Running AI is so expensive that Amazon will probably charge you to use Alexa in future, says outgoing exec::In an interview with Bloomberg, Dave Limp said that he “absolutely” believes that Amazon will soon start charging a subscription fee for Alexa
We’re seeing this all over the tech and tech adjacent space. Can’t grow forever at a loss, especially not with increased interest rates and a potential economic downturn.
My guess, if you want to have decent services we’re going to end up needing to pick few (or a suite of the basics) to pay for on a monthly basic and cut out all the “free” stuff that is/will get enshittified.
in my eyes they put themselves in an awkward position by garnering a reputation of always collecting more user data than justified, and at this point i assume they do the same with paid products as it’s an industry norm. however I’m not ok with it and will never pay when the product doesn’t respect privacy. the saying used to be “if you don’t pay, you’re the product”, but it is increasingly shifting to: you’re the product and also you have to pay so that our shareholders can experience more infinite growth