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Amazon is set to release its long-awaitedand delayedAlexa generative artificial intelligence voice service, said three people familiar with the matter, and has scheduled a press event for later this month to preview it. Once released, it would mark the most significant upgrade to the product since its initial introduction accelerated a wave of digital assistants more than a decade ago. Amazon on Wednesday sent press invites to an event to be held on February 26 in New York featuring the head of its devices and services team, Panos Panay. A spokesperson said the event is Alexa-focused, while declining to elaborate. The new generative AI-powered Alexa represents at once a huge opportunity for Amazon, which counts more than half a billion Alexa-enabled devices in the market, and a tremendous risk. Amazon is hoping the revamp, designed to be able to converse with users, can convert some of its hundreds of millions of users into paying customers in an effort to generate a return for the unprofitable business. The AI service will be able to respond to multiple prompts in sequence and, company executives have said, even act as an agent on behalf of users by taking actions for them without their direct involvement. That contrasts with the current iteration, which generally handles only a single request at a time. Executives have scheduled a meeting, known as a “Go/No-go,” for February 14. There they will make a final decision on the “street readiness” of Alexa’s generative AI revamp, according to the people and an internal planning document seen by Reuters. Alexa’s revamp carries with it all the challenges inherent in now-familiar generative AI chatbots from OpenAI, Alphabet and others including the possibility of fabricated answers, known as hallucinations. With access to Alexa available in cars, televisions, thermostats and mobile phones, it could become an essential daily tool for scheduling and even shopping. Initially, Amazon plans to roll out the new Alexa service to a limited number of users and will not charge for it, the people said, though it has considered a $5 to $10 monthly fee. The company will also continue to offer what it is calling Classic Alexa, the version broadly available today for free. One of the people said Amazon has discontinued adding new offerings to Classic Alexa. Bezos’ vision While Apple’s Siri voice assistant preceded Alexa’s 2014 release by three years, the Amazon service supercharged the acceptance of voice assistants. But for many people, Alexa is now used for little more than kitchen timers and weather updates due to its lack of significant overhauls in the last few years. Alexa is the brainchild of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who envisioned a service that would resemble the voice-activated computers on TV’s “Star Trek.” The hope was that once perfected, users would turn to the voice assistant for hundreds of everyday tasks like turning on lights, preheating the oven, accessing the internet, playing music, writing emails and summoning taxis. Someday in the future – that might be years or decades away – it could answer everything that you would ever ask it, Amazons then chief of devices, Dave Limp, said nearly a decade ago. With those weighty expectations, the move to upgrade Alexa has suffered delays over concerns around the quality and speed of its responses, people familiar with the matter have told Reuters. Amazon dubbed the new service Banyan internally, as well as Remarkable Alexa, though it was not immediately clear if the Seattle company planned on using either as a new product name. In a January Financial Times interview, Amazon executive Rohit Prasad acknowledged some of the obstacles in developing what is effectively an entirely new service, including the work to eliminate hallucinations. Analysts at Bank of America estimate Amazon could generate $600 million annually if 10% of active users, which it estimates at around 100 million devices, pay $5 per month for the service. Greg Bensinger, Reuters
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U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Wednesday he is reconsidering rules that allowed air traffic control supervisors to reduce staffing at Washington’s Reagan National Airport before a fatal Army helicopter-plane collision that killed 67 people last week. Duffy, who also said he spoke to Trump adviser Elon Musk on Tuesday about airspace reform issues, questioned the military’s flying of helicopter flights near congested Reagan National Airport. “If we have generals who are flying in helicopters for convenience through this airspace, that’s not acceptable. Get a damn Suburban and driveyou don’t need to take a helicopter,” Duffy said in a speech in Washington. The Black Hawk helicopter was on a training mission and the pilot may have been wearing night vision goggles. “We also have to look at (military) missions that have flown the DC airspace,” Duffy said. “We’re going to hopefully find this out, but if they had night vision goggles on a mission like that at nine o’clock at night and not at 1 a.m. – it is unacceptable.” He noted the helicopter was flying at 300 feet (91.4 m) – above the maximum 200 feet for that route. “We have to take a real look at the safety around this airspace We can fly training missions at a different time of night.” In the aftermath of the crash, the FAA has imposed significant restrictions on helicopter flights around Reagan National Airport until at least late February. Duffy noted that before the crash, two air traffic control positions were consolidated for helicopters and aircraft. “We’re going to pull that authority back to make sure that we have the right policies in place inside our towers to make sure when you fly you’re safe,” Duffy said. Duffy also plans to announce in the coming days steps to surge more air traffic control training and applicants. The FAA is about 3,000 controllers short of staffing levels and nearly all control towers have staffing issues. “It’s going to take us time to get more air traffic controllers,” Duffy said. Duffy noted the FAA is using antiquated technology to oversee flights. “We’re going to upgrade it and make sure that America has the most innovative, technologically advanced air system, air traffic control system that’s going to make it safer,” Duffy said. David Shepardson, Reuters
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E-Commerce
Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) loans have become increasingly popular in recent yearsoriginations grew tenfold between 2019 and 2021, for instance. Last year, roughly 20% of American consumers used one to make a purchase. Despite their increasing usage, BNPL loans are still not used to calculate credit scoreswhich may have effects for lenders, and could be costing some consumers with good credit habits some valuable points. FICOthe creator of the FICO Score which is used by 90% of U.S.-based lending institutions to make lending decisionsrecently published an analysis in tandem with the BNPL company Affirm to get a sense of what the results would be if those loans were used to calculate FICO scores. The results? Mostly good for both consumers and lenders. The analysis looked at data from a 12-month period and compared the FICO scores of more than 500,000 people who used Affirm to open a BNPL loan against those who had not. FICO then simulated the inclusion of the BNPL data into its model and found that most people saw an increase or no change in their credit scores. Affirm gave us data that would be the same data they would furnish to a credit bureau, says Julie May, vice president and general manager of B2B scores at FICO. With the simulated study, we would see positive benefits for approximately two-thirds of consumers, particularly for those with utilization of five or more BNPL loans, she says. In all, incorporating BNPL loan data into credit scoring models would benefit consumers, and the lenders who use the FICO score to make lending decisions, she says. In all, the analysis found that using the BNPL data to generate a FICO score was generally consistent with the opening of a new account, with a slight (plus or minus 10 points) change in their score for 85% of the individuals analyzed. For those who have better credit habitssuch as making on-time payments, and keeping their overall credit utilization lowthe BNPL data helps increase scores to a degree. With the simulation complete, May says that FICO will be looking to roll out a new FICO scoring model in the future that will incorporate BNPL data, effectively the first model to do so. We know what the actual solution would be; were in final discussions with stakeholders in terms of how that would roll out, she says. Theres no hard date yet, but May adds that when it does ultimately happen, FICO is excited to introduce the proprietary technique to the marketplace.
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E-Commerce
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