News Amazon reportedly wants to charge for Alexa's AI skills, but the plan has hit a snag

[AC News]

Amazon is developing a paid version of Alexa called "Alexa Plus," but there are reports that it isn't thrilled with how well it's working.

Amazon reportedly wants to charge for Alexa's AI skills, but the plan has hit a snag : Read more

 

[rvbfan]

Another reason for me to not use Alexa.

 

[Tigrisan]

Yeah, add me to that list of people who won't be paying another dime to Amazon for any 'add ons'. I already pay for Prime, I pay an extra to Music Unlimited so my father in law can listen when he wants to, now they want me to pay for commercial free movies, and Alexa that uses AI when I don't care that it does, I just want it to turn my lights on and off when I tell it to and wake me with my radio station in the morning. Pretty soon, Amazon is gonna figure out how to wipe people's rear and start trying to charge for that! Nope, not gonna happen. The day they tell me I have to pay for Alexa, I'm done.

 

[fuzzylumpkin]

Yeah, add me to that list of people who won't be paying another dime to Amazon for any 'add ons'. I already pay for Prime, I pay an extra to Music Unlimited so my father in law can listen when he wants to, now they want me to pay for commercial free movies, and Alexa that uses AI when I don't care that it does, I just want it to turn my lights on and off when I tell it to and wake me with my radio station in the morning. Pretty soon, Amazon is gonna figure out how to wipe people's rear and start trying to charge for that! Nope, not gonna happen. The day they tell me I have to pay for Alexa, I'm done.

They do sell bidets...

 

[Stanley Kubrick]

This whole AI fiasco is going NOWHERE with me! I never used any of this assistant stuff up until today and now I have even more reason to stay away! Don't need it, never did, never will!

 

[me just saying]

I have been using alexa since 2015 for just about everything I can. It is a great addition, but ain't no way I am paying any subscription for Amazons version of chatgpt. I did not get alexa to ask it questions, to be a companion but to run a smart home.

I think chatgpt, bard or whatever is just a passing fad. People will use it for a bit then get tired of it. IMO, the subscription plan will be a failure.

 

[joeldf]

We have a Dot and the bigger Echo. It was fun for a few weeks, but that was 2 years ago. The Echo is unplugged. The Dot is sitting on my wife's desk and she uses it occasionally to play the news or re-order something on Amazon.

We both have Fire tablets with Alexa on it, but never use it there.

My youngest son used Alexa for a while on our Fire TV stick to make up joke lists with silly words just to hear how Alexa said them. That entertained him for about a half-hour every few days for a couple of months. He even played with that again one day a few months ago.

All the things it's supposed to help us do, I guess we found... we just don't need or do.

 

[Ranger Ric]

Here is our use for Alexa:

1. Alexa turns on the lights in the basement. The basement does not a wall switches, pull cords only. We plugged in a smart wall plug Alexa can connect to, she now turns on and off the basement lights. Prior to the smart plugs we would walk down the stairs get to the bottom where it is dark, then flail our arms about attempting to find the pull cord.
2. Alexa can open and close the garage door from anywhere.
3. During the Christmas holidays we used smart wall plugs in the front and in the back. We used Alexa to turn those on and off. Saved us from going outside in the cold, ice, sleet and rain, just to plug or unplug them.
4. Use Alexa quite a lot for timers. Of course, we can use our phone timers, however it is easier using Alexa.

Before you roll your eyes about our uses for Alexa, this year we are 80, stairs and stuff for the wife is becoming more of a challenge. However, if Amazon demands payment for Alexa use, Alexa will be El-Gone-O, we already pay for Prime.