Amazon announced that it is ending the developer reward program for Alexa. This means that the e-commerce giant will no longer pay developers for their efforts to create skills for Alexa.
But, if the program encourages developers to improve Alexa's features, why is Amazon discontinuing it? Here's what the e-commerce firm revealed.
Amazon to End Developer Reward Program for Alexa
The Verge reported that Amazon posted a notice to confirm that it will soon end the developer reward program for Alexa: the Alexa Developer Rewards Program.
In 2017, Amazon began rewarding developers who can create features for the voice assistant. The e-commerce giant has been offering $100 monthly credit to AWS (Amazon Web Services).
Aside from this, the American retailer paid developers based on how popular their features were. Now, these efforts will soon end, specifically after June 30.
"After 7 years of running the program, we will be ending the program globally on June 30, 2024," said Amazon via ZDNet.
"This means, after June 30, 2024, you will no longer receive AWS promotional credits from Alexa," it added.
Amazon Layoffs Alexa Division Employees
The latest announcement of Amazon aligns with its broader cutbacks around Alexa. Previously, the American e-commerce company terminated hundreds of employees in the Alexa division.
Lauren Raemhild, Amazon's spokesperson, also explained that they began focusing on newer tools that use LLMs.
"These are older programs launched back in 2017 as a way to help newer developers interested in building skills accelerate their progress," said the Amazon official.
"These older programs have simply run their course, so we decided to sunset them," she added.
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