Amazon pulls the plug on Alexa voices from Melissa McCarthy, Samuel L. Jackson, and Shaquille O’Neal

Soon Alexa won’t be able to perform a Blue Line for you with the voice of Samuel L. Jackson.

Amazon has stopped sales of celebrity Alexa voice add-on packs from Jackson, Melissa McCarthy, and Shaquille O’Neal, which manage to tell jokes, report the weather, and provide other responses to users of Alexa-enabled devices.

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According to notices posted on Amazon, the trio of Alexa celebrity voice “characters” are no longer available for purchase. Alexa celebrity voice packs used to cost $4.99 each. For customers who have already purchased it, McCarthy and Shaq’s Alexa voices are set to expire on September 30, 2023, while Jackson’s voice add-on for Alexa will be deactivated on June 7.

“After three years, we’re toning down celebrity voices,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement. diverse. “Customers will be able to continue using these voices for a limited time, and can contact our customer service team for a refund.”

It was first introduced in 2019, Samuel L. Jackson Sound Pack – Legendary for its profanity-filled dialogue Let Alexa users choose whether or not to use explicit language. For example: asking “Hey Samuel, roast me” would elicit responses including “Why do you want to roast? Do you really think you can handle that?” and “I’ll just ignore that request, because if I really roast you Your unfortunate ass will be destroyed on impact.”

Amazon Alexa voice packs introduced to McCarthy and Shack in 2021Promotes the popularity of Jackson’s voice. This required each of them to record dozens of hours of their speech to train the AI ​​system that generates their Alexa voices.

The company’s decision to phase out Alexa’s celebrity voices has been outlined before the edge. In the past six months, Amazon has been in a cost-cutting mode, and Alexa’s famous voices may have been alienated as part of that larger initiative — which surrounded Layoffs The companies have totaled about 27,000 employees since November.

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While Alexa’s famous voices are gone, customers can still choose from various voice options, including American, Australian, British, Canadian, and Indian voices. You can change Alexa’s voice by saying “Alexa, change your voice” or in the Alexa app by going to Device Settings and choosing Alexa’s voice.

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