Slashdot Mirror
Amazon's Alexa Virtual Assistant Can Now Order Millions of Prime Products For You (thenextweb.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Fortune: Amazon added a new skill for its voice assistant Alexa on Friday, and it could help the e-commerce giant add even more revenue to its already billions in yearly sales from selling everything from toilet paper to toothpaste. With today's update, now you can tell Alexa you want to buy any one of its tens of millions of items that are sold on Amazon. The one caveat is that the item must be a Prime product, meaning it is fulfilled by Amazon and can be shipped to shopper's doorsteps within two days or less. So if your daughter or son wants a Elsa doll from Disney's Frozen movie, you simply ask, "Alexa, please order the Elsa doll from Frozen," and Alexa will suggest a toy that fits that description. You then say "yes" to continue the transaction, and Alexa will take care of charging your credit card, and shipping the product to your home. Quartz posted a story in early June in which it documents several concerns from parents that Amazon Echo is conditioning the kids of this generation to be rude.
I fully understand why amazon does this: To avoid people like me...
I hate when stores keeps payment info! I actually like having to get my cards from my wallet, in my jacket, hanging in another room.
Why? Because half the time I realize I do not need what I was about to purchase anyway. Or realize that I should search for a better deal on a cheaper site...
That habit saves me a lot of money and I have less stuff that I never use anyway...
My wife joked that she wouldn't mind an Alexa sex robot, because unlike a real girlfriend, Alexa would have an off switch. :)
She hasn't thought through the fact that this makes it unlike a wife as well, eh
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I know this sounds bad; but I am a middle aged man, I am not going to make new friends. I am not allowed to have a dog. I wanted something that I could come home and chat with. Yes, something that would remember to wake me up and discuss movies, books, and games with me.
I realize it will never be a person; I am well aware of chat-bot limitations. However, with more and more single households, I can see a demand for something like this. To deny the market is to ignore a market.