Amazon has expanded its free local news coverage on its Fire TV streaming device.
Amazon introduced its free news app last year, initially in just 12 cities. In March, the company expanded to 88 markets. The company has once again expanded the service, this time to 158 cities across the US.
Today’s expansion includes cities like Charleston, Wichita, Tucson, Reno, Raleigh-Durham, Honolulu, and Lincoln, and will double the local stations available from 126 to 259.
Customers can access their local news under the “Local News” tab in the app, or by saying “Alexa, play local news” using the Alexa Voice Remote.
Amazon has announced its Fire TV Cube now supports two-way Zoom video calling.
Zoom has become one of the most popular videoconferencing solutions since the onset of the pandemic. While it was already popular in the enterprise, the platform is now widely used by remote workers, remote learners, individuals and families.
Given its popularity, it’s somewhat surprising Amazon’s Fire TV Cube is only now supporting Zoom two-way calling. The devices previously supported Zoom two-way calling via another camera-enabled Alexa device. With this update, however, the Fire TV Cube now supports Zoom natively.
We are excited to announce that starting today you can video call friends, family, and business colleagues with the Zoom app on Fire TV.
Apple may be on the verge of a significant improvement to Siri, giving the virtual assistant the ability to whisper or shout depending on circumstances.
Amazon clearly demonstrates the benefits of an adaptable virtual assistant in a commercial where a father is trying to impress his daughter with his knowledge of history. The father relies on Alexa’s ability to whisper information to him, which he then passes on to his daughter.
Despite being the first major virtual assistant on the market, Siri still lacks this ability, although it appears Apple is preparing to address that. According to a patent application, first noticed by AppleInsider, Siri will soon have the ability to change its volume based on background noise, room layout and the volume of the person speaking to it.
The decision component may select one or more speech synthesis parameters corresponding to the speech output mode. The decision component may also, or alternatively, select a playback volume. The one or more speech-synthesis parameters, when incorporated in a speech-synthesis model, can cause a speech mode of the synthesized speech to match the speech mode of the utterance.
In other cases, the one or more speech-synthesis parameters, when incorporated in a speech-synthesis model, can cause a speech mode of the synthesized speech to differ from the speech mode of the utterance. In some cases, the decision component may select a speech synthesis model from a plurality of speech synthesis models corresponding to the speech output mode.
This will be a welcome improvement to Siri, and hopefully help it close the gap with its newer rivals.
Amazon’s Alexa has crossed a significant milestone, having “hunches” regarding what needs to be done and taking the appropriate action.
As smart assistants become more ubiquitous, a key feature is the ability to predict what a person will want, when they will want it and take preemptive action. This is especially important for Amazon as Alexa’s head scientist, Rohit Prasad, is arguing that AI should be judged based on how helpful it is, rather than the old Turing Test.
According to the company, Alexa now learns about a person’s habits and forms “hunches” about what they want to do. For example, if a person normally turns off a particular light before going to bed, but forget to one night, Alexa can either remind them or automatically turn it off. In contrast, if a person leaves a particular light on, such as a porch light, Alexa will leave it on as well.
Amazon says the new feature will allow Alexa to “proactively turn off the lights, adjust the thermostat, turn down the water heater, or start the robotic vacuum when Alexa has a hunch that everyone is away from home or asleep.”
Users can enable or disable where Alexa proactively acts on the Hunches feature, although it’s a safe bet many customers will enable it.
Amazon’s head scientist of Alexa is arguing that the Turing Test is obsolete as an AI test and should be replaced.
Alan Turing published his famous paper 70 years ago, wherein he outlined the Turing Test as a way to evaluate artificial intelligence to see if it had achieved true intelligence. Since then, it has been the gold standard researchers have used in their efforts to advance AI.
Writing in Fast Company, Rohit Prasad says the Turing Test is now obsolete.
The Turing Test is fraught with limitations, some of which Turing himself debated in his seminal paper. With AI now ubiquitously integrated into our phones, cars, and homes, it’s become increasingly obvious that people care much more that their interactions with machines be useful, seamless and transparent—and that the concept of machines being indistinguishable from a human is out of touch. Therefore, it is time to retire the lore that has served as an inspiration for seven decades, and set a new challenge that inspires researchers and practitioners equally.
Prasad makes the case that the work of modern AI researchers should focus on making AIs that complement humanity, rather than ones that are indistinguishable from humans.
Instead of obsessing about making AIs indistinguishable from humans, our ambition should be building AIs that augment human intelligence and improve our daily lives in a way that is equitable and inclusive. A worthy underlying goal is for AIs to exhibit human-like attributes of intelligence—including common sense, self-supervision, and language proficiency—and combine machine-like efficiency such as fast searches, memory recall, and accomplishing tasks on your behalf. The end result is learning and completing a variety of tasks and adapting to novel situations, far beyond what a regular person can do.
Prasad’s point of view has a lot of merit, and could fundamentally change many researchers’ approach to the field. Changing expectations could also help address concerns from those who believe AI is the biggest existential threat to humanity. By focusing on complementary AI systems, instead of ones that duplicate human intelligence, some of those concerns may be nullified.
Amazon has migrated the majority of Alexa to the next generation of its custom silicon chips.
Last year, Amazon was reported to be working on the next generation of its ARM-based custom silicon, as it works to improve cost, performance and efficiency. The company’s latest effort is the AWS Inferentia, with four NeuronCores. The NeuronCores are designed to speed up deep learning operations, making them an ideal option for powering Alexa.
“Today, we are announcing that the Amazon Alexa team has migrated the vast majority of their GPU-based machine learning inference workloads to Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) Inf1 instances, powered by AWS Inferentia,” writes Sébastien Stormacq. “This resulted in 25% lower end-to-end latency, and 30% lower cost compared to GPU-based instances for Alexa’s text-to-speech workloads. The lower latency allows Alexa engineers to innovate with more complex algorithms and to improve the overall Alexa experience for our customers.
“AWS built AWS Inferentia chips from the ground up to provide the lowest-cost machine learning (ML) inference in the cloud. They power the Inf1 instances that we launched at AWS re:Invent 2019. Inf1 instances provide up to 30% higher throughput and up to 45% lower cost per inference compared to GPU-based G4 instances, which were, before Inf1, the lowest-cost instances in the cloud for ML inference.”
