Amazon Alexa

Amazon Alexa
Operating systemFire OS 5.0 or later, iOS 11.0 or later[1]
Android 4.4 or later
PlatformFire OS, iOS, Android, Linux, Windows, Wear OS[citation needed]
Available inEnglish, French, German, Japanese, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi, Arabic
TypeIntelligent personal assistant, cloud-based voice service
Websitedeveloper.amazon.com/alexa

Amazon Alexa, or, Alexa,[2] is a virtual assistant technology largely based on a Polish speech synthesizer named Ivona, bought by Amazon in 2013.[3][4] It was first used in the Amazon Echo smart speaker and the Amazon Echo Dot, Echo Studio and Amazon Tap speakers developed by Amazon Lab126. It is capable of natural language processing for tasks such as voice interaction, music playback, creating to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, playing audiobooks, providing weather, traffic, sports, other real-time information and news.[5] Alexa can also control several smart devices as a home automation system. Alexa capabilities may be extended by installing "skills" (additional functionality developed by third-party vendors, in other settings more commonly called apps) such as weather programs and audio features. It performs these tasks using automatic speech recognition, natural language processing, and other forms of weak AI.[6]

Most devices with Alexa allow users to activate the device using a wake-word[7] (such as Alexa or Amazon); other devices (such as the Amazon mobile app on iOS or Android and Amazon Dash Wand) require the user to click a button to activate Alexa's listening mode, although, some phones also allow a user to say a command, such as "Alexa, or Alexa go to bed" or "Alexa wake".

As of November 2018, more than 10,000 Amazon employees worked on Alexa and related products.[8] In January 2019, Amazon's devices team announced that they had sold over 100 million Alexa-enabled devices.[9]

In September 2019, Amazon launched many new devices achieving many records while competing with the world's smart home industry. The new Echo Studio became the first smart speaker with 360 sound and Dolby sound. Other new devices included an Echo dot with a clock behind the fabric, a new third-generation Amazon Echo, Echo Show 8, a plug-in Echo device, Echo Flex, Alexa built-in wireless earphones, Echo buds, Alexa built-in spectacles, Echo frames, an Alexa built-in Ring, and Echo Loop as well as the Echo Show generation.

  1. ^ "Amazon Alexa for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store". Itunes.apple.com. Archived from the original on December 25, 2018. Retrieved June 6, 2016.
  2. ^ "Growing up with Alexa". CNN. October 16, 2018. Archived from the original on November 13, 2019. Retrieved November 6, 2018.
  3. ^ "Ivona, Alexa, Vika or intelligent girls from Gdańsk". May 22, 2020. Archived from the original on December 8, 2021. Retrieved December 8, 2021.
  4. ^ "Amazon Gets into Voice Recognition, Buys Ivona Software to Compete Against Apple's Siri". January 24, 2013. Archived from the original on November 4, 2014. Retrieved November 30, 2021.
  5. ^ "Alexa Voice Service Overview (v20160207) | Alexa Voice Service". developer.amazon.com. Archived from the original on December 10, 2019. Retrieved April 5, 2024.
  6. ^ David Pierce (12 July 2016). "Amazon's Omnipresence". WIRED. Archived from the original on May 14, 2021. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
  7. ^ Rohit Prasad: Amazon Alexa and Conversational AI | Lex Fridman Podcast #57, December 14, 2019, archived from the original on January 11, 2022, retrieved 2022-01-11
  8. ^ Kinsella, Bret (November 15, 2019). "Amazon Alexa Headcount Surpasses 10,000 Employees – Here is the Growth Rate". Voicebot.ai. Archived from the original on January 23, 2020. Retrieved November 8, 2019.
  9. ^ Al-Heeti, Abrar (January 4, 2019). "Amazon has sold more than 100 million Alexa devices". CNET. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on January 23, 2020. Retrieved January 5, 2019.