Amazon’s Alexa’s new version to be powered by Anthropic’s AI model Claude – report

Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) updated Alexa will be powered mainly by Anthropic’s AI models called Claude rather than the tech giant’s own AI, Reuters reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

The company intends to charge between $5 and $10 per month for its new “Remarkable” version of Alexa, which is expected to be release in October, the report added.

In June, Amazon revealed that it was working on improving Alexa and has already integrated gen-AI into the voice bot. The new version will use generative AI to answer complex questions, while still providing the “Classic” voice assistant for free, the news agency had reported earlier.

However, preliminary versions of the new Alexa using in-house software struggled, sometimes taking six or seven seconds to recognize a prompt and reply, the report added.

Thus Amazon turned to Claude, an AI chatbot developed by Anthropic — which is backed by Amazon (AMZN) and Alphabet’s (GOOGL) (GOOG) Google — as it performed better than the company’s own AI models.

Alexa can play music and set timers but Amazon’s efforts to boost users interest to shop via Alexa to generate more sales has been largely unsuccessful. The company’s senior management had noted that 2024 is a critical year for Alexa to show it can generate meaningful revenue — and the new paid version is seen as a way both to do that and keep pace with competitors.

“Amazon uses many different technologies to power Alexa,” a company spokesperson said in a statement, as per the report. “When it comes to machine learning models, we start with those built by Amazon, but we have used, and will continue to use, a variety of different models – including (Amazon AI model) Titan and future Amazon models, as well as those from partners – to build the best experience for customers.”

The latest version, dubbed as Remarkable Alexa internally, is expected in October, with a preview of the new service anticipated at Amazon’s annual devices and services event, which is usually held in September, the report added.

The paid version of Alexa would have conversations with a user which build on previous questions and answers. The new version is aimed at enabling users to seek shopping advice such as which clothes to buy for a vacation and to collect news stories. It is also designed to comply with complicated requests, such as ordering food or drafting emails via a single prompt, according to the report.

However, Amazon’s plans for Alexa could be delayed or changed if the technology does not meet certain internal criteria, the report noted.

Amazon is not the only company trying out AI models from other firms to potentially power its devices. Microsoft (MSFT) and Apple (AAPL) have also inked pacts with OpenAI to use its AI chatbot ChatGPT to power some of their products.

On Thursday, the U.S. government announced that it signed deals with Anthropic and Microsoft (MSFT)-backed OpenAI for research, testing and evaluation of their AI models.