Amazon Delays AI-Powered Alexa Update Due to Accuracy Issues

Amazon Reportedly Delaying Updated Alexa Over Incorrect Answers | PYMNTS.com

Amazon is reportedly pushing back the release of its updated Alexa, part of a string of delays for the virtual assistant. While the company still plans to publicly unveil the new version of Alexa on Feb. 26, a report Friday (Feb. 14) by the Washington Post says the public release of the product has been moved back at least a month. The report cited an internal memo seen by the Post and an interview with an unnamed Amazon employee, who said that the delay is due in part the new version of the assistant giving incorrect answers to test questions. That employee says that this "smarter and more conversational" version of Alexa will not be available until at least March 31. That's around 18 months after Amazon announced it was rolling out an artificial intelligence-powered Alexa in response to the rise of OpenAI's ChatGPT. An Amazon spokesperson told PYMNTS that the company "was not going to get into future roadmap details, but we look forward to sharing the latest from the Amazon Alexa team on the 26th." The Post report noted that Amazon's struggles to roll out an upgraded Alexa illustrates the struggle companies are having to enhance their products with artificial intelligence (AI), even as they invest billions of dollars in the technology. For example, Apple last month pulled an AI feature from its iPhone that offered summaries of news stories following complaints that those summaries were inaccurate. And this weekend brought reports that Apple, like Amazon, was struggling to launch a new AI-powered version of its AI assistant Siri. And although costs to run generative AI (GenAI) have been declining, it can still be costly to run at scale, PYMNTS wrote last month following earlier reports of Amazon's struggles to revamp Alexa. Pretraining the foundation models can be expensive, but inference -- when the AI model applies its training on new data -- isn't cheap either. Amazon considered charging a subscription for a large language model-powered Alexa or taking a cut of eCommerce sales, a former employee told the Financial Times last month. However, that report added, technical roadblocks are what's hindering the company's progress. Crafting a smarter Alexa isn't as easy as adding a large language model to it to replace its simpler algorithms.

Alexa's big AI revamp might have been delayed again, and I'm losing faith Amazon's new assistant will be all that smart

The leak follows reports Alexa was delayed from 2024 due to similar issues It's all but guaranteed that Amazon is launching a new version of Alexa with souped up AI brain power on February 26 - it literally spelled it out in an announcement - but disaster might have struck at the final hurdle. Alexa AI is reportedly delayed, again. That's per an anonymous source who spoke with The Washington Post (the report is behind a paywall) claiming that the new Alexa has been making too many mistakes when asked test questions. As a result Alexa is being delayed to improve its accuracy - with the current launch date now put back 'til March 31. Amazon is still expected to unveil the all-new Alexa at the New York event on February 26 as it originally planned, however, we expect access to the AI (and the questions it'll answer in demos) might be restricted so as not to reveal its potentially less-than-perfect side. As with all rumored information, we should still take all of this with a pinch of salt, though if The Washington Post is correct, this wouldn't be the first time Alexa has been delayed. Multiple sources had teased a 2024 launch date, with accuracy issues once again cited as the reason Alexa was held back. Beyond causing a delay, these issues could also prove a blow to Amazon's rumored plan to charge users for Alexa's help. It's been said the revamped Alexa could cost paying customers $5-$10 a month to use (around £5-£10 / AU$8-AU$16). If Alexa is unreliable - or has a reputation for being unreliable beyond what's expected from a current-gen AI - we imagine there won't be many users keen to pay for the service. At least the current-version of Alexa is said to be sticking around as a permanently free and generally reliable option. If Amazon can solve Alexa's accuracy problems, the new AI does sound rather useful. Alexa AI is said to be smarter so it can handle multiple prompts at once, rather than requiring its user to give distinct commands one after the other, and to perform as an AI agent - read: taking actions without direct user requests. Admittedly that last point sounds a little scary, given that Alexa AI would have our credit card info and direct access to the world's largest online store (Amazon), especially if Alexa is prone to mistakes (I know I'd be nervous about using it). But if Amazon can prove its agent is genuinely helpful, Alexa might finally start living up to the futuristic home assistant many imagined it would be when it first launched.

