Alexa Plus is getting a new personality -- actually, three of them. Amazon announced Wednesday that it is adding three styles to its generative AI assistant, with the idea that you'll want the app to respond with the same kind of mood that you're in.
The three new personality styles are brief, chill and sweet. Brief garners "shorter, more direct responses." Chill results in "an easygoing and relaxed energy to every interaction," and choosing sweet means Alexa Plus acts like "your biggest cheerleader, responding with genuine warmth and enthusiasm."
Amazon said Wednesday it wants to tailor the Alexa assistant more toward customers' moods.
"Everyone has their own communication style and preferences, and a truly personal assistant should adapt to match it," the statement said.
The new personality styles are available now on Alexa Plus, which is free for Amazon Prime subscribers.
The styles are the latest wrinkle Amazon has added to Alexa Plus, which the company unveiled this month. Alexa Plus is an AI voice assistant designed to help with a variety of tasks, such as answering questions, placing food orders or helping with smart home automation.
Alexa Plus is one of several AI voice assistants, including Apple Siri, Google Gemini, Samsung Bixby and Josh.ai. Alexa itself was launched in 2014, along with the first Echo smart speaker.
CNET's Tyler Lacoma spent a year using Alexa Plus and found it "conversational, connected and well-suited for Prime users."
Amazon said the new Alexa Plus personalities are "built on a foundation of five interconnected dimensions" -- expressiveness, emotional openness, formality, directness and humor. Each of these has its own range, for example, "subtle wit to overt sarcasm" for the humor dimension.
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