Amazon Echo Buds Have Impressive Audio Performance and are Critical to the Alexa Mobile Strategy
Amazon Echo Buds arrived yesterday and reflect Amazon’s first hearables product. It was joined by two other wearable technology products, Echo Frames smart glasses and Echo Loop smart ring. However, it is the Echo Buds that stand out in terms of performance and practicality as well as residence in a proven product category. Full Story: Voicebot.ai
The Voice Search Revolution Is Here: Here’s How You Need to Adapt Your Content
In the span of about six months, I’ve come to rely on voice search technology to do my shopping, order food, check the weather, research new products, track incoming packages, and even control my apartment temperature—and I’m far from the only one. Full Story: Skyword
Amazon is announcing new products to keep pushing Alexa into every corner of your life
Amazon is expected to announce a grab bag of gadgets, services and subscriptions here Wednesday in its annual blizzard of new Alexa-themed products, probably with mixed results. The online retail giant has previously taken a spaghetti-against-the-wall approach to such events, introducing dozens of new features and gadgets like an AI-assistant-powered microwave and a wall clock that could show a timer. Full Story: Washington Post
Enhancing business processes with intelligent virtual assistants
Virtual assistants continue to make their way out of consumer homes and into the enterprise to automate tasks and improve employee collaboration and productivity. Opus Research analyst Derek Top wrote in a blog how Oracle is boosting its virtual assistant, Digital Assistant, by adding AI-driven voice commands. Full Story: TechTarget
Almost 70 per cent of consumers find voice assistant ads to be ‘creepy’
The majority of consumers find it ‘creepy’ when they receive ads from voice assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Assistant on the back of unprompted cues, but most are still willing to share their data in order to get a more personalised experience. A Selligent survey of 5,000 global consumers found that 69 per cent of consumers don’t feel comfortable with unprompted advertising from voice assistants, while 51 per cent are worried that the AI technology is listening to their conversations without their consent. Full Story: Mobile Marketing Magazine
AMAZON CREATES A HUGE ALLIANCE TO DEMAND VOICE ASSISTANT COMPATIBILITY
A day ahead of its annual fall hardware event, Amazon is making a big partnership announcement: it has created the Voice Interoperability Initiative, which is sort of a statement of intent from over 30 different companies that they will strive to ensure devices will work with multiple digital assistants at the same time. For example, you could talk to either Alexa or Cortana on the same smart speaker simply by saying the appropriate wake word. Full Story: The Verge
This Is Why AI Companies Have to Listen to Your Voice Recordings
In late August, Motherboard broke the news that Microsoft had shared voice recordings of Xbox users with contractors to improve the functionality of its AI-powered voice assistant. Earlier that month, another report revealed that Microsoft was sharing Skype recordings and Cortana voice commands with contractors to improve the chat platform’s services. Some of the recordings contained intimate content. Full Story: PCMag.com
Google Assistant Gets A Second Voice Option In 9 More Languages
Google is launching new voices for Google Assistant in nine more languages. Google Assistant will now have a second voice option in German, French, Dutch, Norwegian, Italian, Korean, Japanese, and English for India and the UK. The new voices have begun rolling out for users in the respective countries starting this week. Full Story: Android Headlines
McDonald’s To Acquire Apprente For Voice Tech
McDonald’s (MCD) announced it has agreed to acquire Apprente for an undisclosed amount. Apprente provides voice-based platforms for multilingual conversational ordering. MCD is acquiring Apprente both for its voice technologies as well as creating a core team as part of its Tech Labs initiative to attract talent and technologies in Silicon Valley and beyond. Full Story: Seeking Alpha
You can now call the Google Assistant from any phone
In an effort to bring the Google Assistant to those using 2G feature phones in India, Google today announced a phone number that people can use to call its voice assistant. The number, 0008009191000, will allow users to make a regular voice call that will be answered by the Google Assistant. Users can then ask the artificial intelligence (AI) any question they like. Full Story: Livemint
