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

    • LazaroFilm@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      “By the way, you can now pay for Alexa AI option if you want me to reply in a slightly smarter way, but I will still cut you off with ads and other useless things. To activate AlexaAI say activate”

        • spitfire@infosec.pub
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          1 year ago

          Just made the switch to NextDNS. For $2/month I get a lot of the same features but also on my phone when not on WiFi. Still love my pihole though!

      • JonEFive@midwest.social
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        1 year ago

        “No”

        “I heard ‘activate’. Thank you! Your credit card will be charged $129 annually. To cancel, please log on to the website because there’s no way we’re letting you get out of this mess the same way we got you into it.”

        • bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          To cancel, please log on to the website because there’s no way we’re letting you get out of this mess the same way we got you into it.

          Unless you’re in California

      • FireTower@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        *to the same degree of intelligence as you’ve previously experienced. (Ps if you don’t we’re making Alexa have a room temp IQ)

    • pyldriver@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Mine can’t ever seem to tell the difference between on and off if there is any sound in my house

      • glimpseintotheshit@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Siri was always shit but somehow managed to devolve even further lately. I never trusted her to do more than than turning lights on or off but now this shit happens:

        Me: Siri, turn off the lights in the living room

        Siri: OKAY, WHICH ROOM? BATHROOM, BEDROOM, KITCHEN, HALLWAY, LIVING ROOM?

        Imagine living in a mansion with this cunt

        • Staple_Diet@aussie.zone
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          1 year ago

          I use Google to turn on my TV by saying ‘turn on TV’, easily done. But then when I ask it to adjust volume it asks me which TV… I only have one TV online and it had just turned it on.

    • scarabic@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      But he acknowledged that Alexa will need to drastically improve before that happens.

      I get tired of the outrage-headline game.

  • arthurpizza@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    We need to move AI from the cloud to our own hardware running in our homes. Free, open source, privacy focused hardware. It’ll eventually be very affordable.

      • teuast@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        In five to ten years, imo, AI will be everywhere and may even replace the need for mobile Internet connections in terms of looking up information.

        You’re probably right, but I kinda hope you’re wrong.

        • arthurpizza@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Storage is getting cheaper every day and the models are getting smaller with the same amount of data.

          • scarabic@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Yeah that’s not a lot. I mean… the average consumer probably has 10GB free on their boot volume.

            It is a lot to download. If we’re talking about ordinary consumers. Not unheard of though - some games on Steam are 50GB+

            So okay, storage is not prohibitive.

    • pyldriver@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      God I wish, I would just love local voice control to turn my lights and such on and off… but noooooooooooo

    • a1studmuffin@aussie.zone
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      1 year ago

      It’s the year of the voice for Home Assistant. Given their current trajectory, I’m hopeful they’ll have a pretty darn good replacement for the most common use cases of Google Home/Alexa/Siri in another year. Setting timers, shopping list management, music streaming, doorbell/intercom management. If you’re on the fence about a Nabu Casa subscription, pull the trigger as it helps them stay independent and not get bought out or destroyed by commercial interests.

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Thumbs up for Nabu Casa and Home Assistant!

        I haven’t yet played with the local voice stuff but have been following it with interest. Actually, now that Taspberry Piis are starting to become available again, I’m on the fence between buying a few more, vs finding something with a little more power, specifically for voice processing

        • foggenbooty@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Get something with a little more power. Pi’s are reaching outside the price where they make sense these days. You can get an Intel N100 system on AliExpress/Amazon for pretty cheap now and I’ve got mine running ProxMox hosting all kinds of stuff.

    • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      I do wonder how much of those voice assistants could run on-device. Most of what I use Bixby for (I know. I KNOW.) is setting timers. I think simple things like that can run entirely on the phone. It’s got a shocking amount of processing in it.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      While you may have points against Apple and how effective Siri may be, with this latest version kind of products, even the watch has enough processing power to do voice processing on device. No ads. No cloud services

      • whofearsthenight@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Pretty much. If you want a voice assistant right now, Siri is probably the best in terms of privacy. I bought a bunch of echos early, then they got a little shitty but I was in, and now I just want them out of my house except for one thing - music. Spotify integration makes for easy multi-room audio in a way that doesn’t really work as well on the other platform that I’ll consider (Apple/Siri) and basically adds sonos-like functionality for a tiny fraction of the price. The Siri balls and airplay are just not as good, and of course, don’t work as well with Spotify.

        But alexa is so fucking annoying that at this point I mostly just carry my phone (iPhone) and talk to that even though it’s a little less convenient because I’m really goddamned tired of hearing “by the way…”

  • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    AI is being touted as the solution to everything these days. It’s really not, and we are going to find that out the hard way.

      • HughJanus
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        Yes, but so much more. An actually useful assistant that could draft emails, set reminders appropriately, create automations, etc. would be worth A LOT of money to me.

        • whofearsthenight@lemm.ee
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          I think if there ends up actually being a version of AI that is privacy focused and isn’t screwing over creators it’d be so much less controversial. Also, everyone (including me) is really, really fucking sick of hearing about it all of the time in the same way that everyone is/was sick of hearing about the blockchain. As in: “Bro your taco stand needs AI/the blockchain.”

          • HughJanus
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            You wouldn’t need any kind of special training for this. Just the ability to do simple things like make calendar appointments, draft emails/responses, and set reminders based on time/locations/etc. It really doesn’t seem very complicated but as far as I know no one has figured out how to do it yet. All the existing “assistants” are so bad that I don’t even bother trying to use them anymore. They can’t even do something simple like turning on a light with any degree of reliability.

