Amazon Unveils New Gadgets as AI Race Heats Up (bloomberg.com) 23
Amazon introduced an updated slate of Echo devices and pledged to bring ChatGPT-style artificial intelligence to Alexa-powered gadgets. From a report: For more than a year the digital assistant has been using a home-built set of large language models -- the foundational networks that enable ChatGPT and rival technologies -- to help summarize text gathered from the web and make Alexa more conversant in various languages, Dave Limp, Amazon's senior vice president of Devices & Services, said in an interview. New, more conversational capabilities will "roll out incrementally," he said. "It's not years away, but there are some things that we have to solve." Amazon on Wednesday announced four updated Alexa devices:
The Echo Pop, which takes the company's spherical, fabric-covered Echo Dot smart speaker and slices it in half. The semi-spherical device, which sells for $40, comes with technology borrowed from Amazon's eero router subsidiary that can extend the range of home Wi-Fi
A revamped Echo Show 5, which pairs Alexa with a 5-inch screen. Amazon says the $90 speaker is 20% faster than the prior generation and has clearer sound.
An updated edition of the Echo Show 5 Kids comes with a year of Amazon's Kids+ subscription with age-appropriate audiobooks, videos and games. It will sell for $100.
A new version of Amazon's Echo Buds loses the noise-cancelling feature of previous editions, but, at $50, comes in at less than half the price. The buds let users listen to music and summon Alexa on the go.
The Echo Pop, which takes the company's spherical, fabric-covered Echo Dot smart speaker and slices it in half. The semi-spherical device, which sells for $40, comes with technology borrowed from Amazon's eero router subsidiary that can extend the range of home Wi-Fi
A revamped Echo Show 5, which pairs Alexa with a 5-inch screen. Amazon says the $90 speaker is 20% faster than the prior generation and has clearer sound.
An updated edition of the Echo Show 5 Kids comes with a year of Amazon's Kids+ subscription with age-appropriate audiobooks, videos and games. It will sell for $100.
A new version of Amazon's Echo Buds loses the noise-cancelling feature of previous editions, but, at $50, comes in at less than half the price. The buds let users listen to music and summon Alexa on the go.
We don't use Alexa devices with a screen (Score:2)
Craze, craze, craze, craze. (Score:3)
Cloud security.
Crypto blockchain.
ChatGPT like.
I'm ready for the next craze. This one is every bit as dumb as the last few, only seemingly dumber because of all the blind-faith idiocy the corpratists are spouting about it being the savior of humanity, while the reality will be the job losses will make some sectors far more wealthy, while other sectors will fall below the poverty line. YAY! PROGRESS!
Will there be a new technology at some point that giant corporations won't immediately latch onto to use as a wedge between the haves and have-nots to make the gap ever wider? I'm old enough that I'm starting to doubt it. I think we may be reaching our expiration date.
Re: (Score:3)
They don't have faith in it being the 'savior of humanity", only of their market share.
Re: (Score:2)
Will there be a new technology at some point that giant corporations won't immediately latch onto to use as a wedge between the haves and have-nots to make the gap ever wider?
Nope. That's what they do. We have some laws that are supposed to keep them in check, but then we have other laws that let them effectively bypass those laws, and as long as that's true they're going to keep doing what they're doing.
I think we may be reaching our expiration date.
Yep. We failed to consider sustainability in our rush to comfort.
Re: (Score:2)
We failed to consider sustainability in our rush to comfort.
Brilliant! I may just make that my new sig!
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed. Humanity remains immature and incapable of learning. That usually spells the end of a race if the environment changes enough. As that has just been set up over the last 100 years or so....
Re: (Score:2)
I have to admit that, getting older, this crap and concentrated stupidity just annoys me more and more. It is just as if, as a group, the human race is simply incapable of learning and completely immature.
Re: (Score:2)
I have to admit that, getting older, this crap and concentrated stupidity just annoys me more and more. It is just as if, as a group, the human race is simply incapable of learning and completely immature.
It becomes particularly galling when you see us collectively fall on our own swords to help protect the people that want us to dumb ourselves down so that we're more easily controlled / manipulated.
Re: (Score:2)
Yep. We do seem to run into some limiters for installments of the human race that have a personality mix that is too dumb on average. Global nuclear war has so far not managed to take this installment here out, although it apparently was very close several times and can still happen. Lets see whether climate-change can end this crap-show.
Anyways, if there is a choice, I will not reincarnate here again. The level of aggressive incompetence, aggressive greed, authoritarian assholes and plain old stupid is jus
Re: (Score:2)
Yep. We do seem to run into some limiters for installments of the human race that have a personality mix that is too dumb on average. Global nuclear war has so far not managed to take this installment here out, although it apparently was very close several times and can still happen. Lets see whether climate-change can end this crap-show.
Anyways, if there is a choice, I will not reincarnate here again. The level of aggressive incompetence, aggressive greed, authoritarian assholes and plain old stupid is just too much of an imposition.
I feel like this deserves some sorta atta-boy. So, "Atta-boy." I wouldn't come back to this particular installment myself. Somebody screwed something up at the beginning. No way we'd end up this stupid and backwards without some serious fuckery in the initial inputs.
Alexa-powered (Score:2)
They are not powered by Alexa, they interface with Alexa,
You still have to charge their batteries from ac.
Alexa is not a source of power, we still need solar, wind, hydro and nuclear if we are going to live on this planet.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
WTF? Should Amazon just keep selling 1st generation Echos? Should Ford keep selling Model Ts? Iterative improvements are just a part of selling technology.
Re: (Score:2)
I still have a first gen Echo speaker in daily use. It works fine, sounds decent, and for the life of me I can't find any real details on what a later gen one would do better. There seems to be some minor differences with things like speaker groups, and lots of vague references to "faster" and "better speech processor" but none of it seems to have much impact on day to day use.
Re: (Score:2)
It's fundamentally a speaker that listens to what you say and plays music. Recent echos listen better and sound better, all while being cheaper. On what level has it not been improved?
ChatGPT-supercharged Amazon privacy invasion (Score:2)
Double barf with an extra helping of barf.
Some things we have to solve... (Score:1)
Alexa, go kill yourself (Score:2)
No? Does not work? Then I am not interested.
You can actually find these on Amazon (Score:2)
Unlike nearly everything else I look for, these actually show up on the first page of results.
Race between the 3 major voice assistants (Score:2)
I use all 3 major voice assistants. Siri on my phone and ipad. Google on my Google Home with 7" screen, sitting by the bed, mostly used as a smart alarm. And Alexa on various Alexa speakers around the house and FireTV cubes. Google's voice assistant is the smartest. Alexa is a distant second. And Siri is the dumbest.
Still I do think that all three could improve *a lot*. And that ChatGPT-like AI will help them all.