This has been a big week for custom silicon, between Apple unveiling its first Macs running on its M1 chip Tuesday, and now AWS’ announcement.
Leading up to CES 2020, Samsung teased Neon, an artificial human. Details were sparse, and Samsung said little other than to confirm Neon was an all new endeavor and had nothing to do with their existing AI engine, Bixby.
At CES 2020, Samsung finally showed what Neon is: a virtual, “artificial human” avatar, according to TechRepublic. Unlike an AI assistant, Neon is not designed to be a source of information, or have the answers to every question put to it. It’s designed to be a personal companion, one that learns and evolves just as a human being would.
Pranav Mistry, CEO of Neon and head of Samsung’s STAR Labs set out to see if technology and AI could become more human-like. The end result is an AI that “can have conversations and behave like humans, and they will form memories and develop new skills. However, each one is unique, with its own personality that can develop over time.”
In many ways, the technology sounds similar to S1m0ne, the movie starring Al Pacino about a movie producer who creates a virtual actress. Beyond the science fiction novelty, however, Neon has the potential to be used in a wide range of practical applications, such as interpersonal training or companionship.
In the meantime, Neon is still several years away from public availability. Until then, we’ll just have to keep talking to Siri and Alexa.
The days of taking your phone into the bathroom to listen to music while you shower are over: Kohler has introduced the world’s first Alexa-enabled shower head at CES 2020.
Moxie Shower Head
Kohler’s latest smart device is the Moxie, a shower head with an IPX67 rated waterproof speaker built into it. The speaker is designed to ignore the sound of the water, so it can better understand you when you give it commands.
The speaker sits inside the circular shower head, thanks to built-in magnets. According to the company site, “the magnetic speaker pops in and out of the showerhead for easy recharging of the built-in lithium-ion battery. A USB cable is included.”
Kohler recommends using the Alexa-enabled speaker for listening to music or catching up on the news while showering. The company says “Moxie’s wireless speaker comes in four lively colors that you can share, pair and take with you on the go.”
The tag line for the product is “it takes Moxie to shower out loud.” We’d argue it takes Moxie to try to turn something as mundane as a shower head into a multi-color, shareable, pair-able, AI-enabled speaker. But, who knows? Maybe Moxie will pay off.
Amazon has teamed up with ExxonMobile to give drivers the option of using Alexa to pay for fuel, according to CNN Business.
The new feature should be available at 11,500 Exxon and Mobil gas stations beginning in April. According to CNN, “customers using Alexa to pay for gas will be asked to confirm the station location and the pump number. Transactions will then be processed using Amazon Pay with payment information stored in their Amazon account.”
Integrating Alexa with gas station purchases has benefits for everyone involved. ExxonMobile sees it as a way to differentiate their stations, adding a level of convenience that just might bring in more drivers.
“Paying for fuel from the comfort of your car is an innovative way to really wow consumers,” said ExxonMobil’s consumer marketing manager Devin Miller.
Alexa integration could also improve security. There have been a number of serious cybercrime attacks targeting fuel stations recently, with anyone who has used a credit card to purchase gas at risk. Just as using Apple Pay is safer than using a debit or credit card, using Alexa to pay for fuel adds another layer of separation between cards and the cyber criminals who want to steal them.
The ability to talk with an artificial intelligence (AI), be it a computer or robot, has been a staple of science fiction for decades. Despite modern advances, anyone who has used Siri, Alexa, Cortana or the Google Assistant knows we’re still a ways off from what’s portrayed in science fiction.
Chinese tech giant Baidu has just taken a big step in that direction, however. According to the MIT Technology Review, Baidu has leapfrogged Microsoft and Google in helping AI better understand language.
General Language Understanding Evaluation (GLUE) is the industry benchmark used to gauge an AI’s language comprehension skills. For perspective, most humans manage a score of 87 out of 100. Baidu’s model, however, scored a 90—a first for AI models.
The team attributed their breakthrough with ERNIE (Enhanced Representation through kNowledge IntEgration) to the steps they needed to take in order to help it understand Chinese. The most advanced AI language models use a technique called “masking,” where the AI randomly hides words in order to predict the meaning of the sentence. Because of the differences between Chinese and English, Baidu “researchers trained ERNIE on a new version of masking that hides strings of characters rather than single ones. They also trained it to distinguish between meaningful and random strings so it could mask the right character combinations accordingly.”
Not only did this method allow ERNIE to better understand Chinese language, but those lessons also improved its English processing, enabling it to achieve the highest GLUE score yet. Hopefully, this breakthrough will help pave the way for the type of AI interactions that have, so far, existed only in the realm of science fiction.
Starting Friday, Amazon Echo has become the first device aside from Apple’s HomePod to offer full support for Apple Podcasts.
Prior to this announcement, the only way to play Podcasts on an Echo was to AirPlay them from another Apple device. With native support, “Alexa customers in the U.S. will be able to listen to more than 800,000 podcasts available through Apple Podcasts on their Alexa-enabled device.
“Whether you’re listening at home or on the go, you don’t need to worry about losing your spot. Link your account in the Alexa app using your Apple ID, and you can seamlessly pick up where you left off listening on the Apple Podcasts App or your Alexa device. Pause the subscribed episode you’re listening to in the Apple Podcasts app on your commute, and continue listening with your Alexa device at home by asking Alexa to resume the podcast.
“It’s easy to find and play your favorite podcasts with Alexa—all you have to do is ask for the episode you want to hear.”
As TechCrunch points out, this “is the latest in a series of partnerships between the two rivals, which also included the launch of the Apple TV app on Amazon’s Fire TV platform, as well as the launch of Apple Music on Echo devices and Fire TV. Amazon, in response, has expanded its assortment of Apple inventory to include Apple TV, iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch and more.”
Whatever the motivation, further cooperation between the two companies is good for users on both sides.
In the battle for smart speaker dominance, estimates show that Amazon’s Alexa has a dominating lead with 70 percent of the market. Based on Amazon’s recent announcement, that market share may increase even more.
The company recently announced Alexa Voice Service (AVS), an effort to bring Alexa to Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Previously, Alexa-enabled devices required an application-class processor with at least 50MB of memory, making it difficult to integrate Alexa with IoT devices.
With the new AVS, Amazon will offload most of the processing to the cloud, rather than the actual device, significantly reducing its footprint and requirements. As a result, AVS can be used with microcontroller-class processors with less than 1MB of embedded memory.
