A Amazon decided stop using celebrity voices in Alexa. Users will no longer be able to buy votes Samuel L. Jackson, Shaquille O’Neal This Melissa McCarthyand Amazon will also stop supporting these voices on Alexa devices.

Initially, votes were sold at an affordable price, starting at $0.99 and then going up to $4.99. However, many users expected to access the votes for a longer period of time. This feature allowed users to use the “Hello [nome da celebridade]to ask questions, listen to jokes or stories in the style of these celebrities. Unfortunately, some of that fun has come to an end as Samuel L. Jackson’s voice will soon stop working on users’ devices.

In a statement to international news portals, Amazon spokesman Eric Sveum said:We will stop using celebrity voices in three years. Customers will still be able to use these votes for a limited time and can contact our customer support team to request a refund.“

A note on Samuel L. Jackson’s voice page states that it is no longer available for purchase, but customers who have already purchased it will be able to continue using it until April 2023 using the “Hey Samuel” command. Despite this, Sveum stated that users will be able to hear Jackson’s voice until June 7th. Amazon posted similar messages on McCarthy and Shaq’s voice pages, but said it would continue to offer support until September 30 of this year.

Amazon began making Samuel L. Jackson’s voice available in 2019, using its neural text-to-speech model, which allowed it to generate funny (and sometimes candid) responses on the fly rather than using pre-recorded recordings. Later in 2021, the voices of Melissa McCarthy and Shaquille O’Neal were introduced. However, these three voices had limitations in terms of functionality and were not compatible with shopping lists, reminders, or skills.

Alexa in decline

It’s unclear why Amazon decided to end support for this feature, but it could be a reflection of the broader issues that Amazon Alexa is facing. Last November, The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon CEO Andy Jassi was keeping a close eye on the company’s Alexa sector, given operating losses that have topped $5 million in recent years. In addition, the company recently announced layoffs affecting 18,000 employees, with Amazon’s head of hardware Dave Limp saying 2,000 of those layoffs were in its Alexa and Echo product division.

Meanwhile, a recent Insider report says the company plans to overhaul Alexa in light of the advent of ChatGPT, potentially using its own Large Scale Language Model (LLM) to make Alexa “more active and conversational.” Maybe celebrity voices don’t fit that vision, or maybe they’re too expensive to license.

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Via: The Verge, The Wall Street Journal

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