Amazon CEO says 100,000 users now have Alexa+

Amazon’s upgraded digital assistant powered by generative AI, Alexa+, has rolled out to over 100,000 users, CEO Andy Jassy said on the company’s earnings call Thursday. While that’s a far cry from the 600 million Alexa devices out there, the company is making some progress on the rollout of Alexa+, which was first unveiled in February. At the time, Amazon said that Alexa+ would roll out in waves over the coming months. Amazon’s new digital assistant aims to let users talk with it in a more natural style, and eventually have agentic abilities that allow it to use third-party apps on a user’s behalf. Alexa+ should be able to generate original responses on the fly, much like the voice modes in OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, rather than the predetermined responses of the old Alexa and Siri systems. However, as The Washington Post reported at launch, the Alexa+ that’s rolling out today lacks some of the key features the company demoed in February. The report notes that, at launch, ... Read full article.