Amazon Alexa is about to turn 10, but its next-gen AI upgrade may have been delayed until 2025

4 days ago 3

The Amazon Echo Pop speaker (Image credit: Amazon)

Amazon is working to get Alexa to ChatGPT levels
The launch was originally planned for early 2024
Bugs, hallucinations, and simple tasks are still issues

Amazon Alexa was originally launched alongside the very first Amazon Echo speaker back on November 6, 2014 – but as the voice assistant approaches its 10th birthday, it's struggling to keep up with next-gen AI bots like ChatGPT and Gemini.

According to a new report from Bloomberg, "technical challenges" mean that Alexa's upcoming upgrade has now been pushed back to 2025. Originally, a beta version of the updated bot was planned to arrive earlier this year, Bloomberg says.

There was also apparently a plan to unveil Alexa 2.0 alongside the new Kindles that appeared last month, but again the launch got pushed back. Now, some unspecified point in 2025 is the target deadline.

With the likes of Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, ChatGPT, and many other bots pushing their way into every aspect of digital life, Amazon knows that it's lagging behind – Alexa has effectively been overtaken by its rivals.

Bugs and hallucinations

There's no doubt that a generative AI upgrade for Alexa is a challenge. The assistant is currently available on around half a billion devices, and rolling out an update for all of them isn't a straightforward task.

Bloomberg's report says the souped up version of Alexa in testing still has a tendency to "drone on with irrelevant or superfluous information", while also struggling with basic tasks, such as switching on smart lights.

While there has been some progress towards a ChatGPT-style Alexa, the sources speaking to Bloomberg say there's a long way to go, with bugs and hallucinations causing problems. There has been talk that Amazon could get help from another AI model, in the same way that Apple has supercharged Siri with ChatGPT.

There's also a lack of a "compelling vision" according to insiders, with "management bloat" around Alexa another issue. So, even if you've got one of the best Alexa speakers, it looks like it's going to be a while before you get one of the best AI bots built into it.

Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.

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