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Artificial intelligence

How Amazon Will Put Alexa Everywhere

January 8, 2018

It’s no secret that Amazon wants to crush the voice assistant competition, but now we have a better idea how it plans to do it.

Amazon's vision: Priya Abani, director of Amazon Voice Services, tells Wired that “you should be able to talk to Alexa no matter where you’re located or what device you’re talking to … We basically envision a world where Alexa is everywhere.” Car, bulbs, fridges—the lot.

The risk: Amazon quickly opened up Alexa for third-party developers—but if third-party Alexa devices suck, users will be put off Alexa, period.

The solution: Wired says Amazon now “offers seven different development kits for a few hundred dollars apiece, each with a specific product type in mind.” Wanna Alexa-ify a gadget? Buy a kit and you’re experimenting with voice control inside 30 minutes. Amazon also built a robot called JR to test third-party devices and give feedback to manufacturers.

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Illustration by Rose Wong

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