The route to “generalizable intelligence” – that is, what many consider the stuff of sci-fi – begins with ambient intelligence. And that future is unfurling now.

“We are living in the golden area of AI, where dreams and science fiction are becoming a reality,” said Rohit Prasad, senior vice president and head scientist for Alexa at Amazon.

Prasad spoke on the evolution from ambient intelligence to generalizable intelligence (GI) today at re:MARS, Amazon’s conference on machine learning, automation, robotics, and space.

Ambient intelligence, Prasad said, is when underlying AI is available everywhere, assists people when they need it – and also learns to anticipate needs – then fades into the background when it’s not needed.

A prime example and a significant step toward GI, Prasad said, is Amazon’s Alexa, which he described as a “personal assistant, advisor, companion.”

The virtual assistant is equipped with 30 ML systems that process various sensory signals, he explained. It gets more than 1 billion requests a week in 17 languages in dozens of countries. It will also, he said, be headed to the moon as part of the uncrewed Artemis 1 mission set to launch in August.

A future Alexa feature will be...