Amazon has announced Alexa+, a new, premium version of their widely beloved Alexa assistant. Chief among its intentions with this latest release is to provide a more humanlike conversational experience. Alexa+ is poised to make its public debut this Monday. This latest update to Amazon’s ChatGPT competitor comes with a host of impressive features, all aimed at enhancing the way users interact.
Subscription Models and Early Access Phase
The new and improved assistant will ship as part of Amazon Prime memberships or can be purchased separately for $19.99 per month. As part of its rollout, the Early Access phase for Alexa+ will be ending, moving users to one or the other subscription model.
Alexa also features generative AI capabilities powered by Amazon’s safe and secure cloud infrastructure. This new improvement allows the assistant to keep information permanently on Amazon’s servers. That way, it can improve overall and become more tuned to individual user preferences. Perhaps the most exciting addition to the feature set is the ability to upload documents for summarization, greatly increasing the assistant’s usefulness to users.
Alexa+ will be compatible with all new Echo devices. All of these devices including the Echo Show 15 and Echo Show 21, including the Echo Show 8 and 10. That said, it won’t work with first-gen devices or the second gen Echo Show.
New Features and Integrations
With its new mobile app experience, Alexa+ hopes to make it easy for people to jump right in. Alexa will soon let you order takeout thanks to a new integration with Grubhub. You will be able to recognize family members with the device’s camera, greatly enriching your experience with smart home technologies.
Despite its advancements, Alexa+ has limitations. Perhaps most surprisingly, users are currently unable to delete the data they enter into the service. This limitation has opened up lots of questions about privacy and data control from interested users.
Amazon cautions that all features will be released on a rolling basis. This build-measure-learn repeat cycle is what makes Alexa “smarter and more capable every day.”
“Alexa may not get everything right, and we value feedback from everyone who participates. Just say, ‘Alexa, I have feedback.'” – Amazon
Author’s Opinion
Amazon’s Alexa+ is certainly a step forward in enhancing the user experience with more humanlike AI and advanced features. However, the lack of data control raises important privacy concerns that need to be addressed for long-term user trust. The rolling release of features ensures the assistant improves over time, but more transparency and flexibility around data management would be a critical next step.
Featured image credit: Anete Lusina via Pexels
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