Amazon unveils AI-powered Alexa+

Amazon has launched an AI-powered version of its Alexa voice assistant after repeated development delays.

At an event in New York, company Senior Vice President Panos Panay called it 'your friendly, know-it-all sidekick':

“She’s been trained in a couple of different ways, from EQ to humor to understanding. So, what that means is, she checks my tone. She brings a nice tone back. She understands I’m a little bit nervous. She tries to calm me. It’s kind of a great conversation. Also recognizes the environment around us."

Alexa was first introduced a decade ago.

Amazon has since plowed billions into the product, hoping it will drive sales for its main e-commerce website.

It says some 500 million gadgets connected to Alexa are already in consumer hands.

But many people use them for little more than setting timers and checking the weather, and Alexa has so far been a money-losing venture for the tech giant.

Amazon boss Andy Jassy says developers have thought hard about how to make the new version more useful.

“How are you actually using this new generative AI revolution to make Alexa meaningfully better? And so our team has been working on this for several months. I've had a chance to use it for the last several weeks. It is really remarkable in my opinion.”

Dubbed Alexa+, the new bot is free for Amazon Prime members, and $19.99 per month for everyone else.

The service will become available to some users in March, before gradually rolling out more widely.

Besides being able to read the room, Amazon says Alexa+ can chat with users and respond to multiple prompts in sequence, not just one question at a time.

The launch comes after delays driven by concerns over the speed and quality of responses.

Amazon executives have admitted battling to eliminate so-called hallucinations, when bots deliver fabricated answers.