Amazon Echo…..how intelligent it is !!!

Alexa, the brain behind Amazon Echo, is built in the cloud, is a smarter assistant in form of a smart speakers. The more you use Echo, the more it adapts to your speech patterns and vocabulary. Using Alexa is as simple as just asking a question – You just ask and Alexa will respond instantly. In other ways it is a super computer in a miniature form.

This Amazon Device is now available in more than 350 retail outlets such as Croma, Reliance, Vijay Sales and Crossword among others across 20 cities in India. It will also be available at the Amazon devices kiosk in Bengaluru and Mumbai. Going forward, Amazon is also introducing voice calling and messaging capabilities to its voice assistant Alexa, enabling users with an Echo device or Alexa mobile app to call or message their contacts who also have either an Echo device or the Alexa mobile app.

Amazon Prime members get access to Amazon Prime Music, an ad-free music streaming service. You can also order millions of products using only voice and Alexa can even track your delivery for you. The beauty of Alexa is, the device is now able to pronounce complex Indian names accurately in local accents. Most important is the product is so advanced in terms of technology like, machine learning algorithms that it can underpin many technologies that we interact with in our everyday lives - voice recognition, face recognition, behaviour study, buying pattern and it is up to suggested need based services.

Key highlights of Alexa

* Amazon Echo is a hands-free smart speaker that you can control using your voice. It connects to Alexa – a cloud-based voice service to play music, make calls, check weather and news, set alarms, control smart home devices, and many more.

* Echo has powerful speakers that fill the room with immersive 360° omnidirectional audio and deliver crisp vocals and dynamic bass response.

* Just ask for a song, artist, or genre from your favourite music services like Amazon Prime Music, Saavn, and TuneIn, you can get it in no time. Using multi-room music, you can even play music across multiple Echo devices at the same time.

* With seven microphones, beam-forming technology, and noise cancellation, Echo hears you from any direction-even in noisy environments or while playing music.

* Call or message anyone hands-free who also has an Echo device or the Alexa App. Simply ask "Alexa, how do I set up calling?" to get started.

* Alexa has the capability to Control lights, plugs, and more with compatible connected devices from Philips, Syska, TP-Link and Oakter.

* Alexa is getting even smarter and adding new features and skills. You can order food from Zomato, request a ride from Ola, book a carpenter, tutor, plumber or electrician from Urbanclap, and more through Alexa.

Alexa is on the drive to tie-up with various best possible companies and social media apps, to drive the sales and collect the information like Google and Wikipedia on the real time user’s data. With this move, they can also have the information which is not available with anyone, including the private talks and users habit, taste and flavour they like the most. Absolutely, there is no doubt that data is the new oil.

Various forms of data could convert into real case study, which is called analytical data (Deep learning / deep data with AI), which is very important and expensive. In future, these data will give billions of dollars for making a tried and tested case study, which is available for sale and of course a customer will always be willing to pay for it. Hence, artificial intelligence (AI) promises to revolutionise our lives and lead us into a new future where thinking machines do things that we’re yet to imagine.

News on the smart speakers sending private conversations to the cloud has led to increased scrutiny over how much of data is getting stored through the smart speaker - As per Alexa the stored can be used in case of criminal cases if any by listen and recording . There is also scope, to view what Alexa's recorded and erase that audio, which is always not true.

Challenges ahead

A report says, a Portland family (Named Danielle) contacted Amazon to investigate after they said a private conversation in their home was recorded by Amazon's Alexa -- the voice-controlled smart speaker -- and that the recorded audio was sent to the phone to a random person in Seattle, who was in the family’s contact list. As every room in her family home was wired with the Amazon devices to control her home's heat, lights and security system.

The customer Danielle said two weeks ago their love for Alexa changed with an alarming phone call. "The person on the other line said, “unplug your Alexa devices right now,” she said. "'You're being hacked.” That person was one of her husband's employees, calling from Seattle. This issue needs to be addressed by Amazon.

If you're uncomfortable with the idea of leaving around old voice recordings, there's a way to clear the data on your Alexa devices if you're so inclined. Before you start deleting, though, remember that you're essentially wiping the AI's specialized memory, as it's retaining this information to better serve you. The company says, that the question comes on how many persons are getting trained on the user’s manual. A survey says, hardly any person goes through the documents which has written in lengthy pages, which are or may be of in a single digit. Now, the query comes on how Alexa will not collect data from the crowd sourcing, then how it will serve you better in the local language.

As there are many interesting features inbuilt inside the speaker with AI, it attracts the consumer to go for it. Secondly, it brings various things without searching anywhere, like in Google you have to search and get, but in Alexa you just think of the required thing and you get it without using any extra intelligence or pain. It is just like reading the human brain to make current deep learning networks far more capable so that it can be made use by others to make expert.