Soon we might have to pay to use Amazon’s smart assistant Alexa

Looks like Amazon’s had a bit of a struggle making money off its beloved Alexa smart assistant. But hold onto your hats, because word on the street, courtesy of Business Insider, is that the e-commerce titan is thinking of dropping a paid version of Alexa, dubbed “Alexa Plus,” to cover its expenses. This upgraded version would boast generative AI, making it a champ at delivering more detailed responses that nail users’ questions.

Can’t spill all the beans, but word has it that Amazon is gearing up to drop this service on June 30. The team spilled the beans about giving Alexa a makeover back in September. Since then, whispers have been going around that over 15,000 users are putting the revamped Alexa through its paces under the hush-hush code name “Remarkable Alexa.”

No deets on the price tag yet, but don’t hold your breath for Alexa Plus to be a freebie. Given that Alexa has been bleeding cash for ages, this move could be Amazon’s golden ticket to start raking in some serious dough from this wildly popular service.

Sadly, that’s the whole scoop for now. Alexa Plus aims to bring AI smarts akin to what you get with ChatGPT to both your smartphone and living room. But, the nitty-gritty details of how it’s all gonna play out are still up in the air.

Here’s the plan: they want a savvy assistant that really gets what you’re saying, all thanks to a beefy language model. This means it can decode your commands spot-on, giving you the freedom to chat with it like you would with a buddy, no need for those specific command phrases.

Looks like Alexa Plus won’t be rolling out a whole bunch of brand-new tricks for your smart home. Instead, it’s aiming to up its game by making things run smoother and giving you a breeze of a time controlling all your devices.

Back in September, they spilled the beans about new features like tossing out multiple commands in one sentence and setting up Routines just by talking. Brace yourself for more juicy tidbits in the months ahead as Amazon spills the tea on extra details.

Good news for Alexa fans: the current version isn’t getting a makeover, and it’s sticking around as a freebie.