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Amazon is working to boost the capability of Alexa. Here’s how

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Amazon Alexa, the voice-activated assistant, has quickly become a household name since its debut in 2014. It has evolved from a simple device that could answer basic questions to a fully-fledged platform that can control smart homes, plays music, set reminders, order groceries, and more.

Amazon
Image Source: wired.com

But Amazon is not stopping there. The company is working on boosting the capability of Alexa even further in several ways. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy revealed Monday that the company is developing a more “generalized and capable” large language model (LLM) to support Alexa.

Also Read: Amazon sees cloud slowdown in April, shares erase gains

Although Alexa has been powered by an LLM from Amazon, according to Jassy, the tech giant is currently developing a new LLM that will be more powerful. Jassy is certain that the addition of a better LLM will aid Amazon in its mission to create “the world’s best personal assistant,” but he also noted that it will be challenging to do so across a variety of fields.

“Large Language Model” (LLM) refers to a type of artificial intelligence technology that is used to process and analyze natural language data. Large Language Models are a type of deep learning model that uses neural networks to process large amounts of text data and generate outputs, such as text or speech.

Some examples of LLMs include OpenAI’s GPT series, Google’s BERT, and Facebook’s Roberta. These models are trained on massive datasets, often consisting of billions of words, in order to learn patterns and relationships in language. They use this knowledge to perform a variety of natural language processing tasks, such as language translation, sentiment analysis, and text generation.

LLMs have a wide range of applications, from language translation and sentiment analysis to chatbots and voice assistants. They are particularly useful in situations where a large amount of text data needs to be processed quickly and accurately.

Jassy emphasized that while Amazon has had years to invest in AI and LLMs, small businesses do not have the resources to do so, which is why the business released Bedrock earlier last month.

By using pre-trained models from firms like AI21 Labs, Anthropic, and Stability AI, Bedrock offers a method to create generative AI-powered applications. Bedrock also provides access to Titan FMs (foundation models), a collection of models that AWS has internally trained and is available in a “limited preview.”

Also Read: Amazon plans to trim employee stock awards amid tough economy

ChatGPT has taken over the internet and grown in popularity since its debut last year. Given the hype associated with ChatGPT, it should come as little surprise that top technology businesses are attempting to improve their own products using LLM in order to keep up with the rapidly evolving AI market.

The Information stated recently that Apple is creating Siri upgrades based on LLM. Google is probably taking similar steps with Assistant.

Meta

Meta wins back Wall Street with AI promises

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The stock price of Meta increased 11 percent on Thursday as a result of investors’ enthusiasm, which has already helped the social network’s stock almost double in worth during the past twelve months.

Meta’s concentration on artificial intelligence, as well as cost-cutting, also helped the shares of the organization continue their winning streak & win Wall Street’s support back.

Meta
Image Source: ctvnews.ca

If premarket gains hold, the value of Meta on the market will increase by approximately sixty billion dollars. The gain also helped other tech firms, from Snapchat and Pinterest to Amazon, rise by as much as 3.3 percent.

Also Read: Amazon sees cloud slowdown in April, shares erase gains

“If you want to be treated and valued like a growth stock, you need growth! And this is precisely what Meta delivered returning to growth … just as questions around a potential recession get louder,” Bernstein analyst Mark Shmulik said in a note.

Source: nasdaq.com

Shmulik was one of the 27 analysts who increased Meta’s price target, bringing the average estimate up to 270 USD and adding almost 30 percent to the supply’s increase over the course of the year, leading profits across Tech Giant Firms.

The latest indication that American technology firms were emerging from a downturn that has resulted in a large number of layoffs was the fact that Meta surpassed estimates for first-quarter revenue and profit, which increased for the first time in almost a year’s time.

The outcomes also highlighted the growing significance of AI, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who claimed the technology was assisting in increasing traffic to both Facebook and Instagram as well as ad revenue.

“We believe AI has played a crucial role in shifting Meta from showing a more limited set of friends, family, and followed content to an almost unlimited set of recommended content now available in Reels and Feed,” J.P. Morgan analysts said.

“Year of efficiency paves the way to AI offense,” Roth MKM’s Rohit Kulkarni said.

Source: nasdaq.com

Also Read: OpenAI rolls out ‘incognito mode’ on ChatGPT

The firm, which has undergone a number of costly restorations to support its main business, is no more lagging in developing its artificial intelligence infrastructure, according to Zuckerberg.

To determine whether to support a business, both professional investors and individual financers consider a variety of factors. Others examine yearly reports or speak with senior management while others simply stare at charts.