“With the reduction in the engineering bill of materials (eBoM) cost, device makers can now cost-effectively build new categories of differentiated voice-enabled products such as light switches, thermostats, small appliances and more. This allows end-consumers to talk directly to Alexa in new parts of their home, office, or hotel rooms for a truly ambient experience.”
Amazon is also working to make sure AVS is as easy as possible for developers to hit the ground running with.
“To make the AVS Integration for AWS IoT Core as simple as possible, APN partners have launched AVS qualified hardware development kits enabled by real time operating systems for microcontrollers like Amazon FreeRTOS that connect to AWS IoT Core by default. This helps device makers go to market quickly without worrying about writing complex security and connectivity firmware or managing the large device footprint previously associated with building Alexa Built-in devices with the AVS Device SDK.”
Google, Facebook and Apple will need to up their game if they intend to compete with Amazon’s new offensive.
There’s no doubt that virtual assistants and AI-based voice services are one of the next big things in the technology industry. Long the stuff of science fiction, voice-based computing represents the next leap in computer interface and usability paradigms. As a result, virtually all the major players are pushing ahead with development.
It should come as no surprise that Amazon, one of the biggest players in the voice-enabled market, has announced the Voice Interoperability Initiative. The initiative is an effort to standardize how voice-enabled products work and “is built around a shared belief that voice services should work seamlessly alongside one another on a single device, and that voice-enabled products should be designed to support multiple simultaneous wake words.”
Already, more than 30 companies have signed on to the initiative, including the likes of Microsoft, Salesforce, Logitech, Qualcomm, Libre, Intel, Spotify and others.
“Multiple simultaneous wake words provide the best option for customers,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO. “Utterance by utterance, customers can choose which voice service will best support a particular interaction. It’s exciting to see these companies come together in pursuit of that vision.”
While the initiative’s goals look good on paper, there are some challenges. Notably, the idea of having multiple voice services working on a single device may not fly with some of Amazon’s competitors. Indeed, Apple, Google and Samsung are noticeably absent from the initiative.
In the case of Apple, given their strong pro-privacy stance, it’s unlikely they will want to put Siri on hardware made by a competitor. Similarly, Google may be hesitant to give up the control that comes with their Google Home hardware.
Whatever the outcome, one thing is clear: Voice-enabled services is shaping up to be another technological battleground between some of the biggest names in the industry.
“T-Mobile literally pulled the hold technology out,” says LivePerson CEO Robert Locascio. “Millions of customer at T-Mobile don’t have to be put on hold. There’s no press one or press two. They go straight to a person. You are messaging them. You are doing what’s natural to you. That’s really what we see as changing the game. We made a big pivot two years ago and launched a whole new platform. There’s a bigger future in bots and AI than there was in chat.”
Robert Locascio, CEO of LivePerson, discusses how AI-powered conversational bots are being deployed and literally “changing the game” for customers of thousands of businesses using their Maven technology in an interview with Jim Cramer on CNBC:
AI-Powered Conversational Bots Are Changing the Game
We made a big pivot two years ago and launched a whole new platform and I said, “There’s a bigger future in bots and AI than there was in chat that I invented many years ago.” We went for it and as you can see the performance has been really great. I brought Alex Spinelli in about a year ago and he was running the core development team for Alexa. We brought in a lot of people from that group. The difference between us and Alexa is that we have thousands of brands (for our team) to work on. The Delta’s of the world and the T-Mobile’s of the world, instead of just one brand with Amazon.
We do human interactions also, but we know a lot of those interactions can be automated. Just look at Delta. In a couple of weeks, instead of your flights late and you make a call on the phone and get put on hold, you are going to be able to message a contact center and talk to a bot in real-time to get what you want and change your flight. All of that will happen without you being on hold. That’s really why these brands are gravitating toward us. We are messaging with our friends and family. We are not calling people anymore. So why call a brand?
T-Mobile literally pulled the hold technology out. Millions of customer at T-Mobile don’t have to be put on hold. There’s no press one or press two. They go straight to a person. You are messaging them. You are doing what’s natural to you. That’s really what we see as changing the game. Right now, Apple just opened up iMessages to businesses. Every business in the world is going to have to be on iMessage through our platform. Facebook Messenger too.
Maven, LivePerson’s Conversational Engine
We now have this thing called Brew to You, where right from your seat (in a stadium) you can have a bear and a hot dog delivered to you. But now we have something really cool which is out of the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas. There is a bot called Rose when you check in. She tells you everything about the hotel. She can help you cut the line at Marquee which is their cool club. This is all about people engaging with the brand and talking to this bot that’s just there for you. And after people leave the hotel they keep talking to Rose!
What we are finding is that we take our technology which is called Maven, we enable the contact center reps to create the bots, deploy them, and own the bots. For example, we have a contact center down in the Dominican Republic and there’s a woman there named Laura that created a bot for GrillMaster, which is one of our customers. They deployed it and sold millions of dollars worth of grills. She was empowered to basically create that bot, deploy it, and change her life. She doubled her salary. That’s the power of this thing.
AI Has Got to be Democratized
EqualAI is a nonprofit we set up a couple of months ago. I started to realize that AI has got to be out there in the hands of many. It’s got to be democratized. It can’t just be with the big tech companies. What we want to do is take all the technology that we have (and make it available). It started with watching my two-year-old watching me command Alexa. Alexa turn on the lights. Alexa play music. She’s seen me command this AI and it’s a woman’s voice. I think what we are seeing now is that children are being affected by this. They are going to school, making demands, and following this.
We have to change the way that we deploy AI and how we manage it. I wanted to bring the best practices into a nonprofit. We now have other people and brands who are joining us and taking part in this. One of the best practices that we are looking at is why do we have a woman’s voice with Alexa? It could be any voice. It could be a man. We have to think about these things before we deploy them to millions of people and we affect their lives.
AI-Powered Conversational Bots Are Changing the Game, Says LivePerson CEO Robert Locascio
“The long-term goal (with Alexa) was to try to invent the Star Trek computer,” says David Limp, Amazon’s SVP of devices and services. “I grew up watching Roddenberry and loved it. We all loved watching it and the science had moved up enough where we thought we had a shot at it. It’s still going to take us years, if not decades more, to get to the shining star that is that Star Trek computer. But we think we can do it.”
