Feed aggregator

Gleason is a healthcare technology executive who worked under Presidents Trump and Biden. The White House says Elon Musk still oversees the Department of Government Efficiency.

(Image credit: Mike Stewart)

More than 50 people have died in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, most within 48 hours of the onset of symptoms. Initial analysis suggests neither Ebola nor Marburg is the cause.

Almost all of the time spent during Amazon’s February 26, 2025, ‘Devices and Services’ event was on Alexa Plus. It’s the glow-up we’ve been waiting for, seemingly making Alexa much more natural, leagues smarter, and potentially invaluably helpful.

Even so, at the center of all the demos – including the ones led by Devices lead Panos Panay – was one device, the Echo Show 21. It’s the biggest smart display from Amazon and the largest touchscreen Alexa interface, supporting an all-new Alexa Plus user interface (UI) at launch.

Both of those attributes likely made it easier to demonstrate Alexa’s new tricks to a large audience on stage and in demo rooms, but even so, it speaks to Amazon’s bigger ambitions. With Alexa Plus, you can talk more conversationally, interrupting it when necessary just like you would when talking to another person, all without repeating the wake word.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

But it’s also a touch-first experience – now more than ever. When you ask Alexa to call an Uber or another rideshare service for your friend from Newark Airport in New Jersey to an office in New York City, Alexa will read out the first option. However, you can also tap to select whichever ride level is best for your needs to speed up the interaction.

The same goes for asking Alexa to check if anyone walked the dog – it can pull up all the recent Ring video alerts where a dog was pictured. Rather than waiting for it to cycle through them all, you can swipe with a finger along the bottom of the screen UI. As impressive as chatting with the new Alexa is, the interface was designed with touch in mind.

Further, Amazon will give you first dibs on trying Alexa Plus – well, access to the service during the initial rollout phase – if you have a household with an Echo Show 8, 10, 15, or 21. Keep in mind that you’ll need to be in the United States with a Prime membership or pay $19.99 a month.

The screen part of the Alexa experience is more critical than ever before. It’s not just for showing a weather graphic depicting the conditions outside or for displaying a fun GIF when you ask Alexa for a joke. Your Echo Show isn’t even just for streaming a TV show or movie from Prime Video. Beyond just chatting it up with Alexa, Amazon wants you to interact with Alexa Plus with touch.

That’s almost a retraining, and one that is ideal for Amazon – or at least, I think if you ask them – to put the importance of getting an Echo Show in your home at the highest spot on the list. I already find the Echo Show handy. It's a multipurpose screen that potentially lets you put your phone away. With the Echo Show 21 and Alexa Plus, as you ask for help ordering groceries, making dinner reservations, or even securing concert tickets, you can have a natural conversation with the AI and jump in touch when necessary.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

And even if you only have an Echo Show in the kitchen or mounted on the wall in a hallway, it can always be the central device for your queries. Let’s say you really want to get tickets for Bruce Springsteen on his upcoming European tour or for Sabrina Carpenter – I mean, we all want to hear Busy Woman live – you can start by asking Alexa Plus on an Echo Dot for tickets, but rather than hear a laundry list of all the available sections, you say, "Show it to me on my Echo Show (or even Kitchen Echo, if that’s where it is)" and from there you can scroll and see visuals of all the seat locations. That could be really handy, plus you get the added benefits of a larger screen Echo.

It’s part of Amazon’s larger play here: to get an Echo screen into everyone’s home. I’m for it, especially after seeing the experience of ordering Amazon Fresh and letting Alexa Plus do some of the heavy lifting. That’s awesome, but it’s also the smarter reminders and the fact that it doubles as a TV, a shared calendar, and so much more.

It also fits in with the strategy of other brands. Samsung comes to mind first, as they famously push the idea of a screen everywhere, from an actual TV to a screen in, say, your fridge, stove, and dryer or washer. That tech giant won’t make a smart display, but Apple, on the other hand, is rumored to be entering this category with a device that could mark a major win for its Home ecosystem, which has had its speed bumps.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

Amazon has a unique opportunity to actually end up with a screen in most of its users' homes, though. It’s long offered an Echo Show in various sizes, with the 5 and 8 being some of the most affordable, so there’s a good chance you might already have one. Alexa Plus will likely excite you with an AI infusion that is set to be way more natural and make the smart home easy to control – advanced routines and all – in a device that isn’t a phone.

@techradar

♬ original sound - TechRadar You might also like

• Alexa Plus explained: 9 things you need to know about Amazon's new AI-powered assistant
• The Amazon Alexa event as it happened
• 7 genuinely useful Alexa Plus features that might make it my go-to AI assistant

Thousands of grant applications had been stalled when the Trump administration blocked the National Institutes of Health from posting notices to the Federal Register.