But more and more, they are all hearing the same thing, IT is an important part of a company’s value.

Amazon

Amazon sees cloud slowdown in April, shares erase gains

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Amazon.com Inc. gave a warning on Thursday that its long, soaring growth in cloud services would slow down even more as its business clients braced for uncertainty and cut back on spending, dominating the company’s exceedingly strong quarterly revenue and profit.

Amazon
Image Source: reuters.com

On the strength of its optimistic assessment of customer sentiment and the fact that it was holding its own against cloud competitors, Amazon’s stock originally gained over $125 billion in extended trading, only to see the whole gain disappear in just a couple of minutes.

Also Read: OpenAI rolls out ‘incognito mode’ on ChatGPT

Following comments from Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky, who informed analysts that cloud customers continued to try to reduce their bills as of the second quarter of the year and that Amazon was assisting them in doing so to foster long-term relationships, the share price fell.

Accordingly, he said, referencing a period that saw a consecutive decline, growth rates in revenue were approximately five percent lower in April than they were in the first quarter.

Now, shares are down 2%. The unexpected rise and collapse of Amazon are indications of a hazardous time for the business. Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, has vowed to reduce expenditure across the company’s wide range of operations in response to what he has dubbed an unpredictable environment.

Amazon is also dealing with a growing threat from its cloud competitors Microsoft and Google, both of whom are releasing prominent artificial intelligence products.

The cost reductions are extensive. Since November, Amazon has intended to eliminate 27,000 corporate positions. As of the most recent quarter, 1.47 million full- and part-time employees, including those working in warehouses, made up its workforce.

The company is also discontinuing all of its services, including its Halo fitness trackers. Its nationwide fulfillment operation has been reorganized. With a loss of $3.84 billion a year earlier, these initiatives helped Amazon turn a $3.17 billion profit in the quarter that concluded on March 31. However, this did little to entice investors.

An analyst at Huntington National Bank named David Klink described the company’s cloud delay as “tremendous.” “You’re not seeing (that) at either Microsoft or Google,” said Klink, whose bank held $129 million in Amazon stock as of Thursday.

Amazon Cloud, also known as Amazon Web Services (AWS), is a cloud computing platform offered by Amazon. It provides a wide range of cloud-based services to businesses, organizations, and individuals.

Also Read: Chipmaker Arm to make its own semiconductor

These services include computing power, database storage, content delivery, and other functionality that can be used to build and scale applications.

AWS is one of the leading cloud computing providers in the world, offering a highly scalable, flexible, and secure infrastructure that can be used to build and deploy applications of all sizes. It is used by millions of customers across a wide range of industries, including healthcare, finance, government, and education.

Elon Musk

Did Elon Musk unwittingly expose his alt-Twitter account?

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Elon Musk on Twitter recently introduced a feature that allows content creators to request that Twitter users subscribe in order to access their unique content. The chosen account must be subscribed to on a monthly basis by each user.

Elon Musk
Image Source: gizmodo.com

Elon Musk stated in a message to content creators, “Content creators may wish to enable subscriptions on this platform. Just tap Monetization in Settings.” The profile photo next to Musk’s, though, was what got people’s attention online. This profile photo showed that Musk had multiple accounts open on his personal device.

Also Read: Why is Amazon shutting down Halo Division?

When internet users started looking around, they discovered an account with the exact same profile picture as the one in Musk’s tweet. The username of the account is @ErmnMusk, and the profile image is of Musk’s son. It is obvious from the account’s Twitter bio that it was set up in November 2022. Even though the account only occasionally tweets, there are a lot of responses. and frequently lack logic.

Elon Musk pretends to be his son, who is close to three years old, in a few tweets from the account. “I will finally turn 3 on May 4th!” the most recent tweet reads. On December 6 of last year, another tweet reads, “For the love of God, can someone follow me.”

The majority of the tweets are completely meaningless and arbitrary, though, thus it’s possible that this account was formed with the express purpose of shitposting, according to a brief peek at the “Replies” section.

The account additionally responded to a tweet that included Caroline Elliso, the former CEO of Alameda Research, in its image. Alameda Research was a trading firm that specialized in cryptocurrency. The company suffered severe losses in October 2021.

According to reports, a cryptocurrency market crash cost Alameda Research about $2.8 billion in losses in a single day. The trading company submitted a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in November 2022.

People are responding to the tweets as the account steadily attracts the curiosity of a growing number of online users. One person suggested, “Ask dad to give you $8 for a blue cheque,” and another said, “Can you ask your father when Tesla is going to buy more Dogecoin?”

Also Read: How to send a secure email in Gmail?

