The shopping giant Amazon adds artificial intelligence to its smart assistant Alexa, which makes the device much more talkative than before. At the moment, Echo users, for example, can test it out with a free trial.
According to Dave Limp, head of devices and services at Amazon, the new model increases the conversational element of the assistant. The new software is said to take into account various factors such as body language, eye contact and gestures. It communicates with APIs to enhance smart home capabilities and give Alexa a more opinionated personality.
“It (the new model) allows you to provide personalized reminders. For example, it can help you with music you’ve played recently or even provide recipe recommendations based on your grocery shopping,” Limp noted.
Additionally, Amazon’s generative AI allows Alexa to adjust its tone and emotion based on context. It can express things like excitement, affirmation, laughter and surprise. Alexa can also take into account your natural pauses and hesitations to enable a more natural conversation.
In addition, you no longer need to say “Alexa” to interact with the virtual assistant. Amazon gives Assistant an optional feature that allows Visual ID signups to start a conversation just by facing the screen.
The update should be released in early 2024.
Source: Android Authority