Alexa Has an AI Sibling: Meet Nova Sonic, Amazon’s Next-Gen Voice Model
Amazon also unveiled another model - Nova Reel 1.1, an upgraded model for text-to-video generation
On November 6, 2014, Amazon introduced Alexa alongside its smart speaker, the Echo. After nearly 12 years, the e-commerce giant has launched its sibling - Nova Sonic - designed for voice-based applications.
Alexa was inspired by the voice-activated computer system featured on the Starship Enterprise in the Star Trek franchise, starting with The Original Series and later seen in The Next Generation.
"Nova Sonic takes a new approach to solve these challenges. Instead of using different models, it unifies the understanding and generation capabilities into a single model," Amazon said in a blog post.
Nova Sonic streamlines voice AI by merging speech recognition, understanding, and generation into a single foundation model. Unlike traditional systems that split these functions into separate stages—often losing key vocal nuances—Nova Sonic delivers seamless, emotionally responsive interactions. It can adjust tone, pace, and style based on context, making it ideal for sectors like customer service, healthcare, education, travel, and entertainment.
Amazon also unveiled another model- Nova Reel 1.1, an upgraded model for text-to-video generation. Nova Reel 1.1 brings enhanced capabilities to text-to-video generation.
It now supports multi-shot videos up to two minutes long, with improved speed, coherence, and visual consistency across scenes. Users can craft a full video from a single prompt or customize individual segments for finer creative control.
Available on Amazon Bedrock, Nova Reel 1.1 is aimed at marketers, content creators, and product teams looking to scale high-quality video output while cutting production time and costs. Access to the model is available through the Amazon Bedrock console, AWS SDK, or CLI, with support for both versions 1.0 and 1.1.
Nova Sonic also provides real-time transcripts of user speech, enabling integrations with APIs and tools for dynamic, task-based applications—like retrieving flight options or querying enterprise data.
These launches are part of Amazon's broader Nova family, announced at re:Invent 2024, which also includes text-focused models Nova Micro, Lite, and Pro.
