[wlug] All This AI Stuff Costs A Lot Of Money

According to this article <https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/01/alexa-is-in-trouble-paid-for-alexa-gives-inaccurate-answers-in-early-demos/> (based on anonymous sources), Amazon is on a struggle to make money out of its Alexa service, particularly a new, “Generative-AI”-based version coming out at some non-yet-publicly-disclosed point. I was flabbergasted at this: Amazon has to do something to turn Alexa into a viable revenue source. In late 2022, Insider reported that Alexa was on track to lose Amazon $10 billion that year. The following months were filled with numerous layoffs at Amazon ... $10 billion!? I wonder how much of that is *not* the electricity bills for running all the servers ...