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ZDNET's key takeaways
Alexa+ is Amazon's generative AI upgrade to its Alexa virtual assistant.
After months in an early access program, Amazon is debuting the Alexa.com website.
Users can chat with Alexa+ on the site, just like other generative AI chatbots.
Amazon isn't one to make big announcements during CES, but the company doesn't plan to be overshadowed this year. After months of Alexa+ availability through an early access program, Amazon just announced the launch of Alexa.com, a website where users can interact with the virtual assistant like they would with other AI chatbots.
If you've used any of the generative AI chatbots available over the past three years, you're familiar with the process of going to a website to interact with them. While Google has a website for Gemini, other virtual assistants like Alexa and Siri don't -- although they also lacked general AI capabilities until recently.
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You can count on Siri maintaining its lack of generational power for now, but Alexa received a generational AI injection months ago, and it's being widely used by users across the US in an early access program. Over the past nine months, Alexa+ has gained tens of millions of users, according to Daniel Rausch, Vice President of Alexa and Echo at Amazon.
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