Amazon Goes All-In With Alexa+

It’s been another frenetic week in AI.
Let’s strap in and see what happened!

Amazon Goes All-In With Alexa+

After months of speculation and delays, Amazon officially announced a major AI upgrade for Alexa on Wednesday. The long-awaited Alexa+ service will begin rolling out in the coming weeks, starting with Echo Show devices featuring screens 8 inches or larger. Over time, Amazon plans to expand Alexa+ to all Alexa-enabled devices, a revamped Alexa+ mobile app, and a relaunch of Alexa.com.

This update is Amazon’s direct response to the rapid rise of AI-powered voice assistants such as Gemini (Google), CoPilot (Microsoft), and ChatGPT (OpenAI)—all of which have been aggressively marketed in recent months. In a promotional video, Amazon highlights Alexa+ helping users with vacation planning, car repairs, and even discovering the latest Billie Eilish concert dates—showcasing its ambition to make Alexa more useful in everyday life.

What’s New in Alexa+?

Alexa+ will integrate multiple AI platforms, including Amazon’s proprietary AI models and Anthropic’s Claude, enhancing its ability to provide more dynamic and contextual responses. One of the most anticipated features is “memory” functionality, allowing Alexa to remember user preferences over time.

If that means Alexa+ will finally recall my favorite radio stations and preferred artist streams — instead of defaulting to random duds — it’s at least a step in the right direction.

ElevenLabs Switches Up With New Transcription Tool
The text-to-voice service launched a Voice-to-Text engine this week. Scribe supports over 99 languages at launch. The company claims to have 97% accuracy on many languages. This development follows ElevenLabs’ recent $180 million Series C funding round, which valued the company at $3.3 billion. [details]

ChatGPT Rolls Out 4.5 Today
The new model appears to be more evolutionary than revolutionary. Sam Altman called GPT-4.5 “the first model that feels like talking to a thoughtful person.” It’s out now to pro users paying $200/month and will roll out to more users soon. [details]

Sinclair Launches Multi-Language Closed Captioning
The Tower of Babel continues its collapse. Sinclair has become the first broadcaster to implement live AI-powered language translation for its local newscasts, starting with real-time Spanish translations in multiple markets. This initiative, in collaboration with AI language editing company Deeptune, aims to enhance accessibility and engagement for non-English-speaking viewers. [details]

UK’s ‘Make It Fair’ Campaign Protests Unauthorized AI Training
More than 1,000 musicians, including Kate Bush, Billy Ocean, and Damon Albarn, have released an album consisting of silent tracks, to protest UK government proposals that would allow AI companies to train on copyrighted works without permission. The plan includes “an opt-out” option – where creatives and companies can block their work from being used – that has been dismissed by critics as unfair and unworkable. [details]

NYT Adds AI to Writers’ Workflow
The New York Times has reportedly approved the use of internal AI tools, known as Echo, to assist newsroom staff with tasks such as editing copy, summarizing information, and coding. This initiative aims to enhance journalistic efficiency while maintaining editorial standards. The company instructed editorial staff that AI must not be used to write or heavily edit articles, bypass paywalls, or include copyrighted content from third parties. [details]

CoPilot Adds New Features to Free Tier
The scrum for AI supremacy is fierce. The same week that Alexa+ is announced, Microsoft has expanded its Copilot AI assistant by introducing a native macOS app, allowing Mac users to generate text and images through voice commands. This release follows Microsoft’s decision to make premium features, including Copilot Voice and the Think Deeper function powered by OpenAI’s o1 model, free with unlimited use for all users. [details]