Amazon to stop supporting celeb voices on Alexa
By MYBRANDBOOK
Amazon is no longer offering celebrity voices for its virtual assistant Alexa. The voices of celebrities including Amitabh Bachchan, Samuel L Jackson, Shaquille O'Neal, and Melissa McCarthy are no longer available for purchase. Amazon will also stop supporting them on Alexa devices after three years. The feature is going away globally.
Amazon spokesperson Eric Sveum stated, “After three years, we’re winding down celebrity voices. Customers will be able to continue using these voices for a limited time, and can contact our customer service team for a refund.”
It’s not exactly clear why Amazon has decided to discontinue the feature, but it could be a sign of Amazon’s broader Alexa woes. Last November, a report revealed that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy heavily scrutinized the company’s Alexa sector, as its operating losses exceeded $5 million in recent years. The company also announced layoffs affecting 18,000 employees earlier this year, with Amazon hardware Chief Dave Limp told media that 2,000 of those cuts affected workers in his division, which is in charge of Alexa and Echo products.
Meanwhile, a recent report suggests that the company has plans to rework Alexa amidst the rise of ChatGPT and may use its own large language model (LLM) to make Alexa more proactive and conversational. Perhaps Alexa’s celebrity voices don’t fit into this vision, or maybe they’ve just become too costly to license.
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