David Limp, SVP of Devices & Services at Amazon, discusses the future of devices and Amazon’s role in building trust and protecting privacy in an interview on CNBC at the Amazonre:MARS conference in Las Vegas:
Long-Term Goal With Alexa Is To Invent the Star Trek Computer
The long-term goal (with Alexa) was to try to invent the Star Trek computer. I grew up watching Roddenberry and loved it. It was a lot more innocent than you might make it out to be. Which is, can we invent that computer? We all loved watching it and the science had moved up enough where we thought we had a shot at it. It’s still going to take us years, if not decades more, to get to the shining star that is that Star Trek computer. But we think we can do it.
If you have that in your house or in your car or in your conference room, you’re going to find all sorts of things to do with it. Some, Amazon will invent and it’ll help Amazon. But much more, it’ll help developers. There are 90,000 plus skills and hundreds of thousands of developers building around Alexa right now. If you’d five years ago said there’s going to be a new developer ecosystem that’s not about an operating system and that’s not about applications, but about skills in the cloud, you would have laughed at me. But here it is sitting in front of us, all around us, right here.
Star Trek popularized the idea of the Voice First computer. Amazon Alexa made it reality.
Our Focus Is To Invent On Behalf Of Customers
Our focus is to invent on behalf of customers. If we keep our focus there and build cool things that customers love to use and continue to earn their trust, which we have to do every day, then we think the outputs will speak for themselves. We focus on that. Customer trust is kind of the oil of the Amazon flywheel. We think about it every day. It’s thinking about privacy as you think about the kinds of products that we’re doing. Whether it’s a Ring doorbell or it’s an Echo sitting in your kitchen, it has to be foundational to the product. It’s not something you glom on later as an afterthought.
We think about it at the very upfront when we’re beginning to invent the product. We’re gonna put these in our homes. What do we want to think about privacy? What do we think about trust? We build features into the products and into the services where (those concepts) are first and foremost and paramount. We’re continuing to evolve that as well. It’s not like you’re going to get everything right day one. As we learn from customers we’ll add new features and services that build on that and add more privacy and trust as we go on.
The First Thing Is To Get Customers To Love A Product
The first thing is to get customers to love a product. If you build a product that customers love and use then good things usually come in consumer electronics when you do that. For us, that’s the first thing that you want to do. It happened early on with Kindle. People loved it and then we figured out how to build a book business around it. Similarly, the great thing about Echo and Alexa is that customers love the product.
I don’t think that they’re necessarily buying more yet because of that but they are doing certain things in digital that leads to buying some more things. Specifically, we’ve kind of brought music back into the home again. It had an atrophied in the home. Now music subscription services, Spotify, Amazon music, and Apple music starting last year. They’re growing on Echo and Alexa. People are listening to audiobooks. We have a business there in Audible with the subscription services. Those are the early signs where you start seeing that. In addition, people are buying more smart home products. Whether it’s a smart plug or a light bulb or a robotic vacuum, people are buying those more because it’s easier to control with a voice interface.
Anything That Advances Privacy For Customers, I’m a Fan Of
Anything that advances privacy for customers and gives them a more trusted environment, I’m a big fan of as a consumer. I don’t know enough about that product (announced on Monday by Apple) to weigh in on the specifics of it. As you think about Amazon and our credentials and being able to log on to Amazon, we’ve been doing that for 20 plus years. Your credit card number and your address which we ship your products to, that’s sacrosanct. We have to build trust every day. Any other company or any other person that’s furthering that I think it’s just great for the industry.
Long-Term Goal With Alexa Is To Invent the Star Trek Computer, Says Amazon SVP David Limp
Personal transformation guru and popular author Deepak Chopra has partnered with LivePerson to provide insights on demand through Amazon Alexa. “I have this little microphone attached to this little phone and I just speak out to what I’m thinking and what my intention for the day is,” says Chopra, “It’s recorded here and it goes to LivePerson and then it’s on Alexa. It’s all done very efficiently and smoothly and it’s part of my daily routine now.” Each morning, through LivePerson’s conversational tools, Dr. Chopra shares new reflections for the day to center himself and his followers.
“Our mission is to make life easier by transforming how people communicate with brands,” said Robert Coverdale, Head of LivePerson Studios. “We help the most innovative brands on earth create new business models with the possibilities available in conversational interfaces like text messaging and voice assistants. Now, we have taken the same design and AI tools we used to create and scale those experiences and made them available to individuals with large followings. Our first step is launching with Dr. Chopra, who, like us, understands and values the use of AI to make more human connections.”
Deepak Chopra recently discussed his LiveNation Alexa partnership on Fox Business:
Sharing Reflections on Alexa via LivePerson
For the last 40 years, I’ve been sharing my insights or reflections, meditations with people. It started with friends, then family, then social media, and now Alexa. It wasn’t planned but I start my day with a few reflections and intentions, a joyful energetic body, love and compassion in the heart, clarity of mind, lightness of being. Then I expand on that and somehow Alexa picked it up through LivePerson.
I think setting an intention or even asking yourself a simple question is enough. You don’t have to actually concentrate and having a specific intention. If you ask yourself, what do I want for me today or for the world or for my kids, you will already have a response there. That brings clarity to your intention and if you start letting go and settle in your being then that intention organizes its own fulfillment through synchronicity. That’s a well-known spiritual tradition.
The Internet is Our Global Brain
I think the technology is going to be the next phase of our evolution for higher consciousness if we want it. Technology can be destructive as you know. Technology can also create a more peaceful, just, sustainable, healthy, and joyful world.
What we see as the Internet, that’s our global brain right now. If I send an abusive tweet, let’s say, to somebody in Africa, I could give them high blood pressure just by doing that. On the other hand, I send them an emoticon with a hug, it could give them a dopamine hit. Technology is bringing together the collective brain. The Internet is the human condition. If you don’t like what is happening in the world then we have to change that interconnectivity.
A More Peaceful, Just, Sustainable, Healthier, Joyful World
LivePerson is already looking at recruiting other influencers. We need a critical mass of people who want a more peaceful, just, sustainable, healthier, and joyful world. That can only happen if we collectively have that intention and rewire our collective brain, which is the Internet. It’s our brain.
I do a morning meditation which is always preceded by four questions. Who am I? What do I want? What’s my purpose? What am I grateful for? Then something comes up.