Elon Musk’s purported alt account has about 48,000 followers. It should be emphasized that Musk has not formally asserted that he is the one uploading offensive content from this account.

Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, is known for his frequent online shenanigans. His Twitter page is a regular topic of attention, with posts ranging from contentious statements to updates and announcements on what is happening at his numerous firms.

Arm

Chipmaker Arm to make its own semiconductor

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Arm, a company acquired by SoftBank, is creating its own chip to demonstrate the possibilities of its ideas as it looks to expand after a successful IPO subsequently this year.

According to those informed on the development, the corporation will collaborate with manufacturing companies to produce the new chip. They define it as one of the most sophisticated chipmaking endeavours the Cambridge-based organisation has ever undergone.

Arm
Image Source: timesnownews.com

The initiative comes as SoftBank works to increase Arm’s revenue and draw investment to a planned IPO on the Nasdaq stock exchange within New York.

Also Read: SAP reports revenue growth in Q1

Instead of engaging directly in the design and development of semiconductors, the corporation typically gives its architectural designs to chip producers.

It is hoped that the prototype will enable it to show the larger market, the strength and potential of its concepts.

With partners like Samsung & Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., Arm has already developed several test chips, mostly to help software developers become more acquainted with the latest developments.

However, other business leaders told the Financial Times that the company’s most recent chip, on which it only recently began working, is “more advanced” than anything else. According to them, Arm has also established a bigger team to start this project and is focused on chip manufacturers rather than software developers while developing the product.

As insiders informed on the plan, the business has established a brand-new “solutions engineering” division that will oversee the manufacturing of these initial prototype processors for mobile phones, laptops, and various other gadgets.

A veteran of the chip business Kevork Kechichian, who entered Arm’s core executive division in the month of February, is in charge of the solutions engineering division. Before joining Qualcomm, he worked with chipmakers NXP Semiconductors & NXP Semiconductors, where he oversaw the creation of Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon processor.

The group will also broaden Arm’s current initiatives to improve design performance as well as safety and to increase access for developers to its devices.

Also Read: Meta lays off tech teams, battering employee morale

Rumours regarding Arm’s chip-making activities have raised concerns in the semiconductor sector that, if it produces a high-quality chip, it could attempt to promote it in the years to come and so challenge some of its biggest clients, like MediaTek or Qualcomm.

According to those close to Arm, the company is just developing a prototype and has no ambitions to put it on the market or licence the creation. Arm chose not to respond.

Amazon

Why is Amazon shutting down Halo Division?

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Amazon sent out a note to Halo customers today announcing that it is shutting down its Halo Health division, effective July 31. Included in the announcement is news of layoffs, as well as full refunds on hardware purchased over the past 12 months.

Amazon
Image Source: businesstoday.in

That includes Amazon Halo View, Halo Band, Halo Rise, and a bunch of accessories. That’s not an unprecedented move (Google did something similar when it recently shut down Stadia), but it’s a sign of goodwill for customers and a tacit acknowledgment that the hardware won’t be worth a hell of a lot when its associated services shut down. The company will also be ending subscription fees and refunding those that were pre-paid.

Also Read: OpenAI rolls out ‘incognito mode’ on ChatGPT

In a letter addressed to “Halo Member,” the company says, “At Amazon, we think big, experiment, and invest in new ideas like Amazon Halo in our efforts to delight customers.” All of the above-mentioned products will stop working at the start of August. Additionally, Amazon has included instructions on how to recycle the hardware and save scan images to a phone’s camera roll.

The corporation announced 9,000 layoffs at the end of last month, bringing the total to 18,000 since January. The first round had a disproportionately negative effect on Amazon’s hardware divisions, with the Alexa/Echo team receiving a lot of attention.

When the first Halo tracker went public in August 2020, privacy advocates reacted negatively. The range continued to expand swiftly, including the Halo View, an $80 Fitbit rival, along with other fitness and nutrition programs, in late 2021. It unveiled the Halo Rise, a nightstand sleep tracker, in September of last year, and it went on sale in December.

Amazon Halo is a fitness wearable device and accompanying app that was launched by Amazon in August 2020. The device is designed to help users improve their overall health and wellness by tracking various aspects of their lifestyle, including activity levels, sleep, body fat percentage, and even their tone of voice.

The Amazon Halo device is worn as a wristband and features sensors that can track a user’s heart rate, motion, and temperature. The device also has a microphone that can be used to analyze a user’s tone of voice and provide feedback on their communication style.

Overall, the Amazon Halo is designed to be a comprehensive health and wellness tool that can help users make positive changes to their lifestyle by providing personalized recommendations and insights.