The race for artificial intelligence (AI) has accelerated since OpenAI’s ChatGPT went live. Google and Microsoft are already in the lead among the big tech behemoths. And, now, the newest member is Amazon. According to CEO Andy Jassy, Alexa, Amazon’s voice assistant, will soon be “the best personal assistant in the world”.
Jassy stated during an earnings call that the business is developing a larger large language model (LLM) than the one currently supporting Alexa. He emphasized throughout the event that Amazon will keep funding AI projects for cloud computing services.
The Alexa Fund, an investment fund with $200 million in funding from Amazon that supports the development of speech technology, is happy to welcome the newest group of firms to Alexa Next Stage, Powered by Techstars. An 8-week virtual program designed to support businesses as they combine Alexa with their technology to create exciting new experiences for customers will get underway with teams from 7 organizations operating across 5 countries and 9 time zones.
Moving Their Startup Project to the Next Level
Since the Alexa Fund was founded almost five years ago, it has looked for innovative ways to help businesses through the Alexa Fund and its programs. The Alexa Accelerator has helped 27 businesses over the past three years that have now joined the Alexa Fund’s portfolio of investments. A development of the Alexa Accelerator, Alexa Next Stage, Powered by Techstars, aims to engage a wider range of businesses, regardless of stage or location, and offer additional Alexa experiences to users throughout the world. The development shows how Alexa has grown and that there are excellent entrepreneurs all over the world.
Increasing Participation through Virtualization
In order to increase program participation in 2020, Amazon looked for novel ways to involve startups. They made the decision to go digital and announced Alexa Next Stage, Powered by Techstars in March 2020. There were hundreds of startups applying at first, that was when Amazon started the remote conferencing program and spoke with business owners from all over the world who were innovative and talented. Companies that might have previously been unable to join the accelerator due to travel and extended stays in Seattle were now able to do so because of the all-virtual shift at Alexa Next Stage, Powered by Techstars. For the first time, the program accepted more foreign-based businesses than American-based businesses.
Presenting the 2020 Alexa Next Stage, Powered by Techstars Class
The businesses in this year’s class have the potential to both improve the experiences that Alexa has grown to be recognized for compelling audio content and excellent audio processing and to expand capabilities in new domains, including meeting productivity, social audio, language acquisition, and emotional support. Amazon then carefully considered how these kinds of interactions are assisting customers in today’s new and developing contexts, including how Alexa might be at the center of more touchless interactions, before choosing this class.
Conclusion
Hence, Amazon’s voice assistant technology is taking a digital advantage milestone, especially with new and better technology being generated with time. But, there will definitely be more development in the future regarding voice assistant technologies, and we can’t wait to find out what comes after.
