According to internal documents obtained by The Washington Post, Amazon plans to launch a major upgrade to its long-delayed Alexa personal voice assistant in mid-October. This upgrade will introduce a new feature called "Smart Briefing," which will provide daily AI-generated news summaries based on user preferences. Previously, Alexa performed poorly in answering questions about political news, while competitors such as Microsoft and Google programmed their AI chatbots, Copilot and Gemini, to avoid responding to political queries to prevent the spread of misinformation. However, the documents indicate that users strongly demand AI assistants to help them filter, summarize, and explore current news. The news summary feature will help cultivate users' daily habits and increase user engagement. The upgraded version of Alexa may cost up to $10 per month, while the original version (referred to as "Classic Alexa") will continue to be offered for free. Amazon management plans to finalize the pricing, subscription structure, and product name within this month. The new Alexa (sometimes referred to as Remarkable Alexa or Project Banyan in the documents) will have more features, such as providing recipe suggestions and a chatbot designed for children. Additionally, new conversational shopping tools aimed at boosting e-commerce sales are introduced, which may help Amazon recoup its investment in Alexa by increasing e-commerce revenue and subscription fees. Although over 500 million Alexa devices have been sold, Amazon has not disclosed specific financial data for this project. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal last month, high research and development costs, as well as consumers primarily using free features, have resulted in billions of dollars in losses for Amazon's device business. In September last year, Amazon first announced a major AI upgrade for Alexa in response to emerging technologies such as OpenAI's ChatGPT. Internal documents show that the upgraded version of Alexa, originally scheduled for release in September this year, is now expected to launch in mid-October, indicating a longer development cycle compared to some other major AI projects launched by tech giants. In addition to the updated Alexa, Amazon also plans to launch a product called Project Metis, which is a web application aimed at directly competing with similar tools like ChatGPT. The upgraded Alexa will be more user-friendly and appealing, able to learn and recognize new users' personal voice characteristics and provide better services by asking for personal information. For example, it may inquire about users' weekend activities or family situations to offer more personalized recommendations and services in the future. The new AI assistant will also help users with daily tasks, such as finding recipes. The documents show that food assistance is one of the top three areas users expect AI assistants to provide. For paid subscribers, the upgraded Alexa will be able to answer questions about product details and appearance, such as colors, ingredients, and discounts. An upcoming feature called Shopping Scout will notify users when the products they are interested in have price reductions, which is considered a key feature to attract subscriptions. Additionally, Amazon hopes the upgraded Alexa will appeal to child users. A feature called Explore with Alexa 2.0 will allow verified children to engage in interactive exploratory conversations with Alexa on various topics. The children's experience will ensure safety and compliance with relevant regulations. Amazon has not commented on this matter.