The rollout, which is currently open to Alexa+ Early Access participants across all subscription plans, enhances how the company wants people to discover and interact with music.

Unlike the traditional Alexa that responded to straightforward commands, Alexa+ brings a more conversational and intelligent approach. 

It’s built to talk with users like a knowledgeable music companion, someone who not only takes requests but also understands curiosity. With Alexa+, users can dig into the details of songs, artists, or even eras of music. 

You can ask who influenced a particular artist, what a song means, or find that elusive track you only remember from a movie scene.

Amazon said it’s already seeing strong engagement from users testing the feature. Listeners who used Alexa+ explored three times more songs than those using the old version, and users asking for recommendations listened to nearly 70% more music. 

Those numbers show that people are no longer just pressing play; they’re conversing with their music app.

The feature’s conversational depth is what sets it apart. A user might say, “Play pop songs from the ’90s including Madonna, but skip the boy bands,” or “Make a playlist of 2010s hits that keep me moving fast, starting with a track from Nicki Minaj.” 

Alexa+ then builds dynamic playlists based on tone, tempo, and personal taste. You can even request something as niche as, “Create a music playlist that sounds like a Parisian café and only include songs in French.”

Beyond playlist creation, Alexa+ acts as a musical researcher in your pocket. It can explain the story behind lyrics, trace the origins of samples, or connect artists by genre or geography. 

Asking, “What’s the story behind the lyrics to Hotel California?” or “Recommend some artists from the London punk scene in the ’70s” now leads to detailed, conversational responses rather than robotic answers.

Spotify recently integrated similar conversational features, and Amazon’s move places Alexa+ as a competitor capable of deep engagement and contextual understanding.

The rollout also reveals Amazon’s larger investment in embedding intelligent systems across its ecosystem. Earlier this year, Alexa+ was unveiled as part of Amazon’s broader plan to bring “agent-level” assistance to everyday use, handling not just music, but tasks such as restaurant bookings and grocery orders.

For now, the new feature remains limited to early access users, but a wider release is expected soon. To try it, Amazon Music users can simply update their app, tap the “a” button in the lower right corner, and start talking.

Amazon says, “Alexa+ transforms the way we discover music by offering a more intuitive, conversation-based approach, turning what used to be a basic search function into an interactive discussion guided by your own curiosity.”

The post Amazon Rolls Out Alexa+ on Amazon Music App for iOS, Android appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

The funding round was led by UAE-based Shorooq Partners and Cairo-headquartered Algebra Ventures, with participation from existing investor Dubai Future District Fund.

This investment will drive DXwand towards expanding its footprint across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. It also aims to accelerate research and development efforts in generative AI, knowledge mining, and omnichannel conversational AI within the region.

Founded by CEO Ahmed Mahmoud, a former leader in data and artificial intelligence enterprise sales at Microsoft, DXwand has positioned itself as a key player in the AI sector by addressing language-specific challenges prevalent in the MENA region. Unlike solutions from Silicon Valley, DXwand recognized the need for AI models that catered to Arabic and other languages in the region.

Mahmoud’s journey began with an engineering background, leading to roles at Vodafone and Microsoft, where he engaged with clients to explore the potential of AI in enhancing productivity and user experience. The realization that conversational AI and broader AI technologies were not fully matured in the Middle East prompted Mahmoud to establish DXwand to bridge this gap.

Initially securing seed funding of $150,000 from angels in Qatar and Egypt, DXwand started as a provider of customer-centric chatbots tailored for sales over social media platforms for small businesses. However, the team recognized the need to pivot its business model to find product-market fit and become profitable.

The pivot led DXwand to focus on knowledge mining and retrieval augmented generation (RAG) domains, targeting corporates and enterprises. This approach involves creating a knowledge graph that eliminates the need for manual data labeling, facilitating faster onboarding of clients and supporting sophisticated use cases.

DXwand’s AI-powered software automates text and voice conversations across various platforms, including call centers, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, SMS, and websites. The platform comprehends slang in both Arabic and English, extracting valuable insights from conversations and presenting them on dashboards for businesses to make informed decisions.

Noteworthy achievements include facilitating over 5 million conversations monthly and earning the trust of over 200 businesses across sectors such as healthcare, e-commerce, fintech, telecom, government, and legal. DXwand’s digital assistant handles 70% of customer service workload, enabling human agents to focus on more complex tasks.

The Series A funding, combined with previous investments, affirms DXwand as a profitable entity with over $5 million in annual recurring revenues in 2023, representing a 2x year-over-year growth.

Looking ahead, DXwand plans to expand across Africa and Saudi Arabia, recognizing these regions’ strategic importance. The startup aims to continue research efforts in knowledge mining and retrieval augmented generation, forming alliances with technology providers to establish meaningful partnerships within the communities it serves. DXwand’s success underscores the increasing significance and adoption of AI platforms in a market where such solutions are witnessing substantial growth.

The post DXwand Secures $4 Million in Series A Funding for AI-driven Transformation in the MENA Region appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

Voice Conversations with ChatGPT

Starting soon, ChatGPT will enable users to engage in voice conversations with their AI assistant. Whether you’re on the go, settling a family debate, or just seeking a friendly chat, ChatGPT’s new voice feature is at your service. To initiate voice conversations, users can navigate to Settings → New Features on the mobile app and opt into this exciting feature. With five distinct voices to choose from, users can tailor their AI interactions to their preferences.

The new voice capability is powered by a state-of-the-art text-to-speech model, which can generate remarkably human-like audio from mere text inputs. Each voice is meticulously crafted through collaboration with professional voice actors, ensuring a high-quality conversational experience. Additionally, Whisper, an open-source speech recognition system, transcribes spoken words into text, facilitating seamless interactions.

Conversations About Images

ChatGPT now has the ability to process images, making it a versatile tool for various tasks. Users can troubleshoot issues, plan meals by inspecting fridge contents, or analyze complex data graphs using this newfound feature. The mobile app even includes a drawing tool to highlight specific details within images.

The image understanding capability is powered by multimodal models GPT-3.5 and GPT-4, which apply their language reasoning skills to interpret a wide array of images, including photographs, screenshots, and documents with both text and images.

Gradual Deployment for Safety and Improvement

OpenAI’s focus on building safe and beneficial artificial general intelligence (AGI) is reflected in its gradual deployment strategy. With the introduction of features like voice and image capabilities incrementally, OpenAI can refine risk mitigations and prepare users for more powerful systems in the future.

Voice and Image: Potential and Responsibility

While the new voice and image capabilities offer immense potential for creativity and accessibility, they also raise new challenges. OpenAI is taking precautions to prevent misuse. Voice chat, for instance, involves collaboration with voice actors and partner companies like Spotify to ensure responsible usage.

Balancing Utility and Privacy in Vision

The vision-based capabilities aim to assist users in their daily lives by interpreting images, but OpenAI is committed to safeguarding privacy. Technical measures have been implemented to limit ChatGPT’s ability to analyze and make statements about individuals. Real-world usage and feedback will help improve these safeguards.

Transparency and ChatGPT Limitations

OpenAI is transparent about ChatGPT’s limitations, especially for non-English languages and high-risk use cases. Users are encouraged to verify information from specialized topics and use caution when relying on ChatGPT for certain purposes.

Expanding Access

Voice and image capabilities will first roll out to Plus and Enterprise users, with plans to expand access to developers and other user groups in the near future.

The post OpenAI Launches ChatGPT New Voice and Image Capabilities appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.