{"id":46979,"date":"2025-03-06T16:36:32","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T21:36:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=46979"},"modified":"2025-03-06T17:00:48","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T22:00:48","slug":"alexa-plus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/06\/alexa-plus\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexa Plus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ina Fried<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Amazon<\/a> on Wednesday showed off Alexa+, a generative AI version of its digital voice assistant that draws on a variety of models and works with many of the company’s older Echo devices.<\/p>

[…]<\/p>

Alexa+ will be available in late March and cost $19.99 per month on its own — but it’s free for Amazon Prime customers.<\/p>

[…]<\/p>

In demos at a press event in New York, Amazon executives showed Alexa+ doing a variety of tasks, including ordering groceries<\/a>, analyzing documents and making up stories.<\/p>

Alexa+ will also be able to navigate the web on its own to handle some tasks, Amazon said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Via Nick Heer<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

These voice-controlled assistants seem like a natural fit for large language models and, if Amazon’s ad<\/a> is anything to go by, this looks impressive. Something I think about a lot is an accessibility spectrum I first saw from Microsoft<\/a>. I am not someone with a permanent physical disability, for example, but I cook often and do not want to touch my phone. Voice controls are a situational boon.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

M.G. Siegler<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

But after listening to Amazon’s head of devices and services, Panos Panay, on Nilay Patel’s Decoder<\/em> podcast<\/a>, I’m actually even<\/em> more<\/em> skeptical now.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n