Amazon announces these exciting new AI updates for Alexa

Ali Rees / Last Updated: Jan 10, 2024 / AI / Apps

Among the many announcements at CES 2024, Amazon introduced several new artificial intelligence (AI) tools for its Alexa personal assistant. Last year Amazon introduced new tools to enable developers to build generative AI experiences, and that is beginning to come to fruition now.

Alexa users can start to try out generative AI experiences

After a long wait, while developers tinkered with Alexa’s new tools, customers can finally begin to explore the developer-created experiences for themselves.

Character.ai allows Alexa users to have conversations with generated characters, from motivating fitness coaches to librarians who will recommend your next book. Users could even chat with historical figures such as Socrates. This will certainly help encourage users to get comfortable engaging with an AI.

Splash is an AI-powered music creation experience and will allow users to create music through Alexa using just voice commands. It will allow users to use voice commands to define and personalize elements such as the song’s genre and its vocalist and lyrics, then effortlessly send the completed song to their mobile phones.

Richard Slatter, Chief Product Officer at Splash, said in a press release that their goal is to “democratize music creation,” and that “this marks a hugely exciting step in that journey.”

Volley, the voice AI game developer, has announced the launch of its AI-powered “20 questions” game, which will feature an AI Riddlemaster. According to a press release, Volley’s 20 Questions is one of the first Large-Language-Model-based voice games to allow for open-ended voice conversations with an AI character.

Amazon showcased several developments from the Alexa Fund

As well as the Alexa AI showcase, Amazon showcased several developments coming from the Alexa Fund.

These included MultiOn, a new personal AI agent that aims to take over mundane, time-consuming tasks for users. It claims to be able to book travel itineraries or reserve a table at a restaurant and confirm the time and date with attendees.

They also showed off Embodied Inc’s Moxie AI, a robotic companion that “will offer children emotional and academic support.” Moxie certainly looks more child-friendly than other Alexa-compatible robots Amazon has launched.

Alexa’s AI offering promises to be an exciting part of Amazon’s portfolio.

Featured image credit: Character.ai

Ali Rees

Freelance journalist

Ali Rees is a freelance writer based in the UK. They have worked as a data and analytics consultant, a software tester, and a digital marketing and SEO specialist. They have been a keen gamer and tech enthusiast since their childhood in are currently the Gaming and Tech editor at Brig Newspaper. They also have a Substack where they review short video games. During the pandemic, Ali turned their hand to live streaming and is a fan of Twitch. When not writing, Ali enjoys playing video and board games, live music, and reading. They have two cats and both of them are idiots.