    • Valmond@lemmy.mindoki.com
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      Hey that’s only because Amazon, Google and Microsoft (et al) just doesn’t have the Money to Make it good!!

      So what about 9.99 a month?

      4.99 if you pay up front for a year?

      Euh, or how much can you cough up, like for a year or at least for Q4, I’m literally on a bad roll here.

      • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I’m not going to buy into a subscription model for something I’ve already paid for. This subscription model crap is complete bullshit.

        We even tried to do it with heated seats recently. Like install heated seats in your car, but disable them in software. It’s crazy that companies think they can get away with this.

        • Stumblinbear@pawb.social
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          I think there’s a massive difference between unlocking a feature that’s already there and requires no maintenance and a cloud-based service that demands 24/7 uptime and constant developer support, as well as ongoing feature development

        • slumberlust@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          While I agree with you, they are 💯 going to get away with it, because your average consumer just doesn’t care.

    • Hoomod@lemmy.world
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      If IBM actually manages to convert COBOL into Java like they’re advertising, they’ll end up killing their own cash cow

      So much still runs on COBOL

  • 5BC2E7@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Alexa is more like a telemarketer disguised as an assistant. Every interaction is followed by a “by the way . Its a shit experience so I stopped using mine.

    • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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      Alexa was designed explicitly for that purpose. They lose money on every Echo sold, the whole idea was they would make money selling you stuff. Turns out people would rather use their Echo to check the weather, get recipes, etc. rather than voice shop.

      • hightrix@lemmy.world
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        I just can’t see a use case for voice shopping. There are almost zero instances where I want to buy something without having a visual of that thing in front of me at time of purchase.

        I could possibly see something like “buy another stick of deodorant”, but even then I want to see if there are deals or some other options and would want to check the price at a minimum.

        Seems like yet another MBA idea.

        • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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          Yeah it seems the execs who had the idea for Alexa never used Amazon for shopping. It’s a shit shopping site full of scammy products. I’d never buy anything from them without checking out the prices reviews, etc.

        • OpenPassageways@lemmy.zip
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          It’s really only good for re-ordering things you’ve already ordered. It will let you know that it found something in your order history and then you can decide whether you want to order again.

          • hightrix@lemmy.world
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            And this makes sense, but I’d still want to check prices to make sure that my $3 deodorant didn’t get discontinued and priced at $30/stick.

            • GamingChairModel@lemmy.world
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              Well you think this way because you’ve seen what happened to Amazon in the past 10 years. 10 years ago, when they were getting ready to launch the Echo, Amazon was a great retailer that people trusted. Now a decade of sellers gaming listings and reviews, and Amazon customer service deteriorating, we’ve been trained not to trust Amazon’s defaults.

      • Cort@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Ha, I use mine almost exclusively as a light switch. I don’t have to get out of bed to turn off my lights or turn on my fan. I’m sure they’re losing a bunch of money on me

    • o0oradaro0o@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Setting all my Alexa’s to UK English got rid of all marketing “by the ways.” I still regret going with the Alexa ecosystem but at least for now there is a workaround for the most rage inducing part of it.

    • locuester@lemmy.zip
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      1 year ago

      By the way, did you know that you can find out more about telemarketing with an audio book from audible on the subject. Would you like to hear a preview of that now?

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    So they expect that people pay for being spied upon and seriously data mined?

      • Esqplorer@lemmy.zip
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        I don’t know about that. They never delivered on Smart Home promises and the only truly useful thing my Google AI does is to give me the forecast. Otherwise it’s just a wifi speaker.

        If they finally integrate Bard, I would actually consider paying for the service.

    • HughJanus
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      It’s like charging you for cable and then shoving ads down your throat.

      • Billiam@lemmy.world
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        It’s like charging you for Prime Video and then shoving ads down your throat.

        • HughJanus
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          It’s like RAAAAIIAAIIIN on your wedding day

    • tempest@lemmy.ca
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      That’s often the case. They can have their cake and eat it too. Shareholders would expect nothing less.

    • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de
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      I think the data is probably less valuable than people think, especially if the users expect an AI response whenever a data point can be collected from them.

  • Dem Bosain@midwest.social
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    Alexa has a feature where you tell it you’re leaving the house and it will listen for smoke detectors or breaking glass, alerting you through your phone if it detects something. Amazon is putting that behind a paywall next year.

    • Natanael@slrpnk.net
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      And much of it can be listened to by staff that are hired to label it to train the model.

    • DarienGS@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      From the article:

      Amazon has bet big on AI, with the company unveiling a new, AI-powered version of Alexa alongside updated versions of its Echo Frames and Carrera smart glasses last week.

  • OrangeCorvus@lemmy.world
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    Good luck, I guess? Got the first Google home, at first it was great, I was asking it tons of questions. Then the questions stopped, used it for turning on the lights and other automations. Then I installed Home Assistant and the only command Google Home got was to set a timer to know when to pull things out of the oven. Eventually I stopped doing that.

    At the moment all Google/Nest Homes have their mic cut off, I only use them to stream music in my house from my NAS via Plex. So yeah…

    • tony@lemmy.hoyle.me.uk
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      All mine to is turn lights on and off… very occasionally they might be used to find a phone, or set a reminder, but I wouldn’t miss it if that went.

      I wondered if I was unusual in not using the voice features much, but according to this thread it seems I’m not.

  • gearheart@lemm.ee
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    Their using the public to train AI. Then charging the public for the AI it trained.