Hard Fork GPT-5 Arrives, and We Try the New Alexa+
972 snips
Aug 8, 2025 
Daniel Rausch, Vice President of Alexa and Echo at Amazon, joins to discuss the launch of Alexa Plus and the challenges of integrating generative AI into the product. He sheds light on the evolution of Alexa's capabilities, contrasting its new features with past limitations. The conversation highlights the technical hurdles of personalizing user interactions and maintaining conversation context. The hosts also share their mixed feelings about the device's performance, blending excitement for advancements with frustrations over reliability and connectivity issues.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Smelling Salts And Fainting
- Kevin Roose fainted during a blood draw and was revived with smelling salts.
- The startling revival felt surreal and intensely physical.
Automatic Model Router
- OpenAI built a router to analyze requests and route them to the right model.
- This hides model selection from users and applies reasoning models when needed.
Extensive Red‑Teaming Revealed
- OpenAI performed 5,000 hours of red‑teaming and consulted external experts for GPT‑5.
- They rated the model as high risk for enabling novel biological misuse and added protections.