Amazon Explains Why It Is Late In The AI Race And What Happens To Alexa Now

Amazon has been far behind its rivals like Google and Microsoft in the AI race and even its voice assistant Alexa has missed the AI boat so far. The company has remained silent as the media continued to highlight its situation but Amazon has finally spoken up via its AI chief this week.

So what is the company planning for the AI life and when do we see them make the big moves? Amazon’s AGI chief Rohit Prasad, quoted by the Financial Times said his company is working hard to ensure there are zero AI hallucinations. This generally happens when the AI starts projecting responses based on falsified history or details.

The AI Error Issue

Google has seen the issues with Gemini AI when it made errors, and even Apple was recently accused of AI hallucinations when its AI tool claimed popular tennis star Rafael Nadal comes out as gay which was notified to millions of iPhone users.

Amazon delaying its AI roll out for these issues is understandable but if they really wait till the AI becomes glitch-free to make its products public, the race would have gone far beyond their reach. The company, Prasad says, aims to relaunch Alexa as an AI agent that will more likely function like ChatGPT or Gemini AI, which is probably the right path to follow in the near future.

Last Chance Saloon?

The original launch date for the new Alexa was supposed to be in October 2024, which was later pushed for early 2025 and Prasad talking about the AI agent avatar of Alexa in January suggests the roll out might happen soon. The company was even forced to hold back the beta version of Alexa AI because it wasn’t happy with how the AI platform had developed so far.

Amazon’s Large Language Model (LLM) challenges have also shown its limitations, which explains its difficulty in Alexa to be trained in human-centric tasks and other smart activities. The company also had an AI event in 2024 which promised a lot but flattered to deceive, we are hoping 2025 changes that for Amazon and it truly makes Alexa a viable AI agent in the market.