Amazon introduced the technology at Amazon re: MARS 2022, its annual AI event centered around machine learning, automation, robotics, and space. Alexa AI head scientist Rohit Prasad referred to the upcoming feature as a way to remember friends and family members who have passed away.
“While AI can’t eliminate the pain of loss, it can definitely make their memories last,” Prasad said.
Prasad demonstrated the feature using a video of a child asking Alexa if his grandmother could finish reading him a story. In its regular Alexa voice, the smart speaker obliged; then the grandmother’s voice took over as the child flipped through his own copy of The Wizard of Oz. Though of course there’s no way for the viewer to know what the woman’s real voice actually sounds like, the grandmother’s synthesized voice admittedly sounded quite natural, speaking with the cadence of your average bedtime story reader.
Comments are closed.