(Image credit: Scott Olson)

I don't want to overstate things but, between us, Alexa Plus may be the Alexa you've been waiting for. Amazon unveiled its massive digital assistant overhaul, which makes the platform smarter, more conversational, more personal, proactive, and a true doer. I might've considered this all a bit of hype if I hadn't seen so many live demos and, yes, even tried it out for myself.

Alexa Plus is Amazon's first attempt at a true generative AI system that can respond to natural language prompts, retain context, remember facts about you and your life, and quickly solve prompts that range from building grocery lists to figuring out if anyone has walked the family dog.

After Amazon CEO Andy Jassy gave us a deep model dive and Amazon Devices head Panos Panay and other execs walked us through the details of the new Alexa Plus (along with Alexa.com and the new app), Amazon walked me through a series of demos that illustrated the platforms new, and formidable AI powers. Executives tell me that the device manages its queries locally on device and in the cloud. The decision depends on complexity, and those requiring AI models will largely be in the cloud.

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff) Finally, a truly smart home

The Alexa Plus smart home demo was a true eye-opener from an impact standpoint. Amazon Alexa VP Scott Durhan showed us on an Echo Show (all demos were on the 21-inch smart display) how he could say to Alexa, "I've been away on business, can I see a quick summary of what's happened in the house while I was away?" Alexa Plus works with Ring (also owned by Amazon) and uses the platform's new smart video search (a premium service) to quickly find video snapshots from around the home that are within that time frame.

One of the hallmarks of the new Alexa Plus is its ability to maintain context and answer follow-up questions. Durham asked if his dog had gotten walks in that time frame, and Alexa Plus returned videos showing when the dog was taken outside. Durham, notably, did not have to repeat Alexa's name or spell out every detail of what he wanted in the prompt (they call this old way of engaging with the digital assistant "Alexa Speak") to add details like the fact that he owns a dog or its name.

Durham had shared that information previously with Alexa Plus, and it was remembered and integrated into the system.

Image 1 of 5

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)Image 2 of 5

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)Image 3 of 5

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)Image 4 of 5

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)Image 5 of 5

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

One of my frustrations with the current Alexa platform is that, even when you use the app, it is still incredibly difficult to set up away routines. I want to just speak to Alexa and make it happen. Durham showed me how you can now simply describe what you want, "I'm gonna be away for a week, can you create a routine so that the lights kind of come on and look like someone's home." A moment later, Alexa Plus created an "Away Mode Lights 7PM-to-9PM" routine. That was simple and effective.

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

There's also the long-standing issue of naming smart gadgets in the home and Alexa not responding properly unless you use that exact name in your query. Alexa Plus doesn't seem to mind some significant vagueness. You can tell it that you want it to turn off a light in the sitting room, and it will turn off the light in that room, which is called "Sofa Light," even though you didn't call it by name.

I only hope that Alexa Plus works as well in the real world (read "my smart home").

Let's go shopping

We also got a look at Alexa Plus' upcoming grocery feature, which can work with Amazon Fresh (among other grocers) to build meal plans and grocery lists based on skeletal information.

Image 1 of 4

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)Image 2 of 4

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)Image 3 of 4

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)Image 4 of 4

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

I told Alexa Plus that I wanted to build a dinner for vegetarians who like meat-like products. Soon, I had dishes using ingredients like Beyond Meat. When I asked for side dishes that would work, it remembered the vegetarian aspect and found foods like corn on the cob and vegetarian cole slaw.

@techradar

♬ original sound - TechRadar

Alexa Plus can then quickly take those recipes and spin up a shopping list that you can alter by tapping the screen or asking it to change specific grocery items. Alexa Plus' ability to stay in the moment was remarkable.

Sucking in docs and details

Alexa Plus can also read documents you email to alexa@alexa.com. Sending Alexa one of your emails may seem odd and a bit of a privacy issue, but assuming you trust Amazon, it's easy enough to do.

We saw how when you mail Alexa an email describing an upcoming tennis match (you can also send PDFs, Word Docs, and TXT files), Alexa Plus can identify that there's an event and automatically add it to your calendar, which will appear on the Echo Show. If the doc has multiple events, Alexa Plus will email you back and ask which one you want to add. We saw how you can query Alexa Plus and ask, "Where is my first match?"

If there's a small detail you need from the email, you can ask about that and then tell Alexa Plus to memorize it and remind you if you need any equipment for the match.

