1 min readOvernight Amazon announced its AI-powered Alexa model dubbed Alexa+ and its pricing structure is a head scratcher. Access to Alexa+ will either cost $19.99USD per month, which is the equivelant of almost $32 AUD, or it will be free with Amazon Prime. Pretty wide spectrum there.
Still, it will be a while until we see it outside of the US. Or even inside the US for that matter. To start Alexa+ will roll out to US households using the Echo Show 8, 10, 15, and 21, with more devices and regions to come throughout the year. It is quite a limited run to begin, but with how troubled this launch has been the slow rollout is unsurprising.
The long awaited, and multiple-delayed Alexa model utilises both Anthropic, and its own Nova LLM models to allow for more native language use across Echo devices. Ideally this means you should be able to speak to your devices like a normal person, rather than using broken sentences to get it to comply. The initial launch should allow Alexa+ to get smarter before it ends up in more people's hands. The LLMs will continue to train on native language in a real world environment, and should in theory get better while it does so.
Originally Alexa+ was tipped to launch with new Echo devices, and while the announcement came during the Devices and Services event, no new device was announced. It is still early in the year, and we may see something roll out to accompany a wider global launch, but for now if you want AI-powered Alexa you'll need to buy an older device. And maybe move to the US for a bit.
