Exciting New Generative AI Features Unveiled for Amazon Alexa

At this year's CES, generative AI has emerged as a prominent theme among major tech companies, including Volkswagen, Nvidia, and Amazon.

In September 2023, Amazon announced exciting new tools for developers aimed at creating experiences powered by large language models (LLMs). Today, the company showcased three developers who are launching innovative generative AI-enhanced experiences for Alexa, featuring AI chatbot platform Character.AI, AI music company Splash, and Voice AI game developer Volley. These experiences are now available via the Amazon Alexa Skill Store.

The new offering from Character.AI allows Alexa users to engage in real-time conversations with a variety of personas. Users can chat with fictional characters like Librarian Linda, interact with a personal trainer, or even have exchanges with historical figures such as Socrates.

Splash has introduced a free Alexa Skill where users can compose songs using just their voice. To get started, users simply say, “Alexa, open Splash Music,” choose a genre—like pop, electronic, rock, or hip hop—and add their lyrics while singing or rapping along. After creating their custom songs, users can ask Alexa to send a link to download them directly to their mobile devices.

Volley has rolled out a generative AI version of the beloved “20 Questions” game, allowing Alexa users to engage in a modern twist on this classic challenge. The game leverages generative AI to ask users questions, provide hints, and clarify “yes or no questions” when players encounter difficulties.

In recent months, Amazon has enhanced Alexa with several AI-driven features, including a new generative AI model that gives the virtual assistant a more expressive personality and the capability to adjust its tone based on emotional context, such as excitement or surprise. Additionally, Amazon introduced a kid-friendly feature on Echo devices called “Explore with Alexa.” This allows Amazon Kids+ subscribers to engage in fun conversations, learn interesting facts, and answer trivia questions.

Other announcements from Amazon at CES include plans to integrate Fire TV into Panasonic’s new smart TVs in 2024, support for Matter Casting on Fire TV and Echo Show 15 devices, and the unrolling of their latest generation of robotaxi, Zoox.

Updated 1/10/24 at 9:10 a.m. ET: Note that Elon Musk, William Shakespeare, Mario, and Princess Peach characters from Character.AI are available exclusively on the native app, not through Alexa.