Amazon's new Alexa delayed -- again -- over incorrect answers

Amazon plans to unveil a revamped version of its Alexa virtual assistant in New York later this month -- the second launch event after a series of delays since the artificial-intelligence-powered upgrade was first announced in September 2023. But while the event is scheduled for Feb. 26, the public release of the new Alexa has been pushed back until more than a month later, according to internal messages seen by The Washington Post and an Amazon employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect their job. Amazon staff learned of the new delay, which is due in part to the new version of the assistant giving incorrect answers to test questions, at a recent meeting, the employee said. The "smarter and more conversational" version of Alexa will not be available until March 31 or later, the employee said, at least a year and a half after it was initially announced in response to competition from OpenAI's ChatGPT. Internal messages seen by The Post confirmed the launch was originally scheduled for this month but was subsequently moved to the end of March. Amazon declined to comment on this story. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Post. Amazon's failure to launch its renewed Alexa shows how even as the tech industry plows billions of dollars of investment into AI, companies are struggling to enhance marketable products with the technology. Apple last month paused an AI feature for iPhones that summarized notifications after it misrepresented news alerts. Some investors on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley have warned that the tech industry may struggle to reap profits at the scale needed to repay its enormous capital investment in generative AI technology. Amazon executives on a recent earnings call said the company will spend $100 billion this year, much of it on data center development. An enhanced version of Amazon's voice assistant could boost its revenue by driving more sales of Alexa devices once the upgrade becomes publicly available. The assistant is free on the more than 500 million Alexa devices around the world that can play music, dim lights and read headlines. Amazon previously planned to launch the improved Alexa with a free trial period, after which customers would have to pay a subscription fee, The Post reported. According to internal documents seen by The Post, new features of the subscriber-only, AI-powered Alexa could include the ability to adopt a personality, recall conversations, order takeout or call a taxi. Some of the new Alexa features are similar to Alexa abilities that were previously available free through partnerships with companies like Grubhub and Uber. In the more than a year since Amazon first announced the new Alexa, the company restructured its devices team and replaced Senior Vice President Dave Limp, who became CEO at Bezos's rocket company, Blue Origin, with veteran Microsoft executive Panos Panay. Meanwhile, Alexa's competitors advanced. Apple launched an upgraded version of Siri, Alexa's most prominent voice-operated rival. OpenAI, Google and other companies developing ChatGPT-style chatbots added voice capabilities that are more social and conversational than Alexa, which is more scripted and task-oriented. In August, Amazon staff were told the upgraded Alexa would launch before the presidential election. The following month, videos of Alexa appearing to favor then-Vice President Kamala Harris over presidential rival Donald Trump went viral, a glitch Amazon staff linked to AI technology added to the assistant to boost accuracy. Generative AI, the technology behind recent chatbots that Amazon is adding to Alexa, is prone to errors, including flubs known as "hallucinations," when an AI system fabricates incorrect information and presents it as if it were true. The AI-enhanced version of Alexa in development has been repeatedly delayed due to problems with incorrect answers, the employee working on the launch told The Post. As a popular product that is a decade old, the Alexa brand is valuable, and the company is hesitant to risk customer trust by launching a product that is not reliable, the person said. Alexa has struggled with accuracy in the past. When asked in 2023 whether there was fraud in the 2020 presidential election, The Post reported, Alexa incorrectly said there was a "massive amount," echoing misinformation propagated by Trump that the election had been stolen. The following year, Alexa gave an incorrect response to the question, "Who is the president of the United States?" Amazon has said that it looks out for bad responses via user feedback and continual testing of Alexa and swiftly fixes any problems. On Wednesday afternoon, the existing version of Alexa correctly answered that Trump is president and that Joe Biden won the 2020 election. But the assistant showed signs of struggling to keep up with the times. Asked to identify the tallest mountain peak in Alaska, it said Denali, and asked what body of water borders Texas, it said the Gulf of Mexico. Trump issued an executive order last month to change Denali to Mount McKinley and the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Google has said it would adopt those changes and this week began displaying a Gulf of America label on its maps service to U.S. users.

