonetheless points
Amazon Alexa was initially launched alongside the very first Amazon Echo speaker again on November 6, 2014 – however because the voice assistant approaches its tenth birthday, it is struggling to maintain up with next-gen AI bots like ChatGPT and Gemini.
Based on a brand new report from Bloomberg, “technical challenges” imply that Alexa’s upcoming improve has now been pushed again to 2025. Initially, a beta model of the up to date bot was deliberate to reach earlier this yr, Bloomberg says.
There was additionally apparently a plan to unveil Alexa 2.0 alongside the new Kindles that appeared final month, however once more the launch obtained pushed again. Now, some unspecified level in 2025 is the goal deadline.
With the likes of Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, ChatGPT, and lots of different bots pushing their means into each facet of digital life, Amazon is aware of that it is lagging behind – Alexa has successfully been overtaken by its rivals.
Bugs and hallucinations
There isn’t any doubt {that a} generative AI improve for Alexa is a problem. The assistant is at the moment accessible on round half a billion gadgets, and rolling out an replace for all of them is not an easy activity.
Bloomberg’s report says the souped up model of Alexa in testing nonetheless tends to “drone on with irrelevant or superfluous info”, whereas additionally combating fundamental duties, comparable to switching on good lights.
Whereas there was some progress in direction of a ChatGPT-style Alexa, the sources chatting with Bloomberg say there is a lengthy strategy to go, with bugs and hallucinations inflicting issues. There was speak that Amazon might get assist from one other AI mannequin, in the identical means that Apple has supercharged Siri with ChatGPT.
There’s additionally a scarcity of a “compelling imaginative and prescient” in keeping with insiders, with “administration bloat” round Alexa one other challenge. So, even for those who’ve obtained one of many greatest Alexa audio system, it seems like it’ll be some time earlier than you get among the finest AI bots constructed into it.