Now I’m going to refuse to purchase one even harder!
Amazon is considering shoving ads into Alexa+ conversations
Submitted 3 weeks ago by tonytins@pawb.social to technology@lemmy.world
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/08/amazon-is-considering-shoving-ads-into-alexa-conversations/
Comments
Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
tdawg@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I honestly forgot people even buy these
Jaded99@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I was saving up for one. Nvm lol
dan1101@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Not only that, I wouldn’t even use one if they paid me. How did they convince people to pay to be spied on and advertised to?
db2@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
What the fuck is Alexa+ 🤣🤣🤣
Luffy879@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
After AI became a thing, Amazon decided you needed to pay a subscribtion to use Alexa with an LLM instead of the basic keyword recognition model
frunch@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Sounds like another case of Amazon trying to out-Amazon itself
weew@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
Well someone’s gotta pay for that small country’s worth of wasted electricity
MisterMoo@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Their users will accept this.
tomkatt@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Not this one. I’ve been a Prime member for many years out of convenience (and because I live in the rurals and need to ship a lot of things to the house). Amazon completely fucked it up for themselves with regard to my subscription this past year or two, I’m done.
- Removed the ability to download and sideload Kindle books
- Ads in Prime Video
- Followed by even more ads in Prime Video
- Now this, and I don’t even own an Alexa device
I’m done. Subscription is cancelled. Video was already trashed, but I barely used it. Now though… I’ve jailbroken the Kindles, converted all my books to EPUB, and installed KOReader. Wasn’t a hard transition since I’ve had a Boox device as my main reader for some years now anyway. I’ve started buying my books from Kobo and other sources.
Looking into other services for online purchases and shipping. It’ll be less convenient, and I’ll still buy from Amazon in the event I have to, but I’d like to minimize that now.
Fredselfish@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
How do you jailbreak your Kindle?
MangioneDontMiss@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
I have a prime subscription, simply for the delivery and grocery discounts, but the ads on their streaming service have convinced me to stop using it entirely and just pirate all their shows / movies.
Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Never had issues sideloading epubs with Calibre on my PW.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Alexa already periodically makes “suggestions” that are annoying to disable if you misspeak.
Counting down until it starts demanding credit cards in order to function. Maybe as a form of “identity check”, as that’s been a popular excuse to collect payment information.
msprout@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Pretty much why we unplugged all of ours. I just need to set a timer, don’t tell me extra shit!
FlowVoid@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
To disable suggestions:
“Alexa, stop By The Way”
lustyargonian@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Like always, Black Mirror has an episode on this.
luipaard0011@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
S## and E##?
Shortstack@reddthat.com 3 weeks ago
I’m pretty sure Amazon got this idea from Black Mirror’s latest season
SoupBrick@pawb.social 3 weeks ago
*Amazon testing public backlash before shoving ads into your conversations with Alexa
FTFY
socialsecurity@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
Calling out Companies is not beneficial to the "Journalists"
shalafi@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Got 8 Google Minis around the house, mostly ceiling mount. First ad that comes out that bitches mouth, I’m taking a 12-gauge to every motherfucking one of them, patch the roof later.
MyRobotShitsBolts@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
You sir, and I say this with no hyperbole; are a hero.
shalafi@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
🎵I got a shotgun, and here’s the plot,
Takin’ Minis out with a flurry of buck shot,
Boom, boom, boom! Yeah, I was gunnin’,
And then you look, all you see is Googles runnin’,
And fallin’ and yellin’ and pushin’ and screamin’,
And cussin’, I stepped back and I kept bustin’🎶
rainwall@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
Im sure they'll try to get you to order ammo as they explode.
shalafi@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
<pump-action sound>
“How’s your supply of shells? Winchester is having a blowout sale on 00-buck. To learn more…”
tal@lemmy.today 3 weeks ago
First ad that comes out that bitches mouth, I’m taking a 12-gauge to every motherfucking one of them, patch the roof later.
“Further work from our user experience team has resulted in several recommendations, including revising the Google Mini for the North American market to add a Kevlar layer to the case and using data from the accelerometer to treat an abrupt, rapid acceleration with a threshold above a certain level as “undesirable behavior/behavior needs improvement” user feedback to Alexa+'s prior prompt response.”
BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Alexa has ads since the beginning and I can’t imagine that would change just because they are replacing the backend with AI. The first time Echo wasted my time trying to selling me something in my own home was also the last time. I don’t understand how anyone can be okay with that.
possumparty@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
Fuck, the Echo Show series is basically just a glorified ad machine with a clock feature.
