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Amazon wants to charge a subscription fee for Alexa eventually

Sep 26, 2023 - arstechnica.com
Amazon is considering introducing a subscription fee for its Alexa voice assistant, according to Dave Limp, SVP of devices and services at Amazon. The company believes that the generative AI features it's developing for Alexa, such as the ability to have a back-and-forth discussion and draft emails, will offer enough value that customers will be willing to pay for it. However, Limp emphasized that Alexa would have to be "remarkable" before that happens and no timeline or price has been set yet.

Meanwhile, Amazon is discontinuing free home security features of Alexa Guard, requiring users to sign up for the new Alexa Emergency Assist at $5.99 a month or $59 a year. Amazon will also start showing ads on Prime Video next year unless users pay an extra $2.99 per month. These moves come as Amazon continues to seek ways to monetize Alexa, which has been experiencing uncertainty and is projected to lose Amazon $10 billion in 2022.

Key takeaways:

  • Amazon is considering charging a subscription fee for Alexa's AI features in the future, according to Dave Limp, SVP of devices and services at Amazon.
  • Amazon recently locked some of Alexa's Guard security features behind a paywall and discontinued Alexa Guard, replacing it with Alexa Emergency Assist, which costs $5.99 a month or $59 a year.
  • Amazon is investing up to $4 billion in Anthropic to build out large language models, indicating a focus on developing Alexa's generative AI capabilities.
  • Dave Limp, who is leaving Amazon at the end of the year, emphasized the substantial costs associated with turning Alexa into a generative AI chatbot, hinting at the reason behind the potential subscription fee.
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