Naturally, Amazon execs showed us how easy it is to go from talking about the match to asking Alexa Plus to help you find a new tennis racquet. It can even watch for deals on the racquet of your choice. For now, this only works with Amazon and not third-party retailers.

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff) That's entertainment

One of the most entertaining demos was using Alexa Plus to discover and find music and movies with only scant information.

Watching this demo, I felt like Amazon must have been listening in on conversations between me and my wife, where we try to describe a movie or TV show to each other: "It has that guy in from Dawson's Creek, but he's on a boat...?"

I watched as Alexa Plus deftly handled piecemeal prompts like, "What is the song that Phoebe thinks is about Tony Danza?" Alexa Plus knew it was "Hold Me Closer Tiny Dancer" and we were referring to the Friends episode where Phoebe thinks it's about the Who's the Boss? star.

We went through a series of movie prompts that reminded me of Jeopardy! questions where we failed to stump Alexa Plus.

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Alexa Plus is not just smart about entertainment; it's also pretty good at managing how you enjoy it in ways that make customization dead simple.

We started on an Echo show that was "in the kitchen" and asked Alexa to play "The song at the end of The Breakfast Club" in the Living Room (an Echo Studio). Then we asked it to switch the music to the living room (another Echo Studio on the other side of the demo space). Finally, the exec told Alexa Plus that he was going "to do some dishes, move it there," and Alexa Plus shifted the music to the Echo Show in the "kitchen."

From accurately guessing "Don't You Forget About Me," to deftly moving the music around without all the specific details it usually takes, Alexa Plus AI-powered entertainment skills appear formidable.

Exciting but

It was a series of impressive demos, but I do have questions about privacy and support for screenless Echos. Amazon has already confirmed that not every Echo ever made will support Alexa Plus (they'll still work with the original Alexa), but I do wonder what the experience will be like on smart speakers.

The Ring integration is exciting, but you have to pay for that video feature. Otherwise, queries about activities over the last two weeks might come up with nothing.

I am glad Amazon is including Alexa Plus in Amazon Prime. It's hard to imagine paying $19.99 a month for the privilege of using it.

I also wonder just how much of Anthropic's Claude is at work here. Amazon called them a partner, but are we still talking to Alexa, or is this now Claude in Alexa Plus clothing?

Even so, this is the change Alexa desperately needed, and I think it's safe to say that Amazon has officially entered the consumer AI race.

You might also like

• Amazon unveils Alexa Plus, its brand new AI-infused voice..
• Alexa Plus subscription pricing confirmed – and it's good ...
• Alexa Plus explained: 9 things you need to know about ...

Brazilians are flocking to the theaters to see its Oscar-nominated film I Am Still Here. It tells the story of a family devastated by the military dictatorship that ruled from 1964. There has never been a truth commission to investigate abuses or prosecutions of those accused of wrongdoing during a two-decade-long rule. Advocates hope the film might lead to a better understanding of that dark past.

(Image credit: Amanda Edwards)

On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is scheduled to meet President Donald Trump at the White House.

On the agenda — a deal for Ukraine to share its rich natural resources. The Trump administration wants hundreds of billions of dollars of rare earth metals and other critical minerals. Details are thin on what exactly Ukraine would get in exchange.

The meeting comes as the world marks three years since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and as Trump promises to bring an end to the war.

But bringing an end to the war may not be so simple argues Alexander Vindman.

The Ukrainian-born Vindman was the White House staffer and active duty Army officer, who testified against Trump during his first impeachment trial in 2019.

Trump fired Vindman not long after.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

(Image credit: MATHILDE KACZKOWSKI)

Apple says a speech-recognition model bug is causing the problem and that it will update iOS to address the issue.

President Trump says Ukraine is ready to sign a deal with the U.S. to share its mineral wealth. We look at five minerals and metals that could be covered by the deal.

(Image credit: Sunday Alamba/AP)

After 11 years of the plane's untraceable disappearance, authorities have announced that the search is back on.

(Image credit: Rahman Roslan/Getty Images)

All PS Plus subscribers can play these games soon.

Elon Musk's men at HUD come from the real estate sector. They have access to vast stores of personal and financial data—and control over who can access which HUD systems.

• Morefine G1 is available from $750 to $1,600
• Dual HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort 1.4 provide multiple output options
• Three cooling modes let users balance performance and noise

The Morefine G1 is an external GPU with three configurations including the RTX 4060 with 8GB GDDR6, the RTX 4080M with 12GB GDDR6, and the top-tier RTX 4090M with 16GB GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus.

Per AndroidPC via Minimachines (originally in Spanish and French, respectively), this eGPU measures just 14 cm wide, 10 cm deep, and 5.4 cm thick.

