Amazon to Launch New AI-Powered Alexa Using Anthropic's Claude

[CarAnalogy]

I can't wait to hear Alexa say "by the way, for $5 a month I could be smarter!" every damn time I tell it to turn the lights on or off.

I'm this close || to just replacing the damn things with NFC buttons and just swiping my iPhone at them to turn the lights on and off.

I was using a HomePod for this but...I'll take being pestered and yelling at it to shut up every few days rather than a ridiculous delay every time. And that's if the HomePod didn't decide to tell me there's something wrong with my lights. Which is ridiculous because the only thing with a problem with the lights, is the HomePod.

I wish Apple would get their act together with the HomePod or just put it out of its misery already.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Even expecting 10% of Alexa users to pay for this seems like a stretch. There is no denying it’ll be impressive tech, but like others have said, most of us are not even using Alexa to its current potential. Even if this were given to me for free, I cannot imagine asking it anything that couldn’t be served well enough by the current Alexa. Also, I agree with the sentiment that such a value-add should be baked into current subscription services, rather than an independent one. Make it so non-prime users get the basic Alexa, and Prime users get the AI powered one. That might drive more Prime subscriptions. Prime subscription prices are going to go up again at some point anyway; factor in this feature into the new price.

That's a good point. I already pay way too much for Prime.

The one command it doesn't want to understand is "Never say 'by the way' to me ever again." It doesn't even respond, just goes silent because it knows it won't do that.

If they include this new AI with Prime and it allows me to say that, I'll be happy.

But they won't. They are going the other way, adding commercials in to the video service that they have already been using as an excuse to justify raising the price.

 

[thewiccaman]

I'm perfectly happy with my antiquated Alexa. She does what I need most of the time and is still streets ahead of Siri.

 

[coolfactor]

Anyone else fed up of AI Yet ?... its not even AI its machine learning. what we consider AI does not exist yet... ugh... enough of this gimmicky crap.

Normally, I'd agree with you, but with the advent of "generative" AI, it is getting "creative", a cornerstone attribute of intelligent beings.

Self-awareness is the big hurdle yet to cross.

As for Amazon's Alexa, we see the stark contrast with Siri from a revenue perspective...

Amazon's leadership has reportedly emphasized that 2024 is a crucial year for Alexa to demonstrate its ability to drive meaningful sales.

 

[coolfactor]

Even expecting 10% of Alexa users to pay for this seems like a stretch. There is no denying it’ll be impressive tech, but like others have said, most of us are not even using Alexa to its current potential. Even if this were given to me for free, I cannot imagine asking it anything that couldn’t be served well enough by the current Alexa. Also, I agree with the sentiment that such a value-add should be baked into current subscription services, rather than an independent one. Make it so non-prime users get the basic Alexa, and Prime users get the AI powered one. That might drive more Prime subscriptions. Prime subscription prices are going to go up again at some point anyway; factor in this feature into the new price.

Agreed that pricing it separately is a mistake. I agreed to Prime only after they offered free shipping on my orders. Otherwise, I never would've considered it. Bundles work.

 

[alchemistmuffin]

Amazon plans to offer this upgraded "Remarkable" Alexa as a paid subscription service, with pricing anticipated to be between $5 to $10 per month. In other words, it won't be included in existing Prime memberships

HARD PASS

It needs to be included as part of Prime membership. Prime is not cheap as it’s $139 a year. We need more features to justify the annual fee.

 

[Robert.Walter]

"All the better to spy on you my pretty! Ah hahahaha!"

"And if you pay for it, All the All the better! Ah hahahaha!"

 

[Weaselboy]

The one command it doesn't want to understand is "Never say 'by the way' to me ever again." It doesn't even respond, just goes silent because it knows it won't do that.

Set this up in the Alexa app as a Routine and it will stop "by the way" for 24 hours. It runs each day, so stops it for good.

 

[CrysisDeu]

Ao just like Apple, Amazon also failed at their LLM

 

[dba415]

So we got Apple/MS with ChatGPT, Google with Gemini, MetaAI, and now Amazon with Anthropic

Begun, the AI Wars have.

 

[awisdom]

Agreed with above. ZERO INTEREST in paying for this garbage. Ditto “Apple Intelligence” which I am confident will be crap like Haptic Touch (“will revolutionize the iPhone experience”) and the Touch Bar on Mac’s (although I must say I did like that Touch Bar lol). All of this current AI hype will go by the wayside in a year or two and it’ll be a small feature like spell check ultimately (“auto reply to email or summarize my incoming texts”). Come back and tell me I’m wrong in 2026 please. None of this is real AI. As a computer scientist and engineer, we all in the field know there is no real AI on the near term time horizon. Just regurgitating and mixing old stuff from the web which is what generative AI, according to OpenAI with their web learning based models.

 

[awisdom]

Anyone else fed up of AI Yet ?... its not even AI its machine learning. what we consider AI does not exist yet... ugh... enough of this gimmicky crap.

