With Alexa Plus, Amazon finally reinvents its best product
1 min read
Summary
Last week, Amazon held a press conference primarily to launch its new Alexa Plus voice assistant, a workaround for the classic problem of users needing to use precise wording for the voice assistant to respond.
Amazon’s new system uses large language models (LLMs) to give the assistant conversational abilities and deeper, more contextually relevant responses that should allow users to ask questions more naturally and interact with the service using normal language, rather than having to use specific prompts or remember “skills” for certain tasks.
Amazon has also revamped the Alexa mobile app and a new website at alexa.com where users can interact with the service.
Alexa Plus is included free for Prime members, but will also be available for a monthly subscription of $19.99 and will be launching in the US in March as an early access program for certain Echo devices.
It is not clear when it will launch in other countries or on other devices.