Amazon will use real user conversations to train Alexa AI model

Amazon announced new AI capabilities for its Alexa products last week, based on a model it’s calling AlexaLLM (LLM refers to the “large language model”).

Amazon announced new AI capabilities for its Alexa products last week, based on a model it’s calling AlexaLLM (LLM refers to the “large language model”). The technology will make Alexa “more personalized to your family” and allow it to remember relevant context throughout conversations like a human, Amazon said.

But along with those new capabilities, said Amazon’s senior vice president of devices and services, Dave Limp, Amazon would use some user voice interactions with Alexa to train its AI model. 

Amazon says the new AlexaLLM is “the largest integration of a large language model” that provides real-time services on a suite of devices. It could be integrated with smart speakers like Alexa Echo or doorbells, such as Alexa Ring, which monitors visitors at doors and controls door locks. 

Like any LLM, though, it requires training and updating. 

In response to a viewer question in a Bloomberg TV interview, Limp said that by agreeing to use a more “customized” version of Alexa, users would be volunteering their voice data and conversations for Amazon’s LLM training purposes.