Amazon is set to upgrade its Alexa virtual assistant by incorporating Anthropic’s Claude AI model, with a new premium version expected to debut in October. The upcoming changes to Alexa will utilise Anthropic’s advanced large language model, as it moves away from Amazon’s in-house AI technology.
Sources familiar with the situation indicated that this upgrade will come at a cost, with Amazon planning to charge users between $5 and $10 per month for the enhanced “remarkable” version of Alexa, while the existing “classic” version will remain free.
Initially, Amazon intended to augment Alexa using its proprietary AI software. However, early testing revealed that the internal system struggled with response times, sometimes taking six to seven seconds to answer queries.
The new paid version of Alexa is designed to facilitate more natural conversations and handle complex requests from a single prompt, significantly improving user interaction.
In March 2024, Amazon completed a $4 billion investment in Anthropic, securing a minority stake in the AI developer and establishing a partnership that includes the use of AWS as its cloud services provider.
Amazon is not the only tech giant investing in Anthropic as Alphabet, Google’s parent company, has also taken a $2 billion stake. Additionally, Anthropic has attracted talent from rival AI developer OpenAI, with co-founder John Schulman joining the company to focus on AI alignment and technical development.
However, these partnerships have raised regulatory concerns, particularly in the United Kingdom, where the Competition and Markets Authority has launched an investigation into Amazon’s investment in Anthropic, examining potential anti-competitive implications.
Microsoft and OpenAI are also under similar scrutiny in Europe and the UK.