Amazon has acquired the AI wearables startup Bee. Bee makes both a stand-alone Fitbit-like bracelet (which retails for $49.99, plus a $19-per-month subscription) and an Apple Watch app. The product records everything it hears — unless the user manually mutes it — with the goal of listening to conversations to create reminders and to-do lists for the user. The company hopes to create a “cloud phone,” or a mirror of your phone that gives the personal Bee device access to the user’s accounts and notifications, making it possible to get reminders about events or send messages. At a $50 price point, Bee’s devices are more cost-accessible to a curious consumer who doesn’t want to make a big financial commitment. This acquisition signals Amazon’s interest in developing wearable AI devices, a different avenue from its voice-controlled home assistant products like its line of Echo speakers. Bee says that users can delete their data at any time and that audio recordings are not saved, stored, or used for AI training. The app does store data that the AI learns about the user, however, which is how it can function as an assistant. Bee also says it’s working on a feature to allow users to define boundaries — both based on topic and location — that will automatically pause the device’s learning. The company noted that it plans to build on-device AI processing, which generally poses less of a privacy risk than processing data in the cloud.
Amazon’s virtual assistant’s web-based version Alexa.com to be launched this summer; would be vastly more conversational and able to handle significantly more complex tasks
Alexa.com, a new web-based version of Amazon’s virtual assistant, will reportedly be launched “no sooner than July 31.” This version of Alexa was first announced in February and was previously scheduled to launch at the end of June, cites internal Amazon documents. Amazon spokesperson Lauren Raemhild said, Alexa.com is not delayed and “will be available with Alexa+ Early Access this summer.” The company’s Alexa+ Early Access web page said Monday that Alexa.com is “coming soon.” Several million people have early access to Alexa+ and 90% of the features Amazon announced in February. Raemhild said that Amazon is fine-tuning Alexa+ as it expands the new virtual assistant to more customers. “Customers love that Alexa+ is vastly more conversational and able to handle significantly more complex tasks, and this Early Access phase is really important as we learn how they want to use it, and what they expect,” Raemhild said.
Amazon’s Alexa+ voice assistant draws 100,000 users; but targets universe of half a billion Amazon devices in people’s homes, offices and cars; wake word needs to be said only once for an entire conversation
Amazon has rolled out Alexa+, the new version of its voice assistant, to more than 100,000 users so far, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said. Alexa+ will be made available to more users in the coming months, Jassy said. It is now starting to roll out in the U.S. and will be expanded to other countries later this year. The new version of the voice assistant is being made available on an Early Access basis, beginning with customers who sign up to be notified and own an Echo Show 8, 10, 15 or 21 and then expanding to more Echo customers over time. The new voice assistant is free to Prime members and available for $19.99 per month to non-members, Jassy said. He added that Amazon has more than half a billion devices in people’s homes, offices and cars to which Alexa+ will be able to be delivered. Jassy said that the new version is “meaningfully smarter and more capable than its prior self, can both answer virtually any questions and take actions.” He added that users no longer have to say “Alexa” before requesting every action; instead, they only have to say it once and can then have an ongoing conversation with the voice assistant.