ThunderLegend@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
I bought an Alexa echo long before I actually cared about privacy and I regret it a lot. It’s been a pricey paper weight since then. I wish I could flash some kind of OS and use it as a sound bar or something. I can’t even use the Bluetooth without signing in with amazon account, which requires a lot of data including phone number.
Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
Do you have a shotgun? Makes a respectable flying target.
Darleys_Brew@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
Once….which is probably the point.
Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Duh. This is the AI wet dream. Ads won’t have discrete patterns that can be filtered. The LLM will deliver content specific garbage as if it were a genuine answer to a query. It will just bias towards ads and deliver the ad Ina different personalized manner each time. For as much as everyone likes to bitch about AI. This may be the golden age. It probably just gets worse from here.
takeda@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Musk on the other hand already experiments on adding ideology and use such bots (makes as regular users) on social media.
CAWright@infosec.pub 3 weeks ago
“brought to you by Carls Jr.”
PancakesCantKillMe@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Fuck you! I’m eating!!
stellargmite@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I’m amazed it didn’t already as someone who has never used or heard one being used. What’s the business model? Just the data harvesting for purpose of their other businesses?
panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
It won’t be long until the LLMs are trained with for ad-RAG
While each conversation happens a second model will scan it, send the contents to a vector search, return as embedding and a score, then give those outputs silently to the conversing model.
You do need to train/fine tune the model to not mention that it received the ad and subtly push it.
panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
Actually, now that I think about it, you don’t even need to tell the model about the ad, you just weight some of the input tokens with the ad embedding and it naturally biases towards talking about that brand.
tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Anyone see the newest Black Mirror season?
Frozengyro@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I didn’t realize they were still producing episodes. Are they as good as S1-3?
tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Some of them are, but a few others feel like rehashing old themes without adding much. Still mostly worth watching imo
DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Fuck I was just thinking about “common people” when I saw this. Definitely the best episode of that season
Mediocre_Bard@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
That one was hard to watch. It just kept getting worse and worse.
Bristlecone@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I can’t even stand when my Google assistant says more than three words to respond 😂 if I start hearing ads out of that thing I will get rid of it faster than anything I’ve ever done
Etterra@discuss.online 3 weeks ago
As if I was ever stupid enough to use Alexa.
fan0m@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Now introducing Alexa Luxe
oxysis@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
Now introducing Alexa Luxe + Pro Max Premium
Bebopalouie@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
You’re still using Alexa? Unplugged our listening er pod device about a week after we got it.
takeda@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Same, I got Alexa (the first one with a good speaker) when attended a sales event of another company. I set it up, but after seeing its network activity even when no one was home I shut it down and didn’t use it again.
I don’t understand why people don’t feel weirded out by having an always on listening device.
Bebopalouie@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
Yup, scares the heck out of me. Guess other don’t agree. I am getting downvoted.
tonytins@pawb.social 3 weeks ago
Just the messenger, dude.
sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
I’m sorry, people still have or use these things?
Who is this stupid or lazy?
roserose56@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
And yet people will buy it, like they did with Nintendo switch 2! See you when it really happens.
Steve@startrek.website 3 weeks ago
They already do…
Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub 3 weeks ago
Good, make it as terrible as possible.
Treczoks@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Make the bad even worse. Is there a word for this?
andMoonsValue@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Enshitification
iveseenthat@reddthat.com 3 weeks ago
So, South park?
Hadriscus@jlai.lu 3 weeks ago
All natural cocoa beans from the upper slopes of mount Nicaragua !
CocaineShrimp@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
They’re already making suggestions. Got one this morning telling me I can ask it for updates on Amazon packages.
Speaking of which, anyone have any suggestions for better smart speakers?
ifItWasUpToMe@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
I’m not really a smart speaker kind of guy but HomePods are nice, sound quality is pretty good
Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Mine isn’t. Do you use the full size, or the mini?
jordanlund@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Easy fix:
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Sineljora@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Follow-up fix: get home assistant and recreate this yourself with a $15 device
esphome.io/projects/index.html
jordanlund@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I started making my own several years ago but got sidelined by health issues and haven’t gone back to it. :(
My end goal is I have a lot of comic books. I want a voice assistant that can query a database and then turn on smart lights to show box locations.
I got the database done, I got the queries working, then had a heart attack and never got the voice input or smart light output working. :(
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Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Can I replace AppleHome with this stuff?
corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
If you can find a hass replacement for the Echo Flex, I will name my firstborn after you.