by Juli Clover
Apple competitor Amazon is working on a revamp of its Alexa assistant, and the new version could cost up to $10 per month, according to a report from Reuters. The upcoming version of Alexa will support conversational generative AI, and Amazon is planning for two tiers of service.
There will be a free tier and a second, premium tier that is priced at $5 at a minimum, with Amazon considering price points ranging from $5 to $10. Amazon does not plan to include the premium Alexa tier with its $139 per year Prime subscription.
Amazon has not made significant updates to Alexa in the last decade, and it has fallen behind other AI products that have started to adopt large language models. Alexa is free and built into Amazon devices, so Amazon does not make money directly from it as of now. Some employees that spoke to Reuters said the revamp is a "desperate attempt" to revitalize Alexa, and Amazon executives have suggested it is imperative Alexa demonstrate 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 craft emails, give shopping advice, and order delivery from Uber Eats. Amazon also wants to improve the way that Alexa controls smart home products, with Alexa able to learn how to automate routines.
Amazon is aiming to have the updated version of Alexa finished by August, which would see it launch later this year. Apple is working on a similarly updated version of Siri that also incorporates large language models, though many of the new Siri functions won't be coming until 2025.
Tags: Amazon, Alexa
[ 155 comments ]
Popular Stories
Alleged First Look at Apple Watch X / Series 10 With 2-Inch Display
Wednesday June 26, 2024 2:44 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple is rumored to be planning a revamp of the Apple Watch for the device's tenth anniversary, and 91mobiles claims to have sourced CAD renders of what could be the "Apple Watch X" or Apple Watch Series 10 from industry insiders. The site claims that the renders are of a "larger" model featuring a 2-inch display. The current Apple Watch Series 9 has a 1.7-inch display, while the Apple Watch ...
Read Full Article • 184 comments
Apple Releases New Firmware for AirPods, AirPods Pro, AirPods Max and More
Tuesday June 25, 2024 12:35 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple today released new firmware update for several products, including the Lightning and USB-C versions of the AirPods Pro 2, the first-generation AirPods Pro, the AirPods Max, the second and third-generation AirPods, the Beats Fit Pro, and the PowerBeats Pro. The second-generation AirPods Pro models, the PowerBeats Pro, and the Beats Fit Pro now have firmware version 6F8, up from 6F7,...
Read Full Article • 50 comments
iOS 18 to Bring These 5 New Features to AirPods Pro
Wednesday June 26, 2024 6:59 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple's upcoming iOS 18 software update is packed with features for supported iPhones, but it also promises to make your AirPods Pro experience better with a handful of sophisticated new capabilities that draw from machine learning improvements and AI enhancements. The following five AirPods Pro features are expected to arrive later this year, when iOS 18 is released to the general public in ...
Read Full Article • 56 comments
Everything New in iOS 18 Beta 2
Monday June 24, 2024 12:52 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple today released the second betas of iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 to developers, and the software adds support for new features that Apple is working on, plus it tweaks some of the interface changes that have been made in the updates. Apple will refine iOS 18 over the course of the next few months, with multiple changes and refinements expected from now until September. We've highlighted...
Read Full Article • 124 comments
Thursday June 27, 2024 2:49 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
There appears to be an ongoing outage with international roaming across multiple cellular networks, with Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile customers abroad complaining about the issue on social networks and cellular community forums. Customers traveling internationally have been without service since late Wednesday for hours at a time, with many losing cellular, text, and data. That has left many...
Read Full Article • 67 comments
Top Rated Comments
Kabeyun
1 week ago
Can’t wait to hear all about the free tier experience:
“Hey Alexa, what’s the weather tomorrow?”
“Happy to tell you, but first here’s a message from ShedRain umbrellas! Strong, compact, lightweight, and totally waterproof, guaranteed!…”
Score: 61 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sloheim
1 week ago
In related news, Alexa is dead.
Score: 51 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jjdodders
1 week ago
lmaooooooooooooo the logical end point to this subscription obsession is that you will eventually have to pay a monthly subscription to ward off Boston dynamics dogs from ripping out your throat.
£10 a month for something I make set a cooking timer for me occasionally? It's cheaper to just throw the thing out the window.
Score: 50 Votes (Like | Disagree)
turbineseaplane
1 week ago
They could pay me $10 a month and I wouldn’t use it
Score: 40 Votes (Like | Disagree)
contacos
1 week ago
As long as I can still tell it to play music or to turn on / off my lights I don’t care. This is the only thing I use those assistants for. I am way too lazy to talk
Score: 28 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mrkevinfinnerty
1 week ago
Would've raked it in, in 2016 the last time anybody cared.
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments
'); }
Next Article
PSA: Siri Can Turn on Night Shift on Apple Watch
)