Amazon’s digital assistant is branching out. In a January 5 announcement, Microsoft revealed a new developer kit aimed to help device manufacturers integrate Alexa’s functions into their wearable devices, which will essentially create a new, mobile version of the popular digital assistant.
For years, Amazon seemed to be content in restricting Alexa as s speaker-based digital assistant. It was a smart move then as, obviously, it is a lot easier to interact with the AI via voice command and receive its response in audio as well. However, the tech giant concluded that restricting it to a speaker-based functionality is also limiting its market reach. Thus, Amazon introduced a host of Alexa compatible electronics such as the Amazon Fire TV, Ecobee4 Smart Thermostat, and even the Ecobee Smart Light Switch.
But apparently, even connecting all devices in your home is not enough for the very helpful Alexa. Now, Amazon is targeting a host of devices that people, especially the fit and wellness crowd, usually take with them even when going out just for a stroll—their wearables.
On Friday, Amazon announced a new set of developer tools called the Alexa Mobile Accessory Kit. As described by the company, the new kit is “a new way to bring Alexa to portable, on-the-go devices such as wearables, headphones, smart watches, fitness devices, and more.”
Actually, the kit is already being used by a handful of businesses that already have various kinds of partnerships with Amazon. These include Bose, Jabra, iHome, Linkplay, Sugr, Librewireless, Beyerdynamic, Bowers, and Wilkins. With the kit now available to a broader set of device makers and solutions providers, it may hasten the development of new Alexa compatible mobile devices.
Bose, for instance, is already laying down plans to test, design and build solutions which will be powered by Alexa’s AI. According to Bose Director of Product Management Brian Maguire, “Bose is excited to add a remarkable new Alexa experience for our customers. Accessing Alexa’s music, information, and a vast number of skills on our headphones will become easier than ever, and we’re looking forward to bringing our collaboration to life.”
For device manufacturers such as Bose, Amazon’s offer to use Alexa in bringing AI to their devices is indeed an attractive offer. Since Bose does not have a digital assistant division of its own, using Alexa’s features will increase the competitiveness of its Bluetooth speakers against similar AI-powered offerings such as the Apple AirPods and Google Pixel Buds.
There was some skepticism over the idea that voice commerce would be the future of retail. This wasn’t surprising, given the limitations that AIs like Cortana and Siri exhibited. However, recent improvements made to the technology hinted that big changes are on the horizon and that it will affect customers’ retail interaction.
Rise of Voice Commerce
The number of Alexa-powered devices at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show was a testament to how quickly voice commerce is changing. Guests to the event were treated to an LG smart refrigerator that used Alexa to order food items. Car giants Ford and Volkswagen had the AI integrated into their vehicles, allowing drivers to do some voice shopping while driving. Alexa was also built into Dish consoles so that users can utilize their voice to look for their favorite channels, search for good shows, and to shop.
Amazon has also gotten into the act by coming out with the Alexa Voice Service, an API. The company has also introduced the Alexa Skills Set – self-service APIs and tools that make it easier to develop voice-driven abilities for the AI. The attention that Amazon is giving to Alexa clearly indicates the eCommerce giant is betting on voice commerce to deliver big in a few years.
What Voice Commerce Can Mean to Retailers
Voice commerce can introducemany benefits to both retailers and consumers. For one, the technology can definitely streamline and improve customer experience. These days, people can check the availability of a product or order their coffee from Starbucks just by clicking on their smart devices. With voice commerce, those clicks would be eliminated.
A more personalized shopping service is another thing that voice commerce could improve on, as brands can collate and utilize data more effectively with each customer interaction. This possibility was underlined in an Adobe prototype. The Alexa-backed application could recognize guests and ask particular questions about their stay and preferences so that it could give customized information, promotions, and recommendations.
Not only will this information lead to personalized experiences for every customer, it also gives companies valuable data about consumer behavior that will help them come up with more effective product strategies and marketing plans.
Future of eCommerce
Voice-activated virtual assistants are present in a lot of devices and while their functions overlap, they all have their own isolated and defined ecosystems. But acollaboration between Amazon and Microsoft will not only change that, it will potentially have a big impact on the future of eCommerce.
The collaboration between the companies will allow Alexa and Cortana to talk to one another, giving Windows 10 users the capacity to access Alexa’s skills by giving voice commands to Cortana. Meanwhile, Alexa will be able to assist Amazon Echo users to stay on top of all the appointments and reminders that Cortana has gathered.
The partnership will also allow the two AIs to combine their specific capabilities to enhance voice-controlled purchases. Cortana is great for finding and securing information while Alexa has the most defined skills that can be used for specific cases. In short, Cortana can be used to search for a particular product while Alexa can be utilized for ordering.
The technology behind voice commerce is gaining ground and can open new opportunities for both retailers and consumers. And with the promise of partnerships between the different virtual assistants, voice-controlled commerce isn’t far off.
Usually, tech companies keep each other at arm’s length, unwilling to share new technologies with the hope of besting their competitors. However, it appears that Microsoft and Amazon, two of the major players in the AI digital assistant arena, are bent on bucking the trend. Apparently, both companies want their respective assistants, Cortana and Alexa, to get friendly with each other.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos revealed that pretty soon, consumers who are currently using Alexa will be able to link with Microsoft’s Cortana and gain access to useful tools like calendars and emails, the New York Times reported. On the other hand, Cortana users will soon be able to link with Alexa to gain access to its unique set of functionalities such as shopping on Amazon and controlling home gadgets.
The partnership between Microsoft and Amazon actually started back in May 2016 when Bezos breached the idea to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella during the CEO Summit. Since then, the two companies have been working behind the scene to make the integration a reality.
But there is the exciting possibility that more AI digital assistants from other companies could be joining the mix. While Mr. Bezos has not yet approached competitors Google and Apple to join their collaboration, he revealed that he welcomes the idea. As Bezos puts it, “I want them to have access to as many of those AIs as possible.”
Microsoft’s, Satya Nadella is likewise open to the idea of expanding the collaboration to include other players. “Hopefully, they’ll be inspired by it,” Nadella confirmed.
However, some analysts are betting that Google and Apple will likely decline any collaboration to protect their own turf. Jackdaw Research analyst Jan Dawson explains, “There’s no reason Google or Apple would offer it because they’re trying to drive their own ecosystems.”
