Alexa Archives - Robot Watch

Alexa, shut up: Amazon tries to stifle spontaneous laughter | ZDNet

Artificial intelligence has proven that it can exhibit less-than-desirable behaviors that can seem distinctly human: AI cheats, it can show bias, and it could even lie to you. Now, apparently, it’s subject to random bouts of laughter.

Inside Amazon’s Battle to Bring Conversational AI Into Your Home

The first interactor—a muscular man in his fifties with a shaved head and a black V-neck sweater—walks into a conference room and sits in a low-slung blue armchair before a phalanx of video cameras and studio lights.

How Amazon Rebuilt Itself Around Artificial Intelligence

IN 2014, Srikanth Thirumalai met with Jeff Bezos. Thirumalai, a computer scientist who’d left IBM in 2005 to head Amazon’s recommendations team, had come to propose a sweeping new plan for incorporating the latest advances in artificial intelligence into his division.

Smart speaker surge set to peak in 2019: CES organisers

Amazon’s Echo and its ever-expanding list of rival smart speakers have brought the consumer electronics industry the sort of growth it has not seen in years — but analysts predict the surge may be short lived.

Amazon Alexa and Google Home fall short of real conversation

Talking to a computer can feel liberating — as anyone who received an Amazon Alexa or Google Home device for Christmas can attest — but only until you ask the wrong question and the machine plays dumb.

Sometimes, computer programs seem too human for their own good

DIGITAL assistants such as Siri and Cortana are increasingly common on phones and computers. Most are designed to give their users the impression that a humanlike intelligence lies behind the program’s friendly voice.

Alexa Wants You to Talk to Your Ads | Backchannel

There are few electronic devices with which you cannot order a Domino’s pizza. When the craving hits, you can place an order via Twitter, Slack, Facebook Messenger, SMS, your tablet, your smartwatch, your smart TV, and even your app-enabled Ford.

Tech’s leaps, limps and likes: The 7 trends that defined 2017 | ZDNet

With 2017 almost in the record books, it’s worth a review of the main topics as well as what we learned from them.

The future of digital will be human-centric and voice will reign supreme | ZDNet

Announcing Alexa for Business at AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas last week, Amazon CTO Werner Vogels described a future where technology and digital access is defined by human centricity, and said it starts with voice, the most natural way of interacting.

What Amazon Echo and Google Home Do With Your Voice Data

AMAZON ECHO AND Google Home—and other devices that have Alexa and Google Assistant built in—are some of the most promising new technologies to come along in years.