Amazon’s revamped Alexa Plus assistant is beginning to roll out to the first users, with a limited feature set.
The long-in-the-works Generative AI assistant is now available in Early Access for some users with Echo devices who’ve enrolled to test drive the next-generation update.
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Amazon is prioritising users of its Echo Show 8, 10, 15 or 21 smart displays and is planning to in slowly broaden availability to more (but not all) devices in the Echo stable.
The company is enthused by the more natural, flowing conversations that take into account what’s already been said, with no need to continually make precision requests.
According to the Early Access enrolment page, users will also be able to receive summarised versions of uploaded documents, book Uber rides and reserve a restaurant with OpenTable, draft emails, send texts, and quickly find photos from a backed-up library with specific requests. There is also greater flexibility when accessing entertainment.
Users will be able to say things like: “Play music downstairs but not in the baby’s room”, “I’m feeling nostalgic, can you recommend some 90s boy bands?” and “What’s that song that says ‘ba de ya, say that you remember’?”
The smart home skillset, a key tenet of the original Alexa era, is also getting a massive boost, with users able to ask things like: When I say ‘good morning,’ turn on the lights and start the coffee.“
Roomba and smart lighting users will be able to say say: “Make it brighter in here and clean the kitchen,“ while Ring camera owners can query: “Show me the last time the dog went out.“
However, not everything the company showcased during a launch event last month is ready for prime time. For example, tools like brainstorming gift ideas with Alexa and ordering groceries just from a voice request, will be in future update waves. The Kids Plus features, such as Stories with AI, are going to have to wait also.
Sounds great, but at what cost?
The launch of Alexa Plus has been somewhat overshadowed by its ramifications. Remember, as of last Friday, you can no longer opt out of sending your interactions with Alexa to the cloud for processing by Amazon. It is killing a “do not send voice recordings” option and those who don’t like it will have to stop using Alexa completely.
Amazon recently said: “As we continue to expand Alexa’s capabilities with generative AI features that rely on the processing power of Amazon’s secure cloud, we have decided to no longer support this feature.”
Surely the best trade-off would have been making Alexa Plus available to people willing to share their recordings, rather than removing the option completely?