Ultimately, the Microsoft-Amazon collaboration will be good news to consumers. The rising availability of digital assistants such as Apple’s Siri, Samsung Bixby, Google Assistant, Alexa, and Cortana, will make your home a virtual chaos if they do not know how to communicate with each other. Imagine coming home and, after saying “Hello,” you’ll be greeted with a chorus of different voices. While it may not run as smoothly at first, the Cortana-Alexa collaboration could be the answer.
Amazon had a record Christmas and its own Alexa devices, Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick, Fire tablet and Amazon Echo, lead the way. Sales were up over last year’s holiday season an amazing 9 times.
“Echo and Echo Dot were the best-selling products across Amazon this year, and we’re thrilled that millions of new customers will be introduced to Alexa as a result. Despite our best efforts and ramped-up production, we still had trouble keeping them in stock. From turning on Christmas lights and playing holiday music to shopping for gifts and asking for help with cookie recipes, Alexa continues to get smarter every day,” commented Jeff Wilke, CEO Worldwide Consumer, Amazon. “We couldn’t have made this holiday season possible for customers without the dedication and hard work of our customer service, transportation, and fulfillment associates along with our carrier partners – it’s amazing to see the teams come together to serve customers during the holidays. On behalf of Amazonians all around the world, we wish everyone happy holidays and the very best for the coming year.”
Prime was huge for Amazon this season, with over 1 billion items shipped for free to Prime Members worldwide. Another interesting tidbit is that Amazon recorded its fastest shipped item on Christmas Eve at 13 minutes from order to delivery that was most likely a last minute gift for a loved one. The order included a Tile Slim Item Finder and a Tile Mate Key Finder.
The last Prime Now order delivered in time for the holiday was delivered at 11:59 p.m. on December 24, 2016 to a Prime member in Irvine, California. The order included a Heated Mattress Pad, NyQuil and Afrin Nasal Spray.
Here is Amazon’s full release of holiday shopping data points:
Holidays with Alexa:
Alexa helped mix hundreds of thousands of cocktails this holiday season with Tom Collins and Manhattans being the most requested drinks from skills like The Bartender, Mixologist and DrinkBoy.
Chocolate chip and sugar cookies were the favorite recipes from Alexa skills like Food Network and Allrecipes.
Home Alone and Elf were the most requested holiday movies with Alexa.
Alexa helped play millions of holiday songs this year, and the top songs were Jingle Bells (1999 – Remaster) by Frank Sinatra, All I Want for Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey and Feliz Navidad by José Feliciano.
What was Alexa asked to cook? The most popular cooking tips requested on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were turkey, prime rib and chocolate chip cookies.
Who played the most holiday music with Alexa? Customers in Seattle, New York and Chicago asked “Alexa, play holiday music” more than any other city in the U.S.
Who turned on Christmas Lights the most with Alexa? Customers in Seattle, San Diego and New York asked, “Alexa, turn on Christmas lights” more than any other city in the U.S.
What games were the most requested with Alexa this holiday? Alexa entertained families with popular games like Jeopardy!, Twenty Questions and The Magic Door.
Amazon Prime:
More than one billion items shipped worldwide with Prime and Fulfillment by Amazon this holiday season.
More people around the world tried Prime this holiday season than any previous year.
The fastest Prime Now delivery on Christmas Eve took 13 minutes and was delivered at 9:05 p.m. to a Prime member in Redondo Beach, California. The order included a Tile Slim Item Finder and a Tile Mate Key Finder.
December 23, 2016 was the biggest day ever for Prime Now deliveries worldwide and members ordered 3x more items compared to last year with one and two hour delivery worldwide. Echo Dot, Amazon Echo, Fire TV Stick and Oreo Cookies were some of the most popular items ordered that day in the U.S.
The last Prime Now order delivered in time for the holiday was delivered at 11:59 p.m. on December 24, 2016 to a Prime member in Irvine, California. The order included a Heated Mattress Pad, NyQuil and Afrin Nasal Spray.
Prime members in Dallas, Texas ordered more items with Prime Now than any other city in the U.S. this holiday season.
The last Prime FREE Same-Day Delivery order from Amazon.com that was delivered in time for Christmas was ordered at 10:23 a.m. on December 24, 2016. The order included Venum Contender Boxing Gloves, and was delivered to a Prime member in Richmond, Virginia at 2:42 p.m. – the same day.
Mobile Shopping:
More than 72 percent of Amazon customers worldwide shopped using a mobile device this holiday.
Shopping on the free Amazon mobile app grew by 56 percent this holiday, worldwide.
On Cyber Monday, Amazon customers worldwide purchased about 46 electronics per second on a mobile device.
On Cyber Monday, Amazon customers worldwide purchased about 36 toys per second on a mobile device.
Amazon Operations:
December 19 was the peak worldwide shipping day this holiday season.
In the U.S., more than 200,000 full-time and seasonal associates made the record-breaking shipping season possible.
In the last two years, Amazon launched operations at over a dozen new facilities, many of which house robotic technology.
Amazon fulfillment centers in San Marcos, Texas and Kent, Washington, as well as two Polish fulfillment centers, in Poznan and Wroclaw, shipped more than one million items in a single day.
There are now 45,000 robotics units working alongside Amazon associates in more than 20 fulfillment centers.
Amazon Digital Media:
The most streamed Amazon Original Series over the holidays was Goliath.
The most streamed Amazon Original Movie over the holidays was Love & Friendship.
The most watched TV series (non-Amazon Original) streaming on Prime Video this holiday was The Night Manager.
The most watched movie (non-Amazon Original) streaming on Prime Video this holiday was Eye in the Sky.
Customers listening to holiday music on Amazon Music more than tripled this year, compared to 2015.
The most streamed holiday song on Amazon Music was It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year by Andy Williams.
Michael Bublé – Christmas was the most played holiday album on Amazon Music this season.
Amazon Music is the exclusive streaming home for all 16 studio albums by the best-selling solo artist in U.S. history, Garth Brooks – since his debut to streaming exclusively on Amazon, Brooks has become one of the top-streamed artists on Amazon Music.
The hours that kids spent interacting with educational content in Amazon FreeTime this holiday season was enough time to sail around the earth more than 6,000 times.
