Amazon’s Alexa smart assistant seems to be everywhere. Since it was first announced in 2014 with the original Amazon Echo speaker, the voice assistant has gained thousands of new “skills” and comes in a variety of form factors – from miniature speakers to ones with a video camera and a touchscreen. Alexa has been integrated into a wide range of devices including cars, fridges, smartwatches, lights, and security cameras.
The custom Alexa voice assistant for BMW vehicles was initially announced in 2022, but progress has been slow in an attempt to build it around Amazon’s more capable LLM-powered Alexa.
Amazon says its “LLM-powered capabilities” will start rolling out to select BMW models this year that allow users to “plan trips and navigate more conversationally.”
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All the Matter-compatible devices you can buy, plus the latest on the smart home standard backed by Apple, Amazon, Google, and Samsung.
Jassy, from today’s Q3 2024 earnings call:
We continue to re-architect the brain of Alexa with a new set of foundation models that we’ll share with customers in the near future.
The supercharged Alexa was first announced in September 2023.
Ten years ago, Amazon imagined a future beyond apps — and it had the idea basically right. But the perfect ambient computer remains frustratingly far away.
The Echo ecosystem has seen its fair share of failures while trying to popularize Amazon’s Alexa smart assistant.
When dealing with an aging parent, Alexa was a great help — in both practical and emotionally important ways.
When Amazon launched its Alexa voice assistant, it envisioned a computer platform that could do anything for you. A decade later, the company is still trying to build it.
In another WSJ report about Amazon’s struggles to reinvent Alexa with AI, the newspaper says it’s now going backward:
In some tests, for example, it lost the ability to turn on the lights with 90%-plus reliability.
Merging the new with the old was always going to be a challenge. Amazon has now charged one of Alexa’s creators, Rohit Prasad, with solving this mess.
Basically, it’s just a better smart home device than the company’s Echo Show smart display, but there’s more to it. The Verge’s Jen Tuohy gives you the rundown. Be sure to check out her full review for more detail.
8
Verge Score
Amazon’s new control panel makes using an Alexa-powered smart home as easy as flipping a light switch (only better, trust me).
An all-in-one security camera with motion-activated light and continuous power, an outdoor floodlight camera is a simple way to add safety and security to your home’s perimeter.
