rice Amazon.com will cut hundreds of jobs in the division responsible for its voice assistant Alexa. This was revealed in a letter sent to employees on the 17th.
Amazon is “shifting some of its efforts to align with its business priorities,” said Daniel Rausch, a vice president who leads the team responsible for Alexa and the Fire TV media streaming device. “These shifts will result in the discontinuation of some initiatives and the elimination of hundreds of jobs.” He cited the use of generative AI (artificial intelligence) as a business to focus on.
Rausch did not say specifically which initiatives would be eliminated.
Alexa is widely installed in devices such as the smart speaker “Echo,” but currently, in most cases, the use of Alexa is limited to basic functions such as checking the weather and playing music, and it is difficult to expand the scope of its use. ing. The rise of conversational AI services such as ChatGPT has exposed Alexa’s weaknesses. Amazon’s team is currently working on adding such functionality to Alexa.
Employees affected by the layoffs in the U.S. and Canada will be notified by Friday morning ET, Rausch said. He said information about the Indian employees would be known next week. For other countries and regions, the timing may be different, depending on discussions with employee groups and other factors.
The layoffs were first reported by technology news site Geekwire.
Original title: Amazon Is Laying Off Hundreds of People in Alexa Division (1) (excerpt)
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