Revamped Alexa AI Assistant Hit by Month-Long Delay

Amazon Alexa's new AI upgrade is set to be delayed by a month, The Washington Post reports. The delay is allegedly due to a "new version of the assistant giving incorrect answers to test questions at a recent meeting," according to an anonymous employee. The updated Alexa, which Amazon has promised will provide a "smarter and more conversational" experience, now isn't expected to land until March 31 or later. However, the tech giant still plans to publicly unveil the revamped Alexa virtual assistant at an event in New York on Feb. 26. This isn't the first time that the project has been pushed back either, according to The Post. Amazon staff were allegedly told the upgraded version of Alexa would launch in time for the November 2024 presidential election, but Amazon was "hesitant to risk customer trust by launching a product that is not reliable." When the updated Alexa does finally land, it could bring users a far more in-depth experience. Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Alexa can act as an "agent," making actions on a user's behalf without intervention, like calling a taxi. It will also be able to handle multiple prompts at one time (the current iteration can only handle one at a time). But the revamped Alexa might not come for free. Amazon plans to launch the improved Alexa to some early users free of charge, but it's reportedly considering a price tag of between $5 and $10 per month for the new and improved version. On the bright side, it's thought to be fully compatible with all existing Amazon devices that support Alexa. Amazon has yet to issue an official comment on the reports. But Amazon might not be the only big tech firm struggling with quality-control-related delays to its AI assistants. Apple is reportedly delaying the rollout of the revamped, AI-enhanced Siri even further amid engineering problems and software bugs, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

Amazon's new Alexa delayed -- again -- over incorrect answers

The company plans to announce an enhanced version of its assistant this month after more than a year of setbacks, but it still won't be ready for customers. Amazon plans to unveil a revamped version of its Alexa virtual assistant in New York later this month -- the second launch event after a series of delays since the artificial intelligence-powered upgrade was first announced in September 2023. But while the event is scheduled for Feb. 26, the public release of the new Alexa has been pushed back until more than a month later, according to internal messages seen by The Washington Post and an Amazon employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect their job. Amazon staff learned of the new delay, which is due in part to the new version of the assistant giving incorrect answers to test questions, at a recent meeting, the employee said. The "smarter and more conversational" version of Alexa will not be available until March 31 or later, the employee said, at least a year and a half after it was initially announced in response to competition from OpenAI's ChatGPT. Internal messages seen by The Post confirmed the launch was originally scheduled for this month but was subsequently moved to the end of March. Amazon declined to comment on this story. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post. Amazon's failure to launch its renewed Alexa shows how even as the tech industry ploughs billions of dollars of investment into AI, companies are struggling to enhance marketable products with the technology. Apple last month paused an AI feature for iPhones that summarized notifications, after it misrepresented news alerts. Some investors on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley have warned that the tech industry may struggle to reap profits at the scale needed to repay its enormous capital investment in generative AI technology. Amazon executives on a recent earnings call said the company will spend $100 billion this year, much of it on data center development. An enhanced version of Amazon's voice assistant could boost its revenue by driving more sales of Alexa devices once the upgrade becomes publicly available. The assistant is currently free on the more than 500 million Alexa devices around the world that can do tasks like playing music, dimming lights and reading headlines. Amazon previously planned to launch the improved Alexa with a free trial period, after which customers would have to pay a subscription fee, The Post reported. According to internal documents seen by The Post, new features of the subscriber-only, AI-powered Alexa could include the ability to adopt a personality, recall conversations, order takeout or call a taxi. Some of the new Alexa features are similar to Alexa abilities that were previously available free through partnerships with companies like Grubhub and Uber. In the more than a year since Amazon first announced the new Alexa, the company restructured its devices team and replaced senior vice president Dave Limp, who became Bezos's rocket company, Blue Origin, with veteran Microsoft executive Panos Panay. Meanwhile, Alexa's competitors advanced. Apple launched an upgraded version of Siri, Alexa's most prominent voice-operated rival. OpenAI, Google and other companies developing ChatGPT-style chatbots added voice capabilities that are more social and conversational than Alexa, which is more scripted and task-oriented. In August, Amazon staff were told the upgraded Alexa would launch before the presidential election. The following month, videos of Alexa appearing to favor then-Vice President Kamala Harris over her presidential rival Donald Trump went viral, a glitch Amazon staff linked to AI technology added to the assistant to boost accuracy. Generative AI, the technology behind recent chatbots that Amazon is adding to Alexa, is prone to errors, including flubs known as "hallucinations," when an AI system fabricates incorrect information and presents it as if it were true. The AI-enhanced version of Alexa in development has been repeatedly delayed due to problems with incorrect answers, the employee working on the launch told The Post. As a popular product that is a decade old, the Alexa brand is valuable, and the company is hesitant to risk customer trust by launching a product that is not reliable, the person said. Alexa has struggled with accuracy in the past. When asked in 2023 whether there was fraud in the 2020 presidential election, The Post reported, Alexa incorrectly said there was a "massive amount," echoing misinformation propagated by Trump that the election had been stolen. The following year, Alexa gave an incorrect response to the question, "Who is the president of the United States?", The Post also reported. Amazon has said that it looks out for bad responses via user feedback and continual testing of Alexa and swiftly fixes any problems. On Wednesday afternoon, the existing version of Alexa correctly answered that Trump is president and that Joe Biden won the 2020 election. But the assistant showed signs of struggling to keep up with the times. Asked to identify the tallest mountain peak in Alaska, it said Denali, and asked what body of water borders Texas, it said the Gulf of Mexico. President Donald Trump issued an executive order last month to change Denali to Mount McKinley and the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Google has said it would adopt those changes and this week began displaying a Gulf of America label on its maps service to U.S. users.

