Generative AI may finally be coming to Amazon's Alexa

• Amazon said it was developing generative AI for Alexa last year, then went quiet.

• It's now working on deals with publishers to beef up Alexa's news game.

• The improved Alexa will reportedly launch in late 2025.

In a world where large language models code, make phone calls, and even use computers, it's easy to forget the hype that once surrounded AI assistants like Alexa.

But new details have emerged about a long-anticipated update to Amazon's voice-activated helper. The firm wants to partner with news publishers to so it can answer complex questions using generative AI, according to a report from Axios.

News summaries and election results

Alexa already provides short newsbites from outlets like NPR, Reuters and Associated Press on request. It can also answer basic questions about the world.

By combining news content with generative AI, the assistant should be able to provide up-to-date summaries about fast-moving topics like elections.

Amazon has already run some early tests on requests that use text and photos. But it's not currently looking at video for the update.

Next, the firm will try to strike licensing deals with publishing partners. Per Axios, Alexa will credit specific outlets when it uses their material to inform its responses.

Where is Alexa's generative AI?

Perhaps the most interesting nugget from the report is an anticipated launch window for the revamped Alexa. If Axios is correct, Amazon is eyeing late 2025 — far later than earlier estimates.

The tech giant first announced it was working on a custom-built LLM for Alexa back in 2023. This would allow it to remember context, hold more natural conversations with users, and give them more nuanced control over smart devices.

The company also said it would let developers access Alexa's voice-focused LLM via their own APIs.

But the firm has said precious little since about its revamped assistant.

This summer Amazon told TechRadar it had "already integrated generative AI into different components of Alexa," and that if was "working hard on implementation at scale."

But the firm offered no detail as to what these updates were. As TechRadar noted, "generative AI" did not appear in marketing material about an Echo Spot device released at the time.

Dropping Alexa's in-house LLM

In August, news broke that Amazon was ditching Alexa's proprietary LLM in favor of Anthropic's Claude AI, which reportedly performed better in tests.

That same month, The Washington Post said the firm planned to release the new Alexa in October this year — but that window has come and gone.

Indie Hackers has asked Amazon to confirm when the new Alexa will launch, if it will use a tailored version of Claude, and, if so, whether it will be available for developer use.

When it does finally launch, the smarter Alexa is expected to be a subscription-based service costing up to $10 a month.