Amazon has cut paid perks for Alexa developers. An Amazon spokesperson told Engadget that the "older programs have simply run their course, so we decided to sunset them." Launched in 2017, when Alexa was all the rage, the program paid developers bonuses for skills that resonated with users. It was part of Amazon's quest to turn Alexa Skills into a booming app store. With AI powers, Alexa appeared versatile enough to address all sorts of queries and requests without creating apps and skills manually.

There are few things as fascinating as seeing what people in the past dreamed about the future. "France in the Year 2000" is one example. The series of paintings, made by Jean-Marc Côté and other French artists in 1899, 1900, 1901 and 1910, shows artist depictions of what life might look like in the year 2000. The first series of images were printed and enclosed in cigarette and cigar boxes around the time of the 1900 World Exhibition in Paris, according to the Public Domain Review, then later turned into postcards. Lots of their ideas involve mechanized devices, flying, or a combination of the two.

Back in September, Amazon held a massive Alexa event, and one of the many, many products it announced was a clock. The idea was that you'd use a connected Alexa device to control Echo Wall Clock with your voice, and set timers and reminders -- it doesn't have its own speaker or microphone. However, only a month after starting to ship the clock, Amazon has temporarily stopped selling the product because of connectivity problems. "We're aware that a small number of customers have had issues with connectivity," Amazon told The Verge. The company is working on a fix, and plans to start selling the item again "in the coming weeks."

Instead of merely selling copies of 1984, Amazon appears determined to help bring the dystopian classic's vision of widespread government surveillance to life. And Amazon employees are really not happy about it. In 2016, Amazon unveiled Rekognition, an AI-powered facial recognition software that scans videos or photos to detect people or objects. It can analyze a person's face to determine their emotions, identify 100 faces in a single photo, and track a person throughout a video even if they leave and reenter the field of view. In other words, it's a powerful surveillance tool, and government agencies and law enforcement are apparently two of Amazon's target customers.

Civil rights groups are demanding that Amazon stop selling the software tool, called Rekognition, to police and other government entities because they think it will unfairly target people. A link has been sent to your friend's email address. A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. Civil rights groups are demanding that Amazon stop selling the software tool, called Rekognition, to police and other government entities because they think it will unfairly target people.