Amazon says that Alexa+ is ‘model agnostic’

Amazon says that the new and improved Alexa unveiled on Wednesday, Alexa+, is powered by a “model agnostic” system that’s always using the “best” AI model for any given task. Onstage at a press event in NYC, Amazon VP Daniel Rausch said that Alexa+ draws on Bedrock, Amazon’s cloud platform designed to let organizations experiment with generative AI models, to power its various capabilities. Among the models Alexa+ is using are Amazon Nova, Amazon’s family of in-house generative AI models, as well as models from Amazon’s close partner and collaborator, Anthropic. This “model agnostic” approach enables what might be considered “agentic” capabilities. Alexa+ leverages a new system called “experts” for particular tasks, Amazon says. Experts orchestrate and execute first-party Amazon services as well as services from third parties (e.g. AI startup Suno’s music-generating tools). Rausch said on day one, Alexa+ will work with “tens of thousands” of devices and services. Some of these ser ... Read full article.