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Key Takeaways Leaked internal planning documents reveal that Amazon is working on a new Alexa project, codenamed Moonraker, to further enhance the voice assistant’s capabilities.
Moonraker permits Alexa to carry out multi-step actions from a single request, such as “book me a ride and text my friend.”
The Moonraker AI upgrade has become one of the most costly parts of Amazon’s next Alexa+ revamp, reportedly costing more than $100 million in AI chips this year.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy revealed in his annual shareholder letter earlier this year that Alexa, the company’s voice assistant, has “scale and a very large customer base,” with 600 million active devices across devices, cars and offices.
Amazon is now working to upgrade Alexa and expand its reach. Leaked internal planning documents recently reviewed by Business Insider reveal that Amazon is working on a new Alexa project, codenamed Moonraker, to further embed Alexa into the lives of its customers.
Moonraker makes Alexa more capable. Alexa+, the AI-powered side of Alexa, already allows users to book rides through Uber and buy tickets through Ticketmaster with just a voice command. Moonraker goes further and permits Alexa to carry out multi-step actions from one request. It makes Alexa more like an AI agent that can work autonomously to handle customer tasks than just a voice assistant.
The documents show that Moonraker can complete a multi-step action in response to a single request, such as “book me a ride and text my friend.”
The technology is proving expensive to develop. Internal documents viewed by Business Insider show that the Moonraker AI upgrade has become one of the most costly parts of Amazon’s next Alexa+ revamp, incurring more than $100 million in AI chip costs this year. The documents proposed delaying or downsizing the project as a way to decrease costs.
One source told Business Insider that some Amazon leaders think the company has overspent on developing the AI models behind Alexa. They are worried that the models cost too much to run.
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