Exactly. This is not AI. NONE of it is AI. It doesn’t exist yet. Agree with you 1000%. This is marketing and marketing alone.

 

[joecomo]

Alexa is a horribly closed and inflexible system - certainly not paying for an AI version of that

 

[MacAddict1978]

DEAD ON ARRIVAL

No one is paying $5-$10 a month Amazon.

 

[MacAddict1978]

Alexa is a horribly closed and inflexible system - certainly not paying for an AI version of that

You just described Apple's entire echo-system?? But unlike that.... Alexa has an open invitation to the party for everyone who wants to make a skill... works on every bloody SmartDevice.. just saying. Alexa is - for what it is - super intuitive, fast... unlike Siri.

 

[CarAnalogy]

View attachment 2411045

Set this up in the Alexa app as a Routine and it will stop "by the way" for 24 hours. It runs each day, so stops it for good.

Insert "You The Real MVP" meme here. Brilliant, thank you.

 

[npmacuser5]

Value add a very small positive for current voice assistances. Focus on that one defect, make voice assistance valuable. ChatGPT has many value add features. It actually answers the question.

 

[svish]

This should definitely improve Alexa but not happy with subscription.

 

[Piggie]

I want to state that this TYPE OF DEVICE.
An AI smart device in your home, that is legitimately on the level that it can answer pretty much anything, and actually communicate like a human with a personality.
WILL be a product that people will want and will pay for in their homes.

However, I don't think now is the right time, as we're not there yet.
In, 1, 2, 5, 10 years. Yes totally and it will be as common as the smartphone.

But I fear coming out with a so so product too early is going to damage the potential category in the short term.
Current chat/AI is amazingly impressive, but IMHO we still need to get that last 10% done before such a product should be launched.

AS a follow up, I know someone has to be the first one to do this, but, for it not to fail it REALLY needs to impress people so much that people see it, and want it.
Otherwise it's going to be failed.

As Steve Jobs said (something like) Timing is everything for a product, and I fear this is a little too early.

 

[joecomo]

You just described Apple's entire echo-system?? But unlike that.... Alexa has an open invitation to the party for everyone who wants to make a skill... works on every bloody SmartDevice.. just saying. Alexa is - for what it is - super intuitive, fast... unlike Siri.

while Siri has its shortcomings - HomeKit is rather flexible, open (specially with Homebridge/HA) and local.
There is no camera, that I cannot get to work in HomeKit - try this with Alexa/Echo.

 

[JapanApple]

I have no intention of buying the improvement. I have bought enough devices from Amazon for years.

 

[JulianL]

I want to state that this TYPE OF DEVICE.
An AI smart device in your home, that is legitimately on the level that it can answer pretty much anything, and actually communicate like a human with a personality.
WILL be a product that people will want and will pay for in their homes.

That’s a device I’d want even without the personality but you’re right, it’s still a way off and for Amazon (and Apple) it’s not just the esoteric stuff (the actual AI) that’s missing, it’s the ground truth that in both cases is way behind Google and means that, although Google doesn’t seem to me to care much about its smart speakers anymore, my Nest speakers are the only devices that can give me decent walking or public transport direction or tell me when some local shop opens or closes. It’s all very well making an assistant smarter in terms of understanding what you’re asking it, using context to fill in the blanks etc, but if it then doesn’t have the info to actually answer the question it’s useless.

Maybe Amazon and/or Apple ground truth is considerably better in the USA but here in the UK Alexa took about 6 months to realise a new supermarket had opened about 100 metres from my home whereas Google knew about it within 24 hours of it opening.

 

[N0ughtsAndCr0sses]

You can laugh at me but I enjoy talking to Alexa, Siri and Sonos!

Humans are confrontational and I loathe that! 😁

Read the above replies and you get the idea!

( smart genius will then come and say that’s how inventions are made ) in 3,2,1…

 

[thewill586]

I don’t see another subscription like this succeeding (to the decree they need it to). They would find more success raising the price of prime $10/yr and making remarkable prime only.

Same would be true for Apple charging for a better Siri by rolling it into iCloud One. People are already burdened by too many subscriptions; an AI bot sub isn’t going to fly far.

that is monopoly behavior. products are suppose to sell by themselves. prime video should also be an option and shouldn’t automatically be bundled.

 

[sphark]

the only possibly useful thing would be if the ai model was better able to use your alexa skills without the magic incantation, for example i have a netatmo weather station. i ask alexa the outside temperature, crickets. i have to say alexa ask netatmo the outside temperature. they also gimped lists so i have to ask anylist to add items
instead of just allowing integration, wouldnt suprise me if this is why.

This! I have a Moen smart faucet and you can't just say, "Alexa, dispense 1 cup of water." You have to say, "Alexa, open Moen..." then hear the same intro every time, and THEN ask it to dispense water, so what's the point?