Speaker 1: It's time for tech talk.
Speaker 2: The machines are getting smarter. This is tech Talk brought
Speaker 2: to you by Sky Natura.
Speaker 3: So Alexa's begin going to become even more powerful in
Speaker 3: my household.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I can handle that. I mean,
Speaker 1: I will say this.
Speaker 3: She does handle things that I don't want to handle,
Speaker 3: Questions I don't want to have to answer. So it
Speaker 3: is kind of nice. We've kind of come to an understanding.
Speaker 3: It's just it's funny the way I hear my husband
Speaker 3: speak to her. It's almost like he wants to yell
Speaker 3: at me like that and can't, so he kind of
Speaker 3: takes it out on Alexa or you know, maybe your
Speaker 3: name that's better.
Speaker 4: Mark Saltzman, our tech guru, joins us to talk about
Speaker 4: Alexa Plus.
Speaker 1: What's going on, Mark?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Hey, So I'm just returning from a coming out
Speaker 2: party for Alexa Plus. This is how they're celebrating how
Speaker 2: Amazon is celebrating the tenth anniversary of Alexa, the personal
Speaker 2: assistant used by more than on the world. Alexa Plus
Speaker 2: is a much smarter Alexa. That's the bottom line. It's
Speaker 2: leveraging generative AI, large language models that have been all
Speaker 2: the buzzs all the age, of course since chat Chipet,
Speaker 2: but Amazon's been working on their own for a long
Speaker 2: while as well. So she's going to get a lot
Speaker 2: more intelligent, a lot more personal, meaning like not just conversational,
Speaker 2: but she's going to remember things about you and even proactive.
Speaker 2: So let me give you some examples of what we
Speaker 2: testrove yesterday in New York. And just so you know,
Speaker 2: when you launch her for the first time, you just
Speaker 2: say the wake word once and then after that you
Speaker 2: do not need to keep saying burning. It's more conversational
Speaker 2: like some of these other chatting platforms. So for example,
Speaker 2: you can tell, like you Gary Shannon, you can tell
Speaker 2: Alexa that when you've got a food preference, like I
Speaker 2: love Thai food, but I'm also pescatarian, for example, And
Speaker 2: when you asked to recommend some recipes to make it home,
Speaker 2: it'll remember all of that, even if it's a year
Speaker 2: down the road. It will. It may include a tie
Speaker 2: recipe with no beef for pork in it, for example,
Speaker 2: or if you ask for a good restaurant to make
Speaker 2: a reservation, she'll recommend one based on proximity to you
Speaker 2: and number of positive reviews. It leverages data from open table.
Speaker 2: It'll make a reservation for you or if you want
Speaker 2: to take out you know or whatever food delivery options.
Speaker 2: It'll remember what you tell it. It will access your
Speaker 2: calendar in contacts with your permission. So Alexa may notice
Speaker 2: that you have double booked your daughter's dance recital with
Speaker 2: picking up a friend from the airport same time, and
Speaker 2: so she will call that out to you.
Speaker 3: Maybe the day it's a real ding dong, isn't it,
Speaker 3: mark what's worse going to lax or going to the
Speaker 3: kid's recital?
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know that those are two selections
Speaker 1: for my day.
Speaker 2: Well, assuming you would rather be at your dance recital,
Speaker 2: she Alexa may reckon men that you book an uber
Speaker 2: to pick up your friend instead, and she'll book it
Speaker 2: for you and even text your friend U pout it
Speaker 2: so that that's kind of cool. Where it can analyze
Speaker 2: it proactively Eliza calendar and make those changes and message
Speaker 2: people you know. It could advise and summarize documents that
Speaker 2: you update blowed rather to electa dot com of a
Speaker 2: PDF from the HOA from your local HOA, And in
Speaker 2: the future you can say, can I install pnals on
Speaker 2: my roof am I allowed, and so we'll look at
Speaker 2: that doc that you uploaded in the past and she'll say, yes,
Speaker 2: but it seen from the road. Go for it, or
Speaker 2: let me order it for you. Are the popular solar panels,
Speaker 2: you can buy it that kind of stuff. It could
Speaker 2: find video clips. If you have not just a smart speaker,
Speaker 2: but a smart display. You can say, hey, did anybody
Speaker 2: walk Buddy today? Buddy? And she'll remember that Buddy is
Speaker 2: the name of your dog, Okay, and so Alexa then
Speaker 2: will scrub forward through all of the ring video clips
Speaker 2: from your home and show you if fog was seen
Speaker 2: and if anybody was walking him or so. Yeah, I yeah.
Speaker 2: So it's a lot more conversational. It can create stories
Speaker 2: for kids, including images on the if you have a
Speaker 2: smart display, not just a smart speaker. So it was
Speaker 2: actually really impressive. I got to say. It was a
Speaker 2: two hour demonstration and then some demos after that. And
Speaker 2: it's going to be free for prime members. That's otherwise
Speaker 2: it'll be nineteen ninety nine a month or so a
Speaker 2: plus and it's going to start rolling out in Yeah.
Speaker 4: But the price point I know that, I mean you
Speaker 4: mentioned the price is there, nineteen ninety nine a month.
Speaker 2: The issue you don't have Prime.
Speaker 3: If you don't have Prime, my husband would never pay
Speaker 3: for his side piece.
Speaker 4: Well that's that's kind of what I'm saying, is that
Speaker 4: the Alexa and all these you know helpers, they can
Speaker 4: do a lot stuff.
Speaker 1: Does it really need to be that tailored for people?
Speaker 2: Well, it's just it's supposed to help you get more
Speaker 2: done in less time. Right, It's supposed to be more intelligent.
Speaker 1: And you don't have to.
Speaker 2: Change how you speak to her either, like in the
Speaker 2: past you had to talk Alexa speak for her to
Speaker 2: understand you, or if you cut her off, she you
Speaker 2: had to ask it again, or if you said you stuttered.
Speaker 2: Now leveraging like hundreds and hundreds of other apps like
Speaker 2: Uber or you know, open table. I gave those examples.
Speaker 2: So it's just getting a lot more intelligent. It can
Speaker 2: analyze documents. Whether you deem twenty dollars a month is
Speaker 2: reasonable or not. I mean, I think that's steep. But
Speaker 2: if you are already a Prime member, which to me,
Speaker 2: there's a huge valuebook proposition there with free deliveries and
Speaker 2: same day delivery, next day delivery, and access to Prime
Speaker 2: music and videos you know, like movies and TV shows.
Speaker 2: To me, it's a no brainer. But I can tell
Speaker 2: you from a tech standpoint, price notwithstanding, it was really impressive.
Speaker 1: All right, Mark, you.
Speaker 2: Don't sound convinced.
Speaker 1: I'm not.
Speaker 4: I'm not.
Speaker 1: I don't want her in my house.
Speaker 2: You could have the regular, all the loss that's been
Speaker 2: the same for ten years.
Speaker 3: I support you not wanting her in your home.
Speaker 4: I just she needs, like Shannon says, she needs to
Speaker 4: know her lane, and I feel like paying her an
Speaker 4: extra twenty bucks a month.
Speaker 1: She's going to branch out and I don't need that.
Speaker 1: Are you kidding? She's going to be intolerable. Hilarious.
Speaker 2: Well, welcome back, Shannon. We haven't chatted in a couple
Speaker 2: of weeks, so good to hear your boys.
Speaker 1: Okay, good to hear your voice as well. Mark, Thank you,
Speaker 1: thanks as always.
Speaker 2: Cheers, guys,