Amazon is investing billions in its favorite AI and it's not Alexa – yet

• Amazon just invested another $4B in Anthropic
• Most believe Claude will be Alexa AI's brains
• Why isn't Amazon sharing updates about its popular chatbot?

Amazon Alexa's 10-year anniversary passed without fanfare and, in particular, without the major AI update we were promised in 2023. Now, though, as Amazon invests over $4b (on top of a previous $4b+) in Claude AI maker Anthropic, the question becomes more urgent: What is Amazon's AI strategy, and when will consumers and their best Echos get the long-promised AI update? More pertinently, could that change ultimately be Claude in disguise?

Amazon announced the fresh investment on Friday in a blog post and characterized it as a deepening "strategic collaboration." It is a two-way street in that Anthropic is set to use the vast Amazon Web Services server army as its "primary training partner." That's a big deal because one of ...