Shira Ovide , The Washington Post; After a decade of free Alexa, Amazon now wants you to pay
"There was a lot of optimism in the 2010s that digital assistants like Alexa, Apple’s Siri and Google Assistant would become a dominant way we interact with technology, and become as life-changing as smartphones have been.
Those predictions were mostly wrong. The digital assistants were dumber than the companies claimed, and it’s often annoying to speak commands rather than type on a keyboard or tap on a touch screen...
If you’re thinking there’s no chance you’d pay for an AI Alexa, you should see how many people subscribe to OpenAI’s ChatGPT...
The mania over AI is giving companies a new selling point to upcharge you. It’s now in your hands whether the promised features are worth it, or if you can’t stomach any more subscriptions."