Amazon's AI-enhanced Alexa reportedly delayed again

With an Alexa-themed event scheduled for February 26, it seemed like the long wait for the generative AI-powered Echo upgrade trailed all the way back in September 2023 might finally be over. But it appears Echo owners eager to see Alexa's major upgrade will have to wait a bit longer, as The Washington Post reports the actual rollout to users has been pushed back again. According to internal messages seen by the newspaper, employees have been told that the "smarter and more conversational" version of Alexa, originally scheduled for this month, has been pushed back to the end of March. An internal source within Amazon echoed this, adding the potential for it to slip further. The paper claims the source said it won't be available until "March 31 or later". As the paper notes, that will be a full 18 months after it was originally unveiled as a response to OpenAI and the rise of ChatGPT. The reason behind this is all too predictable to those who have been on the sharp end of generative AI's frequent hallucinations. It's "due in part to the new version of the assistant giving incorrect answers to test questions, at a recent meeting, the employee said." This isn't something unique to Amazon. Famously, Google's parent company Alphabet managed to lose over $100 billion of market value after Bard -- its original AI chatbot -- made an incorrect statement about the James Webb telescope during a live event in 2023. Coincidentally, $100 billion is also the figure that Amazon has revealed it will spend on AI technology this year -- "much of it on data center development". So it must be frustrating for shareholders that something that could offer a return on investment -- the new version of Alexa is expected to be a paid upgrade -- has failed to materialize a year and a half after first being trailed. According to the Washington Post's source, the cautious approach is all down to customer trust. "As a popular product that is a decade old, the Alexa brand is valuable, and the company is hesitant to risk customer trust by launching a product that is not reliable," the report explains. Though Alexa has always had some strange answers in the mix, the caution seems sensible. While Google's introduction of AI in search results has already caused plenty of problems, at least it's easy to fact-check, with sources clearly labeled to give an insight into its thought process. With Alexa on an Amazon Echo, it's not clear how you'd get a look inside that black box, which means accuracy is even more important -- especially when you consider that children may be asking questions unsupervised too. Nonetheless, it means that while the upcoming February 26 event will give us a look at the future, it's a future that's still at least a month away -- and possibly more.

You might have to wait a little longer for Alexa's AI upgrade

Although Amazon is set to unveil its AI upgrades to Alexa at an event on February 26, the Washington Post reports the actual update might not arrive for at least a month after. An anonymous Amazon employee shared the information with the Washington Post, stating that the new version of Alexa wouldn't arrive until March 31. The publication further confirmed that Amazon had originally planned to launch the new version of its smart assistant this month, but delayed the launch to address repeated "incorrect answers" given to test questions. Recommended Videos The delay has raised questions among investors. The huge amount of capital needed for AI technology makes it a risky investment, and it can be difficult for a company to turn a profit on AI technology. However, Amazon hopes an improved version of Alexa would drive more sales of Echo devices and other smart gadgets that utilize the assistant. The idea is that most Alexa functions would remain free to use, but the advanced version would only be accessible to subscribers. The more advanced version of Alexa could have the potential to develop a personality of its own and recall previous conversations. It could also perform advanced tasks, like order takeout for you (perfect for those who hate making phone calls) or order a taxi. These obstacles aren't wholly unexpected; other companies have also struggled with AI providing incorrect answers, with Apple's Notification Summaries drawing a lot of attention after numerous users received disturbing interpretations of text messages and news reports. Please enable Javascript to view this content An upgraded, more powerful version of Alexa would be helpful in the smart home space, but these delays show that there is still a long way to go before the technology can be freely implemented.

