Amazon is introducing a new feature, “Explore with Alexa,” on its Echo devices, allowing kids to engage in interactive conversations with the AI-powered assistant. This is going to be a new feature addition to the Amazon Kids+ content subscription, enabling children to have kid-friendly chats with Alexa, leveraging generative AI while ensuring a safe and appropriate experience.
The functionality is designed for educational and entertaining conversations about animals and nature. When kids initiate discussions on these topics, “Explore with Alexa” responds with captivating facts and trivia questions sourced from trusted collaborators such as the World Wildlife Fund and A-Z Animals. The feature is accessible on devices set to kids mode or any communal family device, provided parents have configured their kids’ voice ID.
Encouraging an on-demand learning approach, the updated Alexa responds to wake-up commands and asks prompting questions designed to keep kids engaged and foster a deeper exploration of the subject. However, to address potential pitfalls associated with generative AI, Amazon has implemented several safeguarding measures.
To ensure the content remains suitable for children, the generative AI process does not occur in real time on the device. Instead, content is generated offline, undergoes a thorough review process involving both humans and AI and is then integrated into the experience. The initial focus is on animals and nature, with plans to expand into additional areas of interest for kids, including space, music, video games, and sports.
“We want to go slow and be intentional and be measured with how we’re introducing this new tech, as well as any new tech for kids, which is why we’re not just hooking the experience up to an LLM at runtime and kind of letting kids go at it,” explains Arjun Venkataswamy, senior product manager for Alexa Kids, in an interview with TechCrunch. “The way that we’ve integrated an LLM here is we use it to generate content at scale offline, and then go through a review process that includes both humans, as well as AI, and then take that reviewed content and then put it into our experience,” he says.
Kids can trigger AI-generated facts and trivia using specific phrases or engage in organic conversations where relevant topics may naturally arise. Amazon’s cautious approach involves a gradual integration of generative AI at runtime for both kids and adults. The company is mindful of potential challenges, especially when dealing with younger users, and emphasizes a measured and intentional introduction of new technologies. A nice thing here is that the conversation can also be two-way at times. For instance, it is not just the kids asking questions but Alexa too might ask the kids some questions at times.
“One of the things we think is really cool about this paradigm is kids aren’t just asking Alexa questions and getting the answers — Alexa is now asking kids questions,” says Venkataswamy. That is, Alexa could ask the kids a trivia question like “What’s the fastest animal on Earth?”
In terms of privacy, Amazon emphasizes that it does not train its language model on kids’ answers. The data handling policies for “Explore with Alexa” align with those of “classic Alexa.” The Alexa app provides a history of questions asked by kids and responses, giving users control over storage and deletion based on their preferences.
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