Rahat Islam of DOT
Millions of users of Amazon’s Echo speakers have grown accustomed to the soothing strains of Alexa, the human-sounding virtual assistant that can tell them the weather, order takeout and handle other basic tasks in response to a voice command. So a imagine the shock a customer received last year when Alexa blurted out: “Kill your foster parents.”
Alexa has also reportedly chatted with users about sex acts. She gave a detailed discourse on dog defecation, and this summer, a hack Amazon traced back to China may have exposed some customers’ data, according to five people familiar with the events.
But apparently, Alexa is not having a breakdown.
These episodes, previously unreported, have reportedly arisen from Amazon.com Inc’s strategy to make Alexa a better communicator. New research is helping Alexa mimic human banter and talk about almost anything she finds on the internet.
However, the challenge has been ensuring that she does not offend users in her quest to study everyday human lingo.
At stake is a fast-growing market for gadgets with virtual assistants. An estimated two-thirds of US smart-speaker customers, about 43 million people, use Amazon’s Echo devices, according to research firm eMarketer. It is a lead the company wants to maintain over the Google Home from Alphabet Inc and the HomePod from Apple Inc.
“Many of our AI dreams are inspired by science fiction,” said Rohit Prasad, Amazon’s vice president and head scientist of Alexa Artificial Intelligence (AI), during a talk last month in Las Vegas.
To make that happen, the company launched the annual Alexa Prize in 2016, enlisting computer science students to improve the assistant’s conversation skills. Teams vie for the $500,000 first prize by creating talking computer systems known as chatbots that allow Alexa to attempt more sophisticated discussions with people.
-Source: Reuters