Report says Alexa will be upgraded, but at a cost

Amazon It is reported that they are releasing Alexa generated AI version The company said it plans to charge a monthly fee for the technology, separate from Amazon Prime, later this year. CNBC on Wednesday, part of Amazon’s efforts to compete. OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4 Omni and Google’s Gemini 1.5which threatens digital assistants like Alexa.

The new version of Alexa will reportedly have improved conversational capabilities and be updated with the latest generative AI features, but it won’t be free. CNBC reports that Amazon has yet to finalize the price of AI Alexa, but the service will likely require a monthly subscription on top of the $139 annual fee Amazon Prime members pay. A source told CNBC that the estimated cost of using generative AI on Alexa is 2 cents per query, citing an internally proposed price range of $20 per month.

The report provides some details about Amazon’s ambitions for Alexa. Business Insider It was reported in January. Previous reports stated that the release date was June 30th and that the technology was called “Remarkable Alexa.” If true, Amazon will announce AI Alexa in the same month that Apple does. It is expected that the company will unveil an AI-enabled Siri. recently Letter to ShareholdersCEO Andy Jassy mentioned the Gen AI upgrade for Alexa.

As of 2023, Amazon has sold over 500 million Alexas, but the technology has lost momentum since its launch a decade ago. Once a novelty, Alexa now seems quite limited in its capabilities as an assistant compared to modern AI competitors. CNBC internally reports that Jassy has deprioritized Alexa because it is not generating significant revenue. One of CNBC’s sources also cited Jassy’s frustration over not being able to find live scores for recent sporting events on Alexa.

Amazon pointed out to Gizmodo that: Blog Post When asked about CNBC’s report in September 2023 titled “Preview of Alexa’s Future,” he responded. This blog post details the new Alexa, which is based on a large-scale language model. It promises to be more conversational, convenient, personalized, reliable, and even rich in personality. AI companies seem divided over whether AI assistants should be personal, but Amazon appears to be saying it agrees with the robots opinion.

“We always say that the most boring dinner parties are the ones where no one has an opinion. And with this new LLM, Alexa brings a point of view, making the conversation even more engaging,” Amazon said in a 2023 blog post.

last week, OpenAI Google showed off just how advanced its AI assistants can be, showing just how advanced Siri and Alexa will be this year. However, these AI assistants have high operational costs, and it is unclear whether consumers perceive them to be worth the price.