According to CNBC, Amazon will launch a paid Alexa service with rebuilt artificial intelligence

(Reuters) – Amazon.com will introduce a more conversational, artificial intelligence-powered version of its Alexa voice assistant later this year and plans to charge a monthly subscription fee to offset technology costs, CNBC reported on Wednesday.

While the e-commerce giant has not yet set a price for the new services, an Alexa subscription will not be included in its popular $139 annual Prime offer, the report said, citing people with knowledge of the company’s plans.

Amazon declined to comment on the report.

In September, the company said it was working on an AI-powered generative version of Alexa, despite growing competition from chatbots created by OpenAI and Alphabet’s Google.

In its annual letter to shareholders published last month, it doubled down on its plan, saying it was building GenAI applications for its consumer businesses, including a more powerful Alexa.

The company introduced Alexa in 2014 but hasn’t found a consistent way to make it more profitable, instead directing customers to the company’s website to make subsequent purchases.

Meanwhile, OpenAI last week unveiled a new artificial intelligence model called GPT-4o, which allows users to talk to ChatGPT and get real-time responses without lag. It may also interrupt ChatGPT.

Last week, Google also revealed improved versions of its Gemini chatbot and improvements to its search engine.

Media reports indicate that Apple is also planning an artificial intelligence upgrade for its virtual assistant Siri – which is seen as another laggard in the AI ​​race.

A CNBC report states that Amazon will use its own multilingual Titan model to update Alexa.

The company has made big investments in artificial intelligence, including a $4 billion investment in Anthropic, whose chatbot Claude competes with ChatGPT.

Still, investors fear that Microsoft’s early lead in the artificial intelligence race thanks to its investment in OpenAI could help it wrest most of the market share in the cloud industry from Amazon Web Services, the largest player in the field.

(Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)