Amazon's revamped Alexa might launch over a month after its announcement event

Wes Davis is a weekend editor who covers the latest in tech and entertainment. He has written news, reviews, and more as a tech journalist since 2020. Amazon won't launch the AI-powered upgrade for Alexa for at least a month after its showcase at an event set for February 26th, according to The Washington Post. The delay is reportedly at least partly because the updated assistant has issues with giving inaccurate answers to test questions. An anonymous Amazon employee told the outlet that the upgrade won't come "until March 31 or later" due to the issues. The new Alexa could be tied to a subscription, with features like "the ability to adopt a personality, recall conversations, order takeout or call a taxi," and was originally set to launch later this month as a free trial, the Post writes, citing internal documents and messages. News of the delay comes after months of rumors suggesting Amazon is struggling to realize its plans to "supercharge" Alexa generative AI, which it said in 2023 would take place over a period of months, but still hasn't. It was reportedly delayed from a late 2024 launch amid beta tester reports of slow, stiff, and less-than-useful responses. Amazon did not immediately respond to The Verge's request for comment. Apple is also rumored to be having issues with its own Siri AI upgrade, which has been expected to come soon in iOS 18.4, but may see its capabilities limited or delayed entirely to iOS 18.5, coming as early as May, Bloomberg reported yesterday. Meanwhile, Google's Gemini-fueled digital assistant continues to enjoy a substantial lead in the race to beef up older smartphone assistants with generative AI.

Looks like the next-gen Alexa's release is hitting another speed bump

Summary Amazon's next-gen Alexa update may face a delay until March 31 due to testing issues, taking time to fine-tune its accuracy. Alexa's upgraded brain has been struggling in tests, so Amazon is taking extra time to iron out the kinks before launching. The next-gen Alexa could come with a monthly fee (possibly $10) for advanced features like personalized responses and better task handling. The rumor mill has been spinning hard about Amazon's next-gen Alexa, and the hype is real. The company has a hardware event lined up for February 26, which has people guessing what's in store. However, according to a new report, the actual software upgrade might not roll out to consumers until a month or so after the big reveal. According to a tip from an unnamed Amazon employee, shared by the Washington Post (via Android Authority), the smarter Alexa update won't be released until March 31. The holdup was apparently due to the upgraded assistant tripping over itself in testing, struggling to nail accurate answers. So, it seems like Amazon is taking extra time to fine-tune Alexa's brain before letting it loose. Related 25 of the funniest Alexa commands Looking for a laugh? Ask Alexa these questions Posts These hiccups aren't unique to Amazon; other tech giants are wrestling with AI growing pains too. Take Apple's Notification Summaries, which have been called out for spitting out weird or just plain wrong takes. And according to Bloomberg, Apple's planned Siri upgrade, originally pegged for iOS 18.4, might get scaled back or pushed to iOS 18.5, possibly landing in May. Alexa's delay might make it harder to compete with ChatGPT and Gemini Alexa has been playing catch-up with AI heavyweights like ChatGPT and Gemini, and these delays aren't helping. Despite Amazon's 2023 pledge for a major AI overhaul, the company has yet to deliver. A beta version that was supposed to roll out early in 2024 is still nowhere to be seen. And Alexa 2.0 was supposed to debut with new Kindles late last year, but that didn't happen either. This latest setback just highlights how Alexa's falling further behind in the AI race. The next-gen Alexa might come with a price tag, offering premium features like crafting its own personality and remembering your past chats. It could even handle stuff like ordering food or booking you a ride. Word on the street is Amazon has been toying with the idea of charging for this smarter version, and the buzz is it could run you around $10 a month. Amazon is betting that a souped-up Alexa will give Echo devices and other smart home gear a boost. The plan supposedly is to keep the basics free for everyone but lock the fancier features behind a paywall for subscribers.