It sounds like I’m talking to a teenage girl, wayyyy too peppy for me at 6 o’clock in the morning. Strongly debating going to a different brand entirely.”

OWNERS of Alexa powered speakers have suddenly woken up to an unexpected new voice – and not everyone is happy about it. Last year, Amazon revealed a huge upgrade for the much-loved digital

Amazon is pressing ahead, though, and now you can access the Alexa+ voice assistant from the new Alexa.com website. You have to opt into Alexa+ to use it, which is free for Amazon Prime subscribers (some of which were upgraded against their will) or a $20 per month subscription.

Alexa Plus was already popping up online for some users earlier this month, and now it’s officially available to everyone through an early access program. Anyone can go sign up at Alexa.com and start playing with the new web interface for Amazon’s new AI chatbot.

Amazon employees beta-testing Alexa+ vented frustrations on an internal Slack, highlight the continuing headaches behind Amazon's rollout of Alexa+.

Anyone can now try Alexa+, Amazon’s generative AI assistant, through a free early access program at Alexa.com. The website frees the AI, which Amazon released via early access in February, from hardware and makes it as easily accessible as more established chatbots, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.

Coming to its Bosch 800 Series fully automatic espresso machines, the upgrade allows Alexa users to talk with the machine via an Echo smart speaker “as naturally as speaking to a local barista — customizing drinks, routines, and preferences through conversation,” according to the company.

Alexa+ is heading to Samsung TVs, BMW vehicles, Bosch coffee machines, and Oura rings, marking Amazon’s biggest move yet to turn Alexa into a cross-device assistant that follows users throughout the day.