After in-house AI effort fails, Amazon to turn to Anthropic’s Claude for paid Alexa

Amazon has been working on developing new version of Siri competitor Alexa powered by generative AI, dubbed “Remarkable Alexa,” as the massive digital retailer hopes to charge for its use, but concerns about the quality of in-house AI have prompted Amazon to turn to Anthropic’s Claude, Reuters reports.
Greg Bensinger for Reuters:
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Amazon’s revamped Alexa due for release in October ahead of the U.S. holiday season will be powered primarily by Anthropic’s Claude artificial intelligence models, rather than its own AI, five people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Amazon plans to charge $5 to $10 a month for its new “Remarkable” version of Alexa as it will use powerful generative AI to answer complex queries, while still offering the “Classic” voice assistant for free, Reuters reported in June.
Alexa, accessed mainly through Amazon televisions and Echo devices, can set timers, play music, act as a central hub for smart home controls and answer one-off questions.
But Amazon’s attempts to convince users to shop through Alexa to generate more revenue have been mostly unsuccessful and the division remains unprofitable.
The release of the Remarkable Alexa, as it is known internally, is expected in October, with a preview of the new service coming during Amazon’s annual devices and services event typically held in September, the people said.

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MacDailyNews Take: People don’t choose Alexa. They just happen to get Alexa when they choose cheap smart TVs and speakers. People who choose cheap Echo devices, which start at $22.99, may not be the best target market for $5 to $10 monthly subscriptions for a GenAI-capable voice assistant. Bad demographics are bad demographics.

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