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Amazon changed the virtual assistant game when it launched Alexa in 2014 — but since then, it seems to have fallen behind in the race.
Fortune, citing unnamed former employees, reports that the company’s new AI-powered Alexa, which it demoed in September and said would be available for a free preview on its Alexa-fitted devices in the U.S., is not even close to being ready. Amazon reportedly doesn’t have enough data nor access to the chips needed to run the large language model (LLM) powering the new version of its virtual assistant. The company has also deprioritized the AI-powered Alexa to focus on building generative AI for its cloud computing unit, AWS, Fortune reports.
In March, Amazon completed its $4 billion investment in AI startup Anthropic — it’s largest investment in an outside company ever. But even with access to the startup’s Claude AI models, which Anthropic says are on par with OpenAI’s models, former employees said privacy concerns and “ego-driven internal politics” have prevented Amazon from using Claude, Fortune reports.
Amazon says its former employees are incorrect and uninformed on its current Alexa AI efforts, and that the Amazon Artificial General Intelligence team has access to both in-house Trainium chips and Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs).
An Amazon spokesperson said in a statement that the company’s plan for Alexa “remains the same — to build the world’s best personal assistant.”
“We have already integrated generative AI into different components of Alexa, and are working hard on implementation at scale—in the over half a billion ambient, Alexa-enabled devices already in homes around the world—to enable even more proactive, personal, and trusted assistance for our customers,” the spokesperson said. “We are excited about what we’re building and look forward to delivering it for our customers.”
Meanwhile, Apple’s virtual assistant Siri is getting an AI-powered update as part of the company’s larger plans for AI, dubbed Apple Intelligence. Apple also announced a partnership with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into the latest iPhone, iPad, and Mac operating systems.