Amazon Music just rolled out a test of "Explore," an AI-powered search feature designed to help fans deep-dive into artists. It surfaces obscure collaborations, discography highlights, and builds AI playlists via Maestro. The beta is currently limited to select U.S. iOS Unlimited subscribers across roughly 10,000 artists.
Audible just launched an end-to-end AI audiobook production suite for publishers, featuring over 100 voices across English, Spanish, French, and Italian. Later this year, a beta translation tool will also add speech-to-speech translation that preserves a narrator's original voice across languages. It’s a massive push to turn unvoiced backlists into global audio.
Amazon just introduced Vulcan, its first fulfillment robot equipped with a sense of touch. Powered by physical AI and force-feedback sensors, Vulcan understands how hard it pushes or grips, letting it pick and stow roughly 75% of warehouse items—especially on hard-to-reach top shelves.
Amazon just made Nova Premier generally available in Bedrock, marking its most capable multimodal foundation model to date. It features a one million token context window for complex multistep reasoning, and functions as a teacher model to distill advanced performance into smaller, cheaper Nova models.
Amazon’s Zoox just deployed a fleet of retrofitted Toyota Highlanders in Los Angeles to collect mapping data ahead of broader autonomous testing this summer. While rival Waymo already offers paid rides in LA, this marks Zoox’s sixth test city as it inches toward public launches in Las Vegas and San Francisco later this year.
Amazon just upgraded its Nova Reel AI video model to version 1.1, doubling max clip duration to two minutes. The update adds a new Multi-shot feature that keeps visual styles consistent across sequences, plus a manual mode to direct up to 20 shots using a single reference image and prompt.
Amazon just began testing "Buy for Me," an AI shopping agent powered by its Nova models and Anthropic's Claude that browses third-party stores and completes purchases. If Amazon lacks an item, the agent securely auto-fills shipping and billing info on external sites without leaving the app. Returns still go through the third-party seller, and it is currently limited to select users.
Amazon just rolled out "Story So Far" and "Ask this Book" on Kindle to save readers from forgetting complex plots. The tools serve up catch-ups tailored strictly up to your current reading position and answer questions about characters on the fly without spoilers. It is currently available for U.S. users across thousands of popular English titles.
Amazon just launched early access for its AI-powered Alexa Plus assistant to a small group of users, but it arrives with major gaps. Currently limited to newer Echo Show smart displays, it can call an Uber or draft emails, yet still cannot order groceries or brainstorm gift ideas.
Amazon just launched Nova Act, a general-purpose AI agent that takes the wheel in your browser to book reservations, order food, and fill out forms. Developed by its new AGI lab to power the upcoming Alexa+, it takes direct aim at OpenAI's Operator and Anthropic's Computer Use. It's available now as a research preview.
Amazon just launched an AI-powered feature called Interests that acts like a personal product scout. Shoppers can write natural language prompts describing niche hobbies, style preferences, or budget limits, and LLMs will continuously monitor new inventory to alert them of restocks, deals, and new arrivals. It is rolling out first to select U.S. mobile users.
Amazon is quietly testing two new AI tools with select users: Interests AI, which turns conversational interest descriptions into curated product picks, and Health AI, a Bedrock-powered chatbot offering clinician-reviewed care advice. The move aims to keep shoppers inside Amazon's ecosystem instead of losing them to tools like ChatGPT.
Prime Video just started experimenting with AI-assisted dubbing for select licensed movies and TV shows. The initial test covers 12 titles previously lacking dubbed tracks, offering English and Latin American Spanish with human localization pros reviewing the output for quality control.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy revealed that a brand-new lineup of "beautiful" devices is landing this fall to accompany the upgraded Alexa Plus. The conversational assistant costs $19.99 a month or comes bundled with Prime, and Amazon's hardware leadership hinted that richer screens will play a massive role in the next generation.
AWS just unveiled Ocelot, a prototype quantum computing chip that cuts error correction costs by up to 90%. Built around 'cat qubits' that naturally suppress environmental noise, the microchip integrates correction hardware from the ground up. AWS researchers say the architecture could speed up the timeline to practical fault-tolerant quantum computing by up to five years.
Amazon just introduced Alexa+, a major generative AI overhaul of its smart assistant powered by Amazon Bedrock. It can autonomously orchestrate across thousands of third-party apps to book appointments, order food, or manage smart homes with full context memory. Why it matters: It shifts Alexa from a simple voice remote into a proactive personal agent, and Prime members get it for free ($19.99/month otherwise).
Amazon is set to preview a major generative AI overhaul of Alexa at a February 26 event in New York. The revamped assistant can handle multi-turn conversations and act as an autonomous agent, partly powered by Anthropic's models. Why it matters: Turning Alexa from a glorified kitchen timer into an active assistant is Amazon's best shot at monetizing half a billion connected devices.
Amazon's major revamp of Alexa is running into serious technical roadblocks, according to the Financial Times. Rohit Prasad, head of Amazon's AGI team, admitted that hallucinations must drop "close to zero" alongside cutting response lag and integrating hundreds of third-party apps. Insiders warn a launch won't happen anytime soon.
Amazon is testing a new Prime Video feature called "AI Topics" that replaces traditional recommendation algorithms with AI-generated thematic categories. Instead of generic genres, viewers get tailored suggestions like fantasy quests or character journeys, with options to keep refining results. It is currently rolling out to select living room devices like Fire TV in the US.
Amazon just launched the Amazon AGI SF Lab in San Francisco, an R&D unit led by Adept co-founder David Luan to develop foundational capabilities for AI agents. The team aims to build agents that operate computers and browsers, self-course-correct, and act across both digital and physical environments. Why it matters: Big Tech's race for autonomous agents is rapidly heating up, and Amazon is gathering top startup talent to stay in contention.
