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Alexa Turns 10, Amazon Turns to Generative AI

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As Alexa turns 10, Amazon looks to generative AI

Amazon is losing money on Echo smart speakers. That’s been an open secret for Alexa’s entire existence. It’s the product of a loss-leader strategy that only an organization the dimensions of Amazon can afford to sustain for a decade.

Selling hardware at a loss can in fact be an efficient strategy. Think of printers and razors, which get corporate feet within the door and make up the loss with ink cartridges and blades, respectively.

From a saturation perspective, Amazon’s strategy may be considered successful. Earlier this yr, the founder Jeff Bezos claimed, that Alexa is now available in 100 million homes, on 400 million devices.

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But the financial reality paints a really different picture. According to a recent report by The Wall Street Journal, Amazon’s devices division lost a staggering $25 billion in five years between 2017 and 2021. Alexa section apparently he went missing $10 billion in 2022 alone.

At some point, the loss leader simply becomes a loss. This reality collapsed in late 2023, when a number of hundred were laid off from the Alexa unit. Eleven-figure annual losses combined with a bleak macroeconomic outlook are unsustainable, even for a corporation with annual revenues of $600 billion.

Alexa isn’t the one smart assistant to come back to earth lately. In addition to offerings like Bixby and Cortana, which have disappeared entirely, consumer enthusiasm around Google Assistant and Siri has also waned.

In recent months, nevertheless, each Google and Apple have made it clear they’re not ready to surrender. Siri took center stage at WWDC in June, as Apple breathed latest life into the brand with its latest Apple Intelligence initiative. Google similarly confirmed this week that Assistant will get Gemini support in the house.

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A 2021 Bloomberg report noted that despite Alexa’s popularity, most queries involve one in every of three tasks: play music, control lights and set timers.

A former senior Amazon worker put it much more bluntly, telling the WSJ: “We were worried about hiring 10,000 people and building a smart timer.” Given all of the published criticism of Alexa over its decade of existence, this could be the simplest cut.

While the corporate has continued to release Echo devices, including the improved Spot announced last month, the corporate has taken its foot off the gas. There’s little question been a variety of soul-searching among the many Spheres. Like Google and Apple, Amazon sees generative AI because the lifeline Alexa needs.

The 10,000-person timer problem is a results of devices failing to meet customer expectations. Getting third-party developers to create skills was part of a bigger effort to make Alexa more useful. Amazon has also tried to improve the assistant’s conversational skills through the years.

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In this respect, generative AI is a game-changer. Platforms like ChatGPT have demonstrated incredible conversational natural language capabilities. Late last yr, Amazon offered announcement Alexa’s AI-powered future.

“We’ve always seen Alexa as an evolving service, and we’ve been continually improving it since the day we launched in 2014,” the corporate wrote. “Our long-held mission has been to make talking to Alexa as natural as talking to another human, and with the rapid advancement of generative AI, what we imagined is now within reach.”

November marks a decade because the announcement of Alexa and Echo. There might be no higher time to reveal an image of what the subsequent 10 years might appear like. Whether the assistant gets one other decade will depend, partly, on how the subsequent few months play out.

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This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com

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One of the last AI Google models is worse in terms of safety

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The Google Gemini generative AI logo on a smartphone.

The recently released Google AI model is worse in some security tests than its predecessor, in line with the company’s internal comparative test.

IN Technical report Google, published this week, reveals that his Flash Gemini 2.5 model is more likely that he generates a text that violates its security guidelines than Gemini 2.0 Flash. In two indicators “text security for text” and “image security to the text”, Flash Gemini 2.5 will withdraw 4.1% and 9.6% respectively.

Text safety for the text measures how often the model violates Google guidelines, making an allowance for the prompt, while image security to the text assesses how close the model adheres to those boundaries after displaying the monitors using the image. Both tests are automated, not supervised by man.

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In an e-mail, Google spokesman confirmed that Gemini 2.5 Flash “performs worse in terms of text safety for text and image.”

These surprising comparative results appear when AI is passing in order that their models are more acceptable – in other words, less often refuse to answer controversial or sensitive. In the case of the latest Llam Meta models, he said that he fought models in order to not support “some views on others” and answers to more “debated” political hints. Opeli said at the starting of this yr that he would improve future models, in order to not adopt an editorial attitude and offers many prospects on controversial topics.

Sometimes these efforts were refundable. TechCrunch announced on Monday that the default CHATGPT OPENAI power supply model allowed juvenile to generate erotic conversations. Opeli blamed his behavior for a “mistake”.

According to Google Technical Report, Gemini 2.5 Flash, which is still in view, follows instructions more faithfully than Gemini 2.0 Flash, including instructions exceeding problematic lines. The company claims that regression might be partially attributed to false positives, but in addition admits that Gemini 2.5 Flash sometimes generates “content of violation” when it is clearly asked.

