Amazon Announces Major Alexa Update with Subscription Fee

(CTN News) – Amazon has announced a substantial improvement to its Alexa voice command assistant. According to unidentified sources, the business has indicated that the newly updated Alexa will only be available to consumers through a monthly subscription.

Amazon is improving Alexa to make it more conversational. CNBC said the improved digital assistant would incorporate AI features comparable to ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot.

However, the post does not specify when Amazon will launch the update. Titan, Amazon’s huge language model, will power the upgraded digital assistant.

Amazon’s Titan Model Powers New Alexa

“The team is now tasked with turning Alexa into a relevant device that holds up amid the new AI competition, and one that justifies the resources and headcount Amazon has dedicated to it,” according to CNBC.

“According to the three sources, it has undergone a dramatic reorganization, with much of the crew moving to the artificial general intelligence, or AGI, team. Others cited bloat within Alexa, a workforce of thousands of employees.

The CNBC article stated that Amazon intends to collect monthly fees for its enhanced Alexa assistant but did not reveal the membership rate. However, the story stressed that this amount would not be included in the company’s $14.99-per-month Amzn Prime subscription.

It should be noted that numerous major technology companies, like OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft, have previously achieved significant advances in generative AI features.

These companies provided powerful AI features to everyone at no additional cost. This includes the latest ChatGPT-4o model, which OpenAI released only last week.

According to the story, Amazon’s CEO, Andy Jassy, requested the change because he was dissatisfied with Alexa’s current capabilities. The business introduced Alexa in 2014.

According to the story, Jassy’s unhappiness with the voice command assistant first appeared during a meeting when he inquired about the current score of a live sports event. However, it was unable to deliver the requisite answer. Jassy expressed his displeasure because the answer was simple to find.

According to the publication, Amazon’s voice command assistant has over 500 million users across various devices such as smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, smart speakers, and displays. The post provided no information on when the Alexa AI update might be released.