Amazon Alexa owners face having to pay new £96 annual charge

Amazon could charge "up to £7.99" a month to use a new AI Alexa service. Amazon Alexa owners face having to pay £96 a year according to a report from Reuters, with fees reported could range from $5 to $10 - or £3.99 to £7.99,

Amazon 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.

Known internally as “Banyan,” a reference to the sprawling ficus trees, the project would represent the first major overhaul of the voice assistant since it was introduced in 2014 along with the Echo line of speakers. Amazon has dubbed the new voice assistant "Remarkable Alexa," the people said.

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Inside sources say the revamp has been dubbed "Remarkable Alexa" with the updated device using conversational artificial intelligence technology. The new service is set to pick up a conversation after a short break and Alexa will still remember all of the context from the previous exchanges.

CEO Andy Jassy previously promised a “more intelligent and capable Alexa,” without providing additional details. "We have already integrated generative AI into different components of Alexa, and are working hard on implementation at scale—in the over half a billion ambient, Alexa-enabled devices already in homes around the world—to enable even more proactive, personal, and trusted assistance for our customers," said an Amazon spokeswoman in a statement following the report from Reuters this week.

The update would eliminate the need to say "Alexa" when making using the device which would offer more personalisation. The sources said there was currently no plan to introduce the service as part of the Prime membership, which customers already have to pay for.