NEW YORK — Amazon is conducting an overhaul of its synthetic intelligence-based voice assistant Alexa and plans to charge a monthly subscription to offset generation costs, CNBC reported Wednesday.
The online retail giant will launch a more conversational edition of the voice assistant later this year, positioning it to better compete with AI-based chatbots from Microsoft and Google’s Alphabet, according to the report, which mentions other people familiar with Amazon’s plans.
Amazon did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
An Alexa subscription will be included in the company’s $139 Prime deal and Amazon has yet to price the new services, according to the report. He added that the company will use its own giant Titan language style for the update.
Amazon introduced Alexa in 2014, but hasn’t figured out a consistent way to make it profitable, luring shoppers to the company’s online page to make more purchases.
Last September, it updated its Alexa voice assistant with generative artificial intelligence to attract users. The company eliminated “several hundred” jobs at its Alexa voice assistant unit in November 2023.
Reportedly, Apple will also revamp its Siri virtual assistant with generative synthetic intelligence features.
CNBC’s report comes more than a week after OpenAI unveiled a new style of AI called GPT-4o, which allows users to communicate with ChatGPT and get real-time responses without delays. It can also disrupt ChatGPT.
Both are hallmarks of realistic conversations that older AI assistants must handle.