Amazon: Advanced Alexa will cost a monthly fee

A modified version of Amazon’s AI assistant Alexa will likely cost money. Reuters reports this after discussions with current and former Amazon employees. Accordingly, Amazon is considering offering the assistant, expected to be called “Remarkable Alexa”, for a monthly fee of 5 to 10 US dollars.

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Amazon has been working on an improved version of Alexa for several months. It was first demonstrated last fall. A new AI model should allow Amazon’s voice assistant to eventually have more natural conversations with users. In a demo, Amazon showed that it is no longer necessary to constantly address Alexa as “Alexa” to participate in a conversation. In addition, the language assistant should develop a stronger personality.

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according to him Reuters report Improved Alexa is planned as an optional additional offer. This apparently means that Alexa’s current functions will continue to be available for free – only new features may disappear behind a paywall. Reuters writes in the report that Amazon’s plans are not final and may change. A spokesperson for the company declined to comment on subscription plans in a statement to Reuters.

Development proceeds slowly

The fact that development of the new Alexa is progressing slowly A recent report from Fortune revealed. Accordingly, Amazon Meta has not managed to keep up with the AI ​​advancements of Microsoft and Google. Instead, the company, which was once a leader in voice assistants with Alexa, has now had to catch up. One employee told Fortune that Amazon’s voice assistant is in danger of becoming a “digital relic.”

When developing new functions, one of the things that would stand in the way is the existing Alexa system: because the voice assistant must retain its old features, developers still had to work with the old technology stack, according to the Fortune report. In addition, the various development departments were very isolated from each other, leading to some unfavorable ideas and suggestions to the LLM team behind the AI ​​model.

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