Apple’s rival, Amazon, is revamping its Alexa assistant, and the new version could cost up to $10 per month, according to a report from Amazon. Reuters. The next version of Alexa will support conversational generative AI, and Amazon is planning two levels of the service.
There will be a free tier and a second premium tier priced at a minimum of $5, with Amazon considering price points ranging from $5 to $10. Amazon doesn’t plan to include Alexa’s premium tier with its $139-a-year Prime subscription.
Amazon hasn’t made major updates to Alexa in the past decade, and it has lagged behind other AI products that have begun adopting large language models. Alexa is free and built into Amazon devices, so Amazon isn’t making money from it directly yet. Some of the employees they talked to Reuters He said the revamp is a “desperate attempt” to revitalize Alexa, and Amazon executives suggested it was necessary for Alexa to prove it can generate “meaningful” sales.
The updated version of Alexa, which Amazon calls “Remarkable Alexa” internally, is expected to be able to do things like draft emails, give shopping tips, and order delivery from Uber Eats. Amazon also wants to improve the way Alexa controls smart home products, with Alexa being able to learn how to automate routines.
Amazon aims to finalize the updated version of Alexa by August, which will see it launch later this year. Apple is working on a similarly updated version of Siri that also includes significant language modeling, though many of the new Siri functions won’t come until 2025.
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