JUST A FEW YEARS AGO, AMAZON’S VOICE ASSISTANT, ALEXA, WAS A DOMINANT PLAYER IN THE AI SPACE, INTEGRATED INTO MORE THAN 500 MILLION DEVICES WORLDWIDE. BUT THINGS HAVE CHANGED SINCE THE RELEASE OF OPEN AI’S CHAT-GPT, AND NOW… AMAZON FINDS ITSELF PLAYING CATCH-UP.

AMAZON IS DEVELOPING ITS OWN LARGE LANGUAGE MODELS… ESSENTIAL TO GENERATIVE AI SYSTEMS THAT CAN CREATE CONTENT, HOLD CONVERSATIONS AND UNDERSTAND COMPLEX INSTRUCTIONS. THESE MODELS, NAMED TITAN AND OLYMPUS, ARE PART OF AMAZON’S PLAN TO CREATE A SMARTER AND MORE CONVERSATIONAL ALEXA. 

BUT ACCORDING TO INSIDERS, THESE EFFORTS HAVE BEEN FAR FROM SMOOTH. AMAZON’S TEAM HAS FACED REPEATED DELAYS, MISSED DEADLINES, AND CHALLENGES IN GETTING THE NEW AI MODELS TO WORK PROPERLY. IN FACT, AS THEY WORKED TO MAKE ALEXA SMARTER, THEY FOUND THAT IT BECAME LESS RELIABLE FOR BASIC TASKS… LIKE TURNING ON THE LIGHTS… SOMETHING IT USED TO DO WITH MORE THAN 90 PERCENT ACCURACY.

AMAZON MAINTAINS THAT IT IS PLAYING THE LONG GAME, PREDICTING THAT AI WILL GENERATE TENS OF BILLIONS IN REVENUE OVER THE NEXT SEVERAL YEARS. THE COMPANY HAS ALREADY INVESTED BILLIONS IN AI DEVELOPMENT… PARTNERING WITH COMPANIES LIKE ANTHROPIC AND META TO STAY IN THE RACE.

STILL, THE PRESSURE IS MOUNTING. GOOGLE, APPLE AND MICROSOFT HAVE ALL INTRODUCED POWERFUL NEW AI SYSTEMS, AND AMAZON RISKS LOSING ITS EDGE IN TECH INNOVATION IF IT CAN’T CLOSE THE GAP.

AMAZON IS EXPECTED TO UNVEIL A MAJOR UPDATE TO ALEXA, DUBBED ‘REMARKABLE ALEXA’ IN OCTOBER, PROMISING A MORE CONVERSATIONAL AND INTELLIGENT ASSISTANT. BUT FOR NOW, THE COMPANY’S ABILITY TO KEEP PACE WITH ITS RIVALS REMAINS IN QUESTION.

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FOR STRAIGHT ARROW NEWS… I’M JACK AYLMER.