Popular FreeTime Unlimited holiday titles enjoyed by kids in the U.S. 2016 were Holiday Jokes (Hah-larious Joke Books), Elsa’s Ice Puzzles – FreeTime Unlimited Edition, and Caillou’s Winter Wonders.
The top foodie book Kindle customers are reading this holiday season is Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, currently available in Kindle Unlimited.
The #1 magazine downloaded in Prime Reading in 2016 by Kindle customers was People.
The top non-fiction book downloaded in Prime Reading in 2016 was The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts by Gary Chapman.
In 2016, more than 3 million readers took the Goodreads Challenge and read a collective 38.1 million books this year.
Authors answered more than 26,000 reader questions on Goodreads in 2016.
The highest rated audiobook of 2016 on Audible is Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah, host of The Daily Show, and narrated by the author.
The bestselling audiobook of the year on Audible was The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, narrated by Claire Corbett, Louise Brealey, and India Fisher.
Holiday Fun Facts:
Amazon.com customers purchased enough Hamilton: the Revolution collectible books and Hamilton albums to give every patron at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York City a copy for 96 consecutive shows.
Amazon.com customers purchased enough 4K TVs to reach the peak of Mount Everest more than 9 times.
Amazon.com customers purchased enough KitchenAid Mixers this holiday to make nearly 7.5 million cookies at once.
On Cyber Monday 2016, Handmade at Amazon saw a 200 percent increase in sales versus Cyber Monday 2015.
If each Amazon.com customer who purchased Pokémon Sun and Moon this holiday spent at least an hour a day playing the game since its release, our customers would have spent the equivalent of more than 24 thousand lunar cycles capturing Pokémon.
Amazon.com customers purchased enough copies of the Harry Potter: Complete 8-Film Collection to play consecutively for more than 300 years.
Amazon.com customers purchased enough Hasbro Connect 4 Games this holiday season to give each resident of Dallas, Texas a single disc from the game.
Amazon.com customers purchased enough Sphero Star Wars BB-8 App-Controlled Robots to roll as a relay around the Earth more than two times before the batteries run out.
Amazon.com customers purchased enough Razor Jett Heel Wheels this holiday to roll a fully loaded space shuttle to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral.
Amazon.com customers purchased enough Wilson footballs this holiday to give every fan at a sold-out Seahawks game a chance to throw a pass like Russell Wilson.
Amazon.com customers purchased enough golf balls this holiday that, if lined up, would equal the length of Pebble Beach golf course four times over.
Amazon.com customers purchased more Marvin the Moose dog toys this holiday than the number of actual moose in New England.
Amazon.com customers purchased enough copies of The Secret Life of Pets that if each one were a tennis ball, they would fill Central Parkover two and a half feet deep.
Amazon.com delivered enough men’s jeans to fill one Olympic-size swimming pool.
Amazon.com customers purchased enough ugly Christmas sweaters for every seat at all three NCAA College Football Playoff games.
Amazon.com customers purchased enough running shoes to run 18,603 times around the globe.
Amazon.com customers purchased 2.5 million watches – that is a watch purchased every 1.5 seconds this holiday season.
Amazon.com customers purchased 10,451 carats of diamonds, which is equal to 6.5 Russian Kokoshnik Tiaras, one of the Queen of England’s most famous tiaras.
Amazon.com customers purchased the weight of a grizzly bear in gold and the weight of a rhinoceros in silver.
Amazon.com customers purchased enough Etekcity camp lanterns this holiday to replace the beacon lights on top of the Eiffel Tower nearly 11 times.
Amazon.com customers purchased enough luggage to fill 20 Boeing 747 airplanes.
Amazon.com customers purchased enough electric vehicle home charging kits to make 2,196 emissions-free trips around the globe in a year.
Amazon.com customers purchased enough Char-Broil’s The Big Easy Turkey Fryers to cook 225,000 pounds of turkey.
Holiday Best Sellers (Amazon.com only):
All Categories: Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick, Fire tablet, Amazon Echo
Amazon Launchpad: Watch Ya’ Mouth Family Edition – The Authentic, Hilarious, Mouthguard Party Game, Tile Mate – Key Finder. Phone Finder. Anything Finder., Anki Overdrive Starter Kit
Audio & Accessories: Panasonic ErgoFit In-Ear Earbud Headphones, AmazonBasics 6-Outlet Surge Protector Power Strip, Sonos PLAY:1 Compact Wireless Smart Speaker for Streaming Music
Baby: Baby Einstein Take Along Tunes Musical Toy, Nuby Octopus Hoopla Bathtime Fun Toys (Purple), Baby Banana Infant Training Toothbrush and Teether (Yellow)
Beauty & Grooming: Philips Sonicare Essence Sonic Electric Rechargeable Toothbrush (White), Philips Norelco Multigroom Series 3100 with 5 attachments, Oral-B Pro 1000 Power Rechargeable Electric Toothbrush Powered by Braun
Books: Diary of a Wimpy Kid # 11: Double Down, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay, First 100 Words
Camera: Fujifilm Instax Mini 8 Instant Film Camera, AmazonBasics 60-Inch Lightweight Tripod with Bag, GoPro HERO5
Fashion: Levi’s Men’s 501 Original Fit Jean, Fossil Emma Large Zip RFID Wallet, kate spade new york Cedar Street Cami Convertible Cross-Body Bag
Grocery: The Original Donut Shop, Regular, Medium Extra Bold, Keurig K-Cups (72 Count), San Francisco Bay OneCup, Fog Chaser (80 Single Serve Coffees), KIND Nuts & Spices, Dark Chocolate Nuts & Sea Salt
Handmade: First Christmas in New Home Wood Ornament, Personalized Nameplate Gold Bar Necklace, World Travel Map Pin Board
Home: BLACK + DECKER 16V Cordless Lithium Hand Vac, Lasko Ceramic Heater with Adjustable Thermostat, Poo-Pourri Before-You-Go Toilet Spray 2-Ounce Bottle (Original Scent)
Home Improvement: WBM Himalayan Salt Lamp, 3M Indoor Window Insulator Kit, Woods Outdoor 24-Hour Photoelectric Timer
Home & Personal Care: AmazonBasics AA Performance Alkaline Batteries (48-pack), Bounty Select-a-Size Paper Towels, Huge Roll (12 Count), Cottonelle Ultra ComfortCare Big Roll Toilet Paper (12 Count)
Kitchen: RTIC 30 oz. Tumbler, Instant Pot 7-in-1 Multi-Functional Pressure Cooker (6 quart), Keurig K55 Single Serve Coffer Maker
Luxury Beauty: stila Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Eye Liner, L’Occitane Shea Butter Hand Cream, BaBylissPRO Ceramix Xtreme Dryer
