Amazon has some big plans for its drone delivery program, including an international expansion to the UK and Italy in 2024. The company also aims to start drone operations in a third US city next year, following existing efforts in College Station, Texas (where it just started offering prescription medication delivery by drone) and Lockeford, California. Drone deliveries in the UK and Italy will start at one site each before expanding to more locations over time. Amazon says it will announce the specific locations for the US, UK and Italy expansion in the coming months. Moreover, Amazon will integrate the Prime Air program into its delivery network.

Amazon.com Inc. plans to bring ChatGPT-style product search to its web store, rivaling efforts by Microsoft Corp. and Google to weave generative artificial intelligence into their search engines. The e-commerce giant's ambitions appear in recent job postings reviewed by Bloomberg News. One listing seeking a senior software development engineer says the company is "reimagining Amazon Search with an interactive conversational experience" designed to help users find answers to questions, compare products and receive personalized suggestions. "We're looking for the best and brightest across Amazon to help us realize and deliver this vision to our customers right away," the company said in the listing, which was posted on its jobs board last month. "This will be a once in a generation transformation for Search."

Amazon plans to begin delivering some packages by drone to homes in a few Northern California communities this year, the company said Monday. Residents of San Joaquin County farming towns Lockeford and Acampo, as well as parts of Lodi, will be able to order "thousands of everyday items" online and can expect a drone to drop them in their backyards in less than an hour, said Av Zammit, an Amazon spokesperson. The Amazon Prime Air drones can carry packages that weigh 5 pounds or less -- such as beauty and cosmetic items, office and tech supplies, batteries and household items -- and will typically be the size of a large shoebox, Zammit said. The company is building a facility in Lockeford from which the drones will launch. Though Amazon Prime Air received certification to commercially fly cargo in 2020, it is still seeking approval from the Federal Aviation Administration and county officials for its plans in San Joaquin County.

Amazon is working on an Alexa-powered robot on wheels. At its fall hardware event, the company showed off Astro. Set to initially cost $1,000 when it becomes available later this year, it's essentially an Alexa display that can roam around your home. The robot features a periscope camera that allows it to expand its field of view beyond floor level. It can extend that camera to check on things like stovetops and sleeping pets.

Amazon plans to install AI-enabled cameras in their delivery vehicles to monitor their drivers while they're on the clock. An Amazon video uploaded to Vimeo shows how the camera operates. The Driveri platform, supplied by the software company Netradyne, provides real-time feedback to a driver and evaluates a driver's performance during their shifts. The program's feedback notes distracted driving, failure to stop at a stop sign, speeding and others. If the camera detects any of these trigger signals, it will upload recorded footage.

Amazon's use of facial recognition has sparked fears of an authoritarian future resembling that described by George Orwell. Privacy advocates and campaigners have said Amazon using facial recognition in its smart doorbells could provide the perfect tool for extreme surveillance. The campaigners called the technology'nightmarish' and'disturbing'. Amazon bought the US-based firm Ring earlier this year. The doorbell company has previously filed for a patent to use facial recognition in its products.

Amazon's warehouses will be staffed by less humans and more robots over the busy Christmas period, a leading analyst has claimed. The retail giant recruits thousands of additional employees every year to help meet the increased demand of the festive period. Amazon is only recruiting an additional 100,000 people for this year, down 20,000 from the two previous Christmases. Citi analyst Mark May told CNBC that this is likely a early sign of the increased automation at Amazon as it lessens its reliance on human employees. Amazon has endured several controversies surrounding working conditions in its fulfilment centres with claims of staff being forced to urinate into a bottle and employees not being paid after suffering serious injuries art work.

Inc. AMZN -2.71% wants workers to ask its virtual assistant Alexa to book conference rooms and launch meetings, as the company races against rivals to make the office the next major inroad for voice-recognition devices. Amazon has built a wide lead in the field with its popular at-home Echo speaker, which launched in late 2014. The company is now counting on its new service, dubbed Alexa for Business and available immediately, to spark a surge in voice computing in the workplace. The online retail giant plans to announce the initiative here Thursday at its annual conference for its Amazon Web Services cloud-computing unit. Even before Amazon made a push into business, RBC Capital Markets predicted that by 2020, Alexa device installations could reach 128 million.

Today, Amazon and the Max Planck Society announced that they intend to enter into a strategic collaboration to promote research in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Amazon plans to build an Amazon Research Center adjacent to the campus of the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tuebingen. As part of the Cyber Valley initiative, the new center intends to bring together international key players from science and industry to concentrate their research activities in the field of AI. Amazon plans to invest 1.25 million Euro over the coming years to fund research groups in Tuebingen's Cyber Valley tech initiative. Cyber Valley was launched in December 2016 and focuses on AI research, such as robotics, machine learning and computer vision.

Professor Bernhard Schölkopf, a director at the Max Planck Institute and leading mind in machine learning, is now also an "Amazon Scholar." Between its online shopping algorithms, online web services and the rise of Alexa, artificial intelligence is becoming an increasingly important part of Amazon's business model. Now, the online mega-retailer is investing in the technology's future with plans for a new Amazon Research Center near the campus of the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen, Germany. Amazon plans to staff the new facility with 100 employees in the field of machine learning, and will pour 1.25 million euros (almost $1.5 million) into new research groups. Research in areas critical to AI, including robotics, machine learning and machine vision, are already underway in the area.