Hello and welcome to Eye on AI. In today’s edition…Amazon introduces its new generative AI-powered Alexa; Microsoft workers protest AI deals with the Israeli military; Meta looks to go big on a new data center campus; Chegg sues Google over AI Overviews; and college students are increasingly leaning on AI for schoolwork.
More than a year after first announcing it, Amazon yesterday finally launched Alexa+, its new version of Alexa powered by generative AI. On paper, it’s certainly a step up from the Alexa that’s been available for the last decade, offering integrations with “tens of thousands of services and devices,” the ability to memorize user preferences, perform a wide range of tasks, and deliver an overall more personal and conversational experience. As Coins2Day’s Sharon Goldman reported, it will be available to limited customers starting in March and will be free for Prime members or $20 per month.
Whether or not it takes off with consumers, however, is going to be the billion-dollar question. The original Alexa turned out to be useful for only a small range of tasks and struggled to live up to its promise. And as I wrote last week in light of AI Pin-maker Humane shutting down, the device side of the AI era hasn’t been going so great, with both the AI Pin and Rabbit’s competitor R1 device struggling to resonate with consumers. Alexa+ is not only Amazon’s chance to catch up in the AI race, but another shot at mainstream adoption of an AI assistant-type of hardware device.
Alexa goes full agent
The new release offers significantly more than answers to “Alexa, tell me the weather.” According to Amazon, Alexa+ can manage your calendar and emails, give summaries of important documents, remember important details, deliver personalized news summaries, order groceries, make dinner reservations, book appointments, and generate images and music. It has vision capabilities and can take and analyze photos—matching a capability that OpenAI offers through ChatGPT’s “advanced voice mode” and that Google has been building with its yet-to-be released Project Astra AI tool. Like those other AI assistants, Alexa+ can also have free-flowing conversations and answer niche requests, like a request for a recommendation for a 20-minute podcast within a certain genre.
Of course, it also adds some new smart home features, like the ability to summarize what’s going on around your home, create routines, and decipher more complex and conversational smart home commands. Overall, the company is framing Alexa+ as more conversational, smarter, personalized, and proactive.
The gang’s all here
Amazon pulled out all the stops in terms of partnerships and integrations, setting up Alexa+ to interact with so many of the most popular services the average person uses. This includes GrubHub, OpenTable, Ticketmaster, Yelp, Thumbtack, Vagaro, Fodor’s, TripAdvisor, Amazon, Whole Foods, Uber, Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, Max, and more.
Alexa+ also relies on partnerships with publications including The Associated Press, Politico, the Washington Post, and Reuters to offer data and information about financial markets, sports, and more. A partnership with AI company Suno powers the music generating capabilities. And as far as what’s going on under the hood, Alexa+ relies on AI models that include Amazon’s Nova model as well as other leading models, including those from Anthropic, the AI company that Amazon has backed to the tune of $8 billion dollars so far.
Amazon has previously sold more than 500 million Alexa-enabled devices, according to the company, which puts this launch directly in the hands of tons of consumers. This distribution alone sets up Amazon to be an important decider in determining how people will interact with AI agents. Amazon has a lot riding on this Alexa makeover, and so whether Alexa+ proves a success will be a story to watch.
And with that, here’s more AI news.
Sage Lazzaro
[email protected]
sagelazzaro.com
AI IN THE NEWS
Microsoft workers protest the company’s sale of AI and cloud services to the Israeli military. The company ushered five employees out of a company town hall for protesting deals with the Israeli military, which were revealed in an Associated Press report last week. The report described how Microsoft and OpenAI are supplying AI models to an Israeli military program that selects bombing targets to be struck in Gaza and Lebanon. The workers stood up to reveal T-shirts that read “Does Our Code Kill Kids, Satya?” While CEO Sataya Nadella was speaking about new products. Nadella did not acknowledge the protestors, according to the AP. Over a dozen more employees later spoke up on an internal forum, questioning if the company is breaking its own principles to not let its AI be used for harm, the news agency reported citing screenshots from the forum the AP said it had reviewed. Workers within Microsoft have been raising concerns for months about the company’s dealings with the Israeli military. Microsoft has not commented on the AP report or whether the protestors will face disciplinary action. In a statement to the AP, the company said: “We provide many avenues for all voices to be heard. Importantly, we ask that this be done in a way that does not cause a business disruption. If that happens, we ask participants to relocate. We are committed to ensuring our business practices uphold the highest standards.”
Meta is reportedly in talks to build a $200 billion data center campus for AI. That’s according to The Information, which cited people familiar with the matter. The report states that Meta executives have had conversations with developers about building the enormous data center campus in Louisiana, Wyoming, or Texas and visited potential sites this month. A Meta spokesperson denied the report to Reuters, calling it “pure speculation.” Meta has already told investors it plans to spend upwards of $60 billion on data center and AI infrastructure.
Online education company Chegg sues Google over AI Overviews. The lawsuit alleges that Google uses its search dominance to force Chegg to supply content to be included in AI Overviews, rather than sending users to the original source, as was more likely to occur with a traditional Google search. Chegg says Google’s AI overviews have hurt the company’s traffic and revenue so much that it’s being forced to explore a sale or go private. The company reported a 24% decrease in its fourth quarter revenue compared to last year and blamed its financial woes on AI-generated search summaries in its quarterly report. It’s the first such case of a publicly traded company suing over financial losses it says are being directly caused by a search engine’s AI. You can read more in the Washington Post.
FORTUNE ON AI
The $19.6 billion pivot: How OpenAI’s 2-year struggle to launch GPT-5 revealed that its core AI strategy has stopped working —by Jeremy Kahn
Nvidia smashes expectations yet again, posts record $130.5 billion in revenue for the year —by Greg McKenna
Jensen Huang hails DeepSeek, touts ‘extraordinary’ Blackwell demand after Nvidia crushes earnings—again —by Greg McKenna
U.K. Lawmakers back artists’ protest against government plans to allow AI copyright exemption —b y David Meyer
AI CALENDAR
March 3-6: MWC, Barcelona
March 7-15: SXSW, Austin
March 10-13: Human [X] conference, Las Vegas
March 17-20: Nvidia GTC, San Jose
April 9-11: Google Cloud Next, Las Vegas
May 6-7: Coins2Day Brainstorm AI London. Apply to attend here.
May 20-21: Google IO, Mountain View, Calif.
EYE ON AI NUMBERS
92%
That’s the percentage of undergrad students in the U.K. Who say they use AI to help them with their coursework, according to a survey published this week by the Higher Education Policy Institute think tank. It’s a sharp increase from a year ago when 66% said they were using AI.
According to the survey, the main ways students are using generative AI is to summarize articles, explain concepts, and get suggestions for research ideas. Eighteen percent admitted to including AI-generated text directly in their work. While students say using AI saves them time and helps them improve their work, some are concerned using AI will get them in trouble. The survey found that women are more likely to feel this way, while men feel more enthusiastic about AI.
