Anthropic's Claude large language model is powering the majority of complex tasks for Amazon's new Alexa+, sources tell CNBC.

Will the new Alexa make sense of your shopping, entertainment, and lifestyle habits to become the first useful, contextually aware, universal assistant?

Amazon is aiming to catch up in generative artificial intelligence and to reboot its virtual assistant, which has been leapfrogged by powerful chatbots.

Ten years after Amazon debuted its virtual assistant, Alexa is finally being upgraded for the generative-AI age. Meet Alexa+.

Alexa+, Amazon’s revamped version of Alexa was unveiled Wednesday, bringing the popular voice assistant into the artificial intelligence era.

Anthropic on Monday closed its latest funding round at a $61.5 billion post-money valuation, the company confirmed to CNBC.

The biggest surprise at Amazon’s press conference last week was the lack of hardware announcements. Traditionally, Amazon announces dozens of new gadgets at its events, but this time, Amazon spent 70 minutes talking about software. Specifically, Alexa Plus, its new generative AI-powered Alexa voice assistant. And that was exactly the right move.

Amazon has been working for years to overhaul Alexa with generative AI features as it faced rising competition from OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other chatbots.

Now we know that an AI-powered Alexa+ is coming to your Amazon device very soon (assuming you live in the US of course – international release dates are still to be confirmed), we can welcome Amazon back to the virtual assistant race with open arms.

Amazon is launching an update to Alexa with capabilities allowing consumers to order groceries. The Alexa+ feature will work with Amazon Fresh and other grocery partners collaborating with Amazon, the company tells Tech Crunch. Uber Eats is also available through this service.

Amazon is to start charging a monthly fee for a revamped version of Alexa that can order groceries and make restaurant bookings. The online retailer’s new Alexa+ service, which will cost as much as $19.99 (£15.74) per month, will be able to understand complicated requests, order items online and manage smart home gadgets.

The new Alexa is Amazon’s effort to compete with the wave of AI-infused virtual assistants that have grown in popularity since 2022, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. Amazon ...