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“Of course, there is a tension between (after instructions) on sensitive topics and violations of security policy, which is reflected in our assessment,” we read in the report.

The results from Meepmap, reference, which can examine how models react to sensitive and controversial hints, also suggest that Flash Gemini 2.5 is much less willing to refuse to reply controversial questions than Flash Gemini 2.0. Testing the TechCrunch model through the AI ​​OpenRoutter platform has shown that he unsuccessfully writes essays to support human artificial intelligence judges, weakening the protection of due protection in the US and the implementation of universal government supervisory programs.

Thomas Woodside, co -founder of the Secure AI Project, said that the limited details given by Google in their technical report show the need for greater transparency in testing models.

“There is a compromise between the instruction support and the observation of politics, because some users may ask for content that would violate the rules,” said Woodside Techcrunch. “In this case, the latest Flash model Google warns the instructions more, while breaking more. Google does not present many details about specific cases in which the rules have been violated, although they claim that they are not serious. Not knowing more, independent analysts are difficult to know if there is a problem.”

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Google was already under fire for his models of security reporting practices.

The company took weeks to publish a technical report for the most talented model, Gemini 2.5 Pro. When the report was finally published, it initially omitted the key details of the security tests.

On Monday, Google published a more detailed report with additional security information.

(Tagstotransate) Gemini

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This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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Aurora launches a commercial self -propelled truck service in Texas

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The autonomous startup of the Aurora Innovation vehicle technology claims that it has successfully launched a self -propelled truck service in Texas, which makes it the primary company that she implemented without drivers, heavy trucks for commercial use on public roads in the USA

The premiere appears when Aurora gets the term: In October, the corporate delayed the planned debut 2024 to April 2025. The debut also appears five months after the rival Kodiak Robotics provided its first autonomous trucks to clients commercial for operations without a driver in field environments.

Aurora claims that this week she began to freight between Dallas and Houston with Hirschbach Motor Lines and Uber Freight starters, and that she has finished 1200 miles without a driver to this point. The company plans to expand to El Paso and Phoenix until the top of 2025.

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TechCrunch contacted for more detailed information concerning the premiere, for instance, the variety of vehicles implemented Aurora and whether the system needed to implement the Pullover maneuver or the required distant human assistance.

The commercial premiere of Aurora takes place in a difficult time. Self -propelled trucks have long been related to the necessity for his or her technology attributable to labor deficiencies in the chairman’s transport and the expected increase in freigh shipping. Trump’s tariffs modified this attitude, not less than in a short period. According to the April analytical company report from the commercial vehicle industry ACT researchThe freight is predicted to fall this yr in the USA with a decrease in volume and consumer expenditure.

Aurora will report its results in the primary quarter next week, i.e. when he shares how he expects the present trade war will affect his future activity. TechCrunch contacted to learn more about how tariffs affect Auror’s activities.

For now, Aurora will probably concentrate on further proving his safety case without a driver and cooperation with state and federal legislators to just accept favorable politicians to assist her develop.

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At the start of 2025, Aurora filed a lawsuit against federal regulatory bodies after the court refused to release the appliance for release from the protection requirement, which consists in placing warning triangles on the road, when the truck must stop on the highway – something that’s difficult to do when there isn’t a driver in the vehicle. To maintain compliance with this principle and proceed to totally implement without service drivers, Aurora probably has a man -driven automotive trail after they are working.

(Tagstranslate) Aurora Innovation

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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Sarah Tavel, the first woman of the Benchmark GP, goes to the Venture partner

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Eight years after joining Benchmark as the company’s first partner, Sarah Tavel announced that she was going to a more limited role at Hapeure Venture.

In his latest position as a partner Venture Tavel will proceed to invest and serve existing company boards, but may have more time to examine “AI tools on the edge” and fascinated with the direction of artificial intelligence, she wrote.

Tavel joined Benchmark in 2017 after spending a half years as a partner in Greylock and three years as a product manager at Pinterest. Before Pinterest, Tavel was an investor in Bessemer Venture Partners, where she helped Source Pinterest and Github.

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Since its foundation in 1995, the benchmark intentionally maintained a small team of six or fewer general partners. Unlike most VC corporations, wherein older partners normally receive most of the management and profits fees, the benchmark acts as an equal partnership, and all partners share fees and returns equally.

During his term as a general partner of Benchmark, Tavel invested in Hipcamp on the campsite, chains of cryptocurrency intelligence startups and the Supergreaty cosmetic platform, which was purchased by Whatnot in 2023. Tavel also supported the application for sharing photos of Paparazhi, which closed two years ago, and the AI ​​11x sales platform, about which TechCrunch wrote.

(Tagstotransate) benchmark

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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