Amazon Reportedly Plans to Introduce Paid Version of Alexa with AI Upgrade
According to a report by Business Insider, Amazon is set to give its voice assistant, Alexa, a major AI upgrade and launch it as a paid product in the near future. The new service, tentatively named “Alexa Plus,” is expected to debut as early as June 30 and is currently being tested by thousands of customers under the code name “Remarkable Alexa.”
However, there seems to be a problem with the new AI-driven assistant—it’s not performing well. Amazon employees mentioned in the report claim that while the new version excels at holding conversations, it falls short when it comes to actually being useful. Answers provided by the AI are reportedly excessively long and often inaccurate, and there are frequent instances of what employees refer to as “AI hallucinations.” The assistant also struggles with multi-step requests that involve multiple backend services. Some employees argue that the inclusion of certain features from the original Alexa product is causing bloat in the new version, leading to internal friction.
As a result, employees are urging Amazon to delay the launch, expressing doubts about customers’ willingness to pay for a service that doesn’t meet their expectations.
It’s not surprising that Amazon is considering charging for Alexa, considering reports that the voice assistant is currently a financial burden for the company. With AI technology being costly to develop and maintain, introducing a paid fee for Alexa seems like a logical move. However, if the employee accounts are accurate, it may be in Amazon’s best interest to hold off on the launch until the issues are resolved.
The question remains: Would consumers be willing to pay for a voice assistant like Alexa?
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