Movies: The Secret Life of Pets, Finding Dory, Harry Potter: Complete 8-Film Collection
Music (CDs & vinyl): A Pentatonix Christmas, Hamilton(Original Broadway Cast Recording),Blue & Lonesome
Musical Instruments: Blue Yeti USB Microphone, Kala Learn To Play Ukulele Starter Kit (Amazon Exclusive), Singing Machine Top Loading CDG Karaoke System with Sound and Disco Light Show
Outdoors: LifeStraw Personal Water Filter, Etekcity 2-pack Portable Outdoor LED Camping Lantern with 6 AA Batteries (Black, Collapsible), Yeti Coolers Rambler
Patio, Lawn & Garden: iDevices iGrill Mini, Bounty Hunter BHJS Junior Metal Detector, Snow Joe Telescoping Snow Broom with Ice Scraper
PC: SanDisk Ultra 32GB microSDHC UHS-I Card with Adapter, Seagate Expansion 1TB Portable External Hard Drive USB 3.0, AmazonBasics Mini DisplayPort (Thunderbolt) to HDMI Adapter
Pets: KONG Cozie Marvin the Moose Dog Toy Medium Dog Toy (Brown), GREENIES PILL POCKETS Soft Dog Treats, Chicken (Capsule, 15.8 oz), Fancy Feast Wet Cat Food – Gravy Lovers – Poultry & Beef Variety Pack, 3-Ounce Can (Pack of 24)
Sports: Spalding NBA Street Basketball, Bushnell Falcon 7×35 Binoculars w/ Case, Simply Fit Board
Tools: TEKTON 5941 Digital Tire Gauge, MagnoGrip 311-090 Magnetic Wristband, DEWALT DW2166 45-Piece Screwdriving Set with Tough Case
Toys & Games: Hasbro Pie Face Game & Pie Face Showdown Game, Scientific Explorer Mind Blowing Science Kit, Snap Circuits Jr. SC-100 Electronics Discovery Kit
TV: Samsung 32-Inch 1080p Smart LED TV, Avera 32-Inch 720p LED TV, Samsung 40-Inch 1080p Smart LED TV
Video Games: Pokémon Sun – Nintendo 3DS, Pokémon Moon – Nintendo 3DS, Final Fantasy XV – PlayStation 4
Jeff Bezos talked Tuesday about the impact of its Echo product and the Alexa platform as science fiction becoming reality. He stated, “It has been a dream since the early days of science fiction to have a computer that you can talk to in a natural way and actually have a conversation and ask it to do things for you. That is coming true.” Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was interviewed by Recode’s Walt Mossberg at the Recode Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. The entire video interview is below.
Bezos sees these artificial learning products as just in the very beginning of their development. Bezos told the audience, “There’s so much more to come. It’s just the tip of the iceberg of what you can do with these types of technologies! It’s the first inning. It might even be the first guys up at bat. It’s really early and I think we are on the edge of a golden era. It’s going to be so exciting to see what happens.”
Amazon has a family of products called Echo and they are driven by a platform called Alexa and they are actually licensing the technology to be embedded in applications that other companies are developing as well. Bezos elaborated, “We’ve exposed different SDK’s for Alexa. One is the Alexa Voice Service which lets you embed through a set of API’s. You can embed Alexa in your own device or app and do with it what you want. If you make an alarm clock, for instance, you can embed Alexa Voice Service in it. We also have the Alexa Skills Kit which lets you teach Alexa new skills. Those two things work together.”
Bezos was asked about the the gains in AI through machine learning and if this will be the underpinnings of tech over the next 10 years as we move from the period of frantic growth and development in smart phones? Bezos replied:
“I think its gigantic. I think natural language understanding and machine learning in general and artificial intelligence… it’s probably hard to overstate how big of an impact it is going to have on society over the next 20 years. It is big. It doesn’t mean that phones are going to go away. Its’ not like voice interfaces are going to replace screens. As long as people have eyes they are going to want screens and they still want to touch things and so on. But it has been a dream since the early days of science fiction to have a computer that you can talk to in a natural way and actually have a conversation and ask it to do things for you. That is coming true. You’re seeing similar amazing progress with extreme vision. The combination of new and better algorithms, vastly superior compute power and the ability to harness huge amounts of training data — those 3 things are coming together to solves previously unsolvable problems. They’re going to drive a tremendous amount of utility for customers and customers are going to adopt those things.”
Jeff Bezos added, “We’ve exposed to different SDK’s for Alexa. One is the Alexa Voice Service which lets you embed through a set of API’s. You can embed Alexa in your own device or app and do with it what you want. If you make an alarm clock you can embed Alexa Voice Service in it. We also have the Alexa Skills Kit which lets you teach Alexa new skills. Those two things work together.”
Mossberg asked if Amazon is “deeply committed to this being a huge part of Amazon’s business”? To which Bezos replied, “Absolutely. We’ve worked on it behind the scenes for 4 years. We have more than a thousand people dedicated just to Alexa and the Echo ecosystem. We have now a set of third party apps that people have built using are SDK. There’s so much more to come. It’s just the tip of the iceberg of what you can do with these types of technologies!”
What about competitors? “All of the major tech companies will do this, but there will also be hundred’s of startup companies. There will also be new advances. One of the things is that right now bigger companies like Amazon have an advantage, especially because of the training data sets that are required to do this because you need a lot of data to the extraordinary things with the current algorithms we have. Just remember that humans learn in a very different way. Humans are unbelievably data efficient. We learn these incredibly complex things. You don’t have to drive a million miles to be able to drive a car. But the way we teach a self driving car to drive today is we have the algorithms drive a million miles and they are still not as good in certain scenarios as a human would be. So humans are doing all kinds of things to make that possible. We’re also very power efficient. For instance, Alpha Go, which is a really impressive achievement beat the world’s best Alpha Go player. He’s operating on about 50 watts, Humans are just doing something fundamentally different than the current way that we do machine learning and machine intelligence.”
Bezos added, “The longer you’ve been around, the more humble you get about tech.”
