Amazon has reportedly postponed the release of its highly anticipated, upgraded version of Alexa, marking a series of delays for the virtual assistant.
While the company initially planned to unveil the new version on February 26, a recent report by the Washington Post reveals that the public launch will now be delayed for at least a month.
Reasons Behind the Delay
The delay is primarily attributed to performance issues with the new Alexa, specifically in providing accurate responses during internal tests.
According to an unnamed Amazon employee cited in the report, the smarter and more conversational version of Alexa will not be available until at least March 31, roughly 18 months after Amazon first announced plans to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into the assistant in response to the rising popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
While the company has not officially provided specific details about the delay, a spokesperson confirmed that Amazon will not be discussing any further details about its roadmap at this time.
However, the spokesperson assured the public that the company is looking forward to sharing updates during the scheduled announcement on February 26.
AI Challenges for Tech Companies
This setback for Amazon highlights the challenges tech companies face when integrating artificial intelligence into their products. Despite massive investments in AI technology, companies are finding it difficult to roll out successful AI-powered products.
For example, Apple faced similar issues recently. Last month, the company removed an AI feature from the iPhone that was designed to provide summaries of news stories after users reported inaccuracies in the summaries.
Moreover, reports emerged over the weekend suggesting that Apple, like Amazon, is facing difficulties launching a new AI-driven version of its Siri assistant.
Cost of Running Generative AI at Scale
Despite a reduction in costs for generative AI (GenAI), it remains expensive to implement on a large scale. Amazon has faced significant challenges in revamping Alexa as part of its transition to AI-powered models.
According to PYMNTS, the cost of pretraining foundation models for AI can be steep, and inference — the process in which AI models apply their learning to new data — continues to be costly as well.
At one point, Amazon considered monetizing Alexa by either charging a subscription for the large language model-powered assistant or taking a commission from eCommerce sales, as reported by a former employee in the Financial Times.
However, technical obstacles have been a major hindrance to making significant progress in this area. According to Mike Finley, CTO and co-founder of AnswerRocket, Alexa’s transition to a more intelligent model isn’t as simple as upgrading the algorithm.
“It’s not as simple as moving from one model to another,” Finley explained. “Agentic AI is a bit more nuanced. It needs more structure and guidance to get us a better result.”
Challenges of Creating a Smarter Alexa
Building a smarter Alexa isn’t as easy as just adding a large language model to its existing framework. The transition requires careful adjustments to ensure that the assistant behaves in a way that meets the expectations of consumers.
Finley further explained that the process of shaping the AI behavior involves more than just relying on AI models to produce results. “We will have to give it the original ‘prompt’ like we would in the past, but there’s more work to shape the AI behavior we want,” he said.
Amazon’s delay in releasing the upgraded version of Alexa highlights the difficulties tech companies face when incorporating artificial intelligence into their products.
While the company aims to launch a smarter, more conversational version of Alexa, the process involves overcoming significant technical obstacles and costs.
As companies like Amazon and Apple continue to refine their AI systems, it’s clear that the integration of AI into everyday tech products is a complex and ongoing challenge.
FAQs
Why is Amazon delaying the release of the new Alexa?
Amazon is delaying the release due to the new version of Alexa providing inaccurate answers during tests. The upgraded version, which incorporates AI, will not be available until at least March 31.
What is the expected launch date for the updated Alexa?
The new version of Alexa is now expected to be launched on March 31, after a delay from the original February 26 release date.
What challenges is Amazon facing with the new Alexa?
Amazon is facing technical challenges in upgrading Alexa to become smarter and more conversational, as well as high costs associated with running generative AI at scale.