Amazon (AMZN.O) is planning a major revamp of its decade-old money-losing Alexa service to include a conversational generative AI with two tiers of service and has considered a monthly fee of around $5 to access the superior version, according to people with direct knowledge of the company’s plans.
I bought the device (s), I use it to turn on/off my lights, ask it the time and date every now and then, everything it prompts me for is annoying as fuck. I’m not paying a monthly fee for a device that I purchased to do simple tasks that were included when I bought it.
Based on what I’ve read, you can still do what you bought them for without paying the monthly fee. You just have to deal with the old dumb Alexa.
By the way…
One day they’ll want to stop maintaining two systems, and you’ll either have to pay up or lose functionality completely.
Then there will be class action lawsuit from all the owners who paid for the devices.
Devices stop functioning eventually. You can’t make Apple support your iPod.