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5,000 People Are Working On Amazon's Digital Assistant Alexa (geekwire.com)

Amazon said this week at an event unveiling the next generation Echo device that it has the equivalent of a small town of people -- more than 5,000 -- working on the company's digital assistant, Alexa. From a report: And Amazon's not even at full capacity when it comes to Alexa. The company's job site shows close to 1,100 open positions on a variety of Alexa-focused teams. Voice-activated assistants appear to be the Next Big Thing in the tech world, and Amazon is competing with a who's who of tech giants, including Apple, Microsoft, Google and more. Interestingly, Amazon and Microsoft recently formed a pact that will see the two company's digital assistants gain the ability to talk to one another.

3 of 72 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Voice activated assistants are the... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Funny

    I do admit - I love watching people ask their phones and speakers something 3 or 4 times before getting frustrated and picking up a handheld device.

    My wife has to ask me to take out the garbage 3 or 4 times before getting frustrated and picking up a handheld device (frying pan).

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  2. Re:Voice activated assistants are the... by ILoveFatCashews · · Score: 0, Funny

    My wife has to ask me to take out the garbage 3 or 4 times before getting frustrated and picking up a handheld device (frying pan).

    That's nothing. My mother's handheld device was empty beer bottles. I had to take out the garbage and the recyclables.

  3. Re:The project must be late... by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 3, Funny

    Seriously? 5,000 on staff for that thing? Something is seriously wrong here because I cannot imagine needing that many people for a project like this. What are all these folks doing? Certainly not just Alexa system development. What else are they doing?

    What are they doing? Must be Alexa is really a Mechanical Turk!

    Every time you say "Alexa, ..." one of those 5000 people jumps to attention and handles your request :)