The mainstream adoption of intelligent assistants like Siri and Alexa demonstrated that even scripted agents could be breakout consumer hits.
Johnson states that Alexa and Siri are breakout consumer hits, but Amazon is actively scaling back it's Alexa teams and products as the devices haven't been as popular as we might otherwise expect. Siri is fine, but it's bundled into the already popular iPhone without an explicit choice.
Speaking with MIT Technology Review, Rohit Prasad, Alexa’s head scientist, has now revealed further details about where Alexa is headed next. The crux of the plan is for the voice assistant to move from passive to proactive interactions. Rather than wait for and respond to requests, Alexa will anticipate what the user might want. The idea is to turn Alexa into an omnipresent companion that actively shapes and orchestrates your life. This will require Alexa to get to know you better than ever before.
This is some next-level onslaught.
The number of Alexa-compatible smart home devices continues to grow, with more than 60,000 smart home products from over 7,400 unique brands
Amazon.com Inc. is positioning Alexa, its artificial-intelligence assistant, to track consumers’ prescriptions and relay personal health information, in a bid to insert the technology into everyday health care.
Surveillance capitalism, anyone?
Big Data, Little Ethics
When David Limp thinks about the future of Alexa, the AI assistant he oversees at Amazon, he imagines a world not unlike Star Trek—a future in which you could be anywhere, asking anything, and an ambient computer would be there to fulfill your every need.
We've all been waiting for that for a long time!
Previously, Alexa lived inside speakers. Now, it’s in a camera.
Natural evolution, I'd say...