Amazon Plans Major Upgrade for Alexa Voice Assistant

Amazon.com is gearing up for a big change with its popular Alexa voice assistant. According to a report by CNBC, the tech giant is working on a major upgrade powered by artificial intelligence (AI). This upgrade aims to make Alexa more conversational and competitive with other AI chatbots like those from Microsoft and Google.

One significant detail from the report is that Amazon might start charging a monthly subscription fee for access to the new and improved Alexa services. This means users may have to pay a monthly fee to use certain advanced features.

The current version of Alexa, introduced in 2014, has been successful in many ways but hasn't always been profitable for Amazon. While it has encouraged users to shop more on Amazon's website, it hasn't consistently made money on its own.

To enhance user engagement, Amazon recently added generative AI to Alexa, allowing it to have more natural conversations. However, the company also had to make some changes, including reducing the size of its Alexa team by cutting several hundred jobs last November.

In addition to Amazon, Apple is reportedly looking into making improvements to its virtual assistant, Siri, by incorporating similar AI features.

This news comes at a time when OpenAI has introduced GPT-4o, an advanced AI model that allows for more realistic conversations. This development signifies a step forward in creating AI systems that can interact with users more naturally, which has been a challenge for older AI technology.

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