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Amazon Will Let Alexa Developers Use Voice Recognition To Personalize Apps (theverge.com)
Amazon today announced that third-party developers will be able to make use of the Alexa assistant's voice recognition feature to personalize apps for its line of Echo speakers. The news builds on the company's announcement in October that Alexa can now identify individual users' voices to personalize responses. The Verge reports: Until today, that recognition feature only worked for Amazon-built services like shopping lists, flash briefing news updates, and Amazon Music, among other built-in skills. Starting some time in early 2018, however, developers will be able to tap into those voice-based profiles to make apps more personalized to various members of a household. This yet again puts Amazon ahead of rival Google in the smart home and digital assistant fields. In addition to announcing voice recognition for third-party apps, Amazon also revealed today at its re:Invent conference that it's bringing Alexa notifications on Echo speakers to a wider pool of developers starting today.
Fixed the headline
will amazon censor apps to keep people from developing ones that compete against it? such as a shopping list app that uses walmart or target instead of amazon?
If you are discussing your top secret plans with Alexa you're doing it wrong.
I've been playing with Alexa (the app) for a couple of days and I'm genuinely impressed with the voice recognition capability. Due to lung disease, I have trouble communicating with actual humans over the phone, yet most of what I manage to croak out is recognized by Alexa.
I remember 20 years ago evaluating voice recognition software where you had to train it to your voice, enunciate very slowly and clearly, and it still didn't work very well.
There's not way the goyim will fall for this. Kikes BTFO!
If you are discussing your top secret plans with Alexa you're doing it wrong.
that would be true if only thing spied on is " top secret plans " of actual illegal crimes,subject to a court approved warrant. unfortunately that is not true. everything gets spied on now. and then usually hacked too.
and what about the 3rd parties who had no say on this, whose voices are captured and profiled.
Christ, you are a sad sack of shit.
No time for laughing, your plantation won't run itself you know
Is getting smarter, glad I dont have one.
Headline from July 2026: The deathtoll from last year's Laryngitis pandemic has been set at 3.1 Billion. Not only was the disease -- accidentally released by an attempt to genetically engineer self illuminating Christmas Trees -- 93% lethal if not treated, Most victims were unable to summon help because their personal assistants and cell phones were unable to recognize their croaks as valid attempts to log in/summon aid.
You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey
If you are discussing your top secret plans with Alexa you're doing it wrong.
You mean in the vicinity of an Alexa. Because you know that thing is in "listen" mode all the time right ?
"NO! IT JUST REPLIES WHEN YOU SAY ALEXA FIRST!".
Ok. Fine. How does it know you said Alexa if it's not listening to everything you say ?
Checkmate. Anyway, it's disingenuous to pretend that privacy is always about hiding nefarious things.
"Not to mention all the idiots who use words like boxen."
Anonymous Coward on Monday August 04, @06:49PM
This yet again puts Amazon ahead of rival Google in the smart home and digital assistant fields...... in the handful of countries that are supported.
Meanwhile Google Assistant has no geoblocking.
Area51 - We are watching...
I'd consider having one if i had the ability to operate on an Intranet.
It would be great for controlling lights, temps, security, initiating calls, taking messages, etc. Unless you are relying on resources you don't have on your local PCs, there is no need to call back to the mothership. Internet searches would be cool without anything additional being tracker above and beyond that which is tracked when I sit at the keyboard.
I'd also like to give it another name. It would be great if it could detect inflections so that it could discern the difference between the name Alexis being used in a sentence vs a command being issued.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
I'm sorry Jeff doesn't believe that will be a good choice, and neither do I so please cast the vote thanks yourself.
And in the limited subset of those supported countries that have had the update deployed.
We might see this in the UK sometime next summer, we only got the room to room intercom feature in October, the US got it in spring I think?
In some jurisdictions I believe that the consent of everyone present is needed if conversations are recorded. I wonder if this means that anyone with one of these devices will need to hang a sign saying audio surveillance is in progress.
Nullius in verba
Correct me if I'm wrong on this. Alexa has to somehow store both your voice pattern and your identity. So...A patient enough bad actor (state sponsored or otherwise) can hack your system (poor firewalls and use of bad passwords), get a good sample of your voice, and have a field day. Please tell me (lie if needed) that anyone with a functioning brain stem is going to avoid this like week old tuna salad.
"My voice is my passport." This is going to end...badly.
IT is always listening, but Amazon is not. Amazon only gets to hear anything after the device recognizes its wake word, which it does entirely on-device. You can verify this by spying on its network traffic. /irony
I wonder how well it would work for speech impediments.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
You mean in the vicinity of an Alexa. Because you know that thing is in "listen" mode all the time right ?
On the Fire tablet, Alexa has to be enabled in settings, and then you have to manually start the app to get it to "listen". It's hard to do inadvertently.
I realize there are devices available that work differently, but I have no experience with or interest in them.
I agree with the statement that privacy is not about hiding nefarious things. My point was that I don't care if Amazon or Ukranian hackers know that I asked what the weather was going to be tomorrow or that I set a timer for a soft-boiled egg. In fact I've just publically posted this information to the entire world, including hackers. Do with it what you will.