Thanks to its 9,728 CUDA cores and dedicated Tensor Cores, the RTX 4090M is particularly suited for creatives handling demands such as 8K video editing software, large 3D scene rendering, and AI tool workloads.

Morefine G1 eGPU: High-performance with versatile connectivity

The Morefine G1 connects via two USB Type-C ports, one supporting USB4 with a 40Gbps transfer rate. For faster data speeds, users can opt for an OCuLink 1.4i module, which boosts bandwidth to 64Gbps.

It includes dual HDMI 2.0 ports, a DisplayPort 1.4, and three USB 3.2 Type-A ports. It requires a 240W external power supply via a 20V/12A jack.

The cooling system offers three modes: Silent, Auto, and High Performance. Silent mode caps performance at 70% to reduce noise, while Auto adjusts dynamically based on temperature, allowing up to 80% efficiency - and High Performance mode enables full power at the expense of fan noise and more heat.

The Morefine G1 is currently available via AliExpress, with more online retailers expected to follow. Pricing starts at around $750 for the RTX 4060 version, $1,350 for the RTX 4080M, and $1,600 for the RTX 4090M.

You may also like

• Check out the best 3D modeling software for 3D printing and more
• We've rounded up the best portable monitors available now
• Is your business primed to respond to downtime?

Here are some hints -- and the answers -- for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, No. 157, for Feb. 27.

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 361 for Feb. 27.

Hints and answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for Feb. 27, #627.

Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle No. 1,349 for Feb. 27.

Zach Mack spent a year attempting to rescue his father from the depths of the conspiracy rabbit hole. Their family was forced to reckon with clashing realities, ideological divides and misinformation.

(Image credit: Anna Kim for NPR)

• Exo supports LLaMA, Mistral, LlaVA, Qwen, and DeepSeek
• Can run on Linux, macOS, Android, and iOS, but not Windows
• AI models needing 16GB RAM can run on two 8GB laptops

Running large language models (LLMs) typically requires expensive, high-performance hardware with substantial memory and GPU power. However, Exo software now looks to offer an alternative by enabling distributed artificial intelligence (AI) inference across a network of devices.

The company allows users to combine the computing power of multiple computers, smartphones, and even single-board computers (SBCs) like Raspberry Pis to run models that would otherwise be inaccessible.

This decentralized approach shares similarities with the SETI@home project, which distributed computing tasks across volunteer machines. By leveraging a peer-to-peer (P2P) network, Exo eliminates the need for a single, powerful system, making AI inference more accessible to individuals and organizations.

How Exo distributes AI workloads

Exo aims to challenge the dominance of large technology companies in AI development. By decentralizing inference, it seeks to give individuals and smaller organizations more control over AI models, similar to initiatives focused on expanding access to GPU resources.

"The fundamental constraint with AI is compute," argues Alex Cheema, co-founder of EXO Labs. "If you don’t have the compute, you can’t compete. But if you create this distributed network, maybe we can."

The software dynamically partitions LLMs across available devices in a network, assigning model layers based on each machine’s available memory and processing power. Supported LLMs include LLaMA, Mistral, LlaVA, Qwen, and DeepSeek.

Users can install Exo on Linux, macOS, Android, or iOS, though Windows support is not currently available. A minimum Python version of 3.12.0 is required, along with additional dependencies for systems running Linux fitted with NVIDIA GPUs.

One of Exo’s key strengths is that, unlike traditional setups that rely on high-end GPUs, it enables collaboration between different hardware configurations.

For example, an AI model requiring 16GB of RAM can run on two 8GB laptops working together. A more demanding model like DeepSeek R1, requiring approximately 1.3TB of RAM, could theoretically operate on a cluster of 170 Raspberry Pi 5 devices with 8GB RAM each.

Network speed and latency are critical concerns, and Exo's developers acknowledge that adding lower-performance devices may slow inference latency but insists that overall throughput improves with each device added to the network.

Security risks also arise when multiple machines share workloads, requiring safeguards to prevent data leaks and unauthorized access.

Adoption is another hurdle, as developers of AI tools currently rely on large-scale data centers. The low-cost of Exo's approach may appeal. but Exo's approach simply won’t match the speed of those high-end AI clusters.

Via CNX Software

You may also like

• UK creative industries launch ‘Make it Fair’ campaign against AI content theft
• We've listed the best AI video editors right now
• We've also rounded up the best AI writers available

President Trump warned federal workers who did not reply to recent emails asking them to describe "five things" they accomplished are "on the bubble" suggesting they are at risk of losing their jobs.

(Image credit: Andrew Harnik)