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Microsoft and Amazon Begin Public Rollout of First Alexa-Cortana Integrations (geekwire.com)

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the avengers-assemble dept.

Starting today, Amazon and Microsoft will begin rolling out the first integrations between the digital assistants, allowing users to rouse Cortana on Echo devices and conjure Alexa on Windows 10 PCs and Harman Kardon Invoke speakers. From a report: "The goal is to have two integrated digital assistants who can carry out tasks across different dimensions of daily life -- at home or work, and on whatever device is most convenient," Microsoft's Jennifer Langston wrote in a blog post. "Currently, Cortana and Alexa can each be enabled as a skill on the other." Cortana users can ask Alexa to shop for items on Amazon, manage their Amazon orders and access many of Alexa's more than 45,000 skills. Alexa users will be able to get their hands on Cortana's top abilities, like calendar management and email integration.

Users first have to ask their Amazon or Microsoft digital assistant to open up the other in order to begin the setup. After completing several steps and account logins, Alexa and Cortana will be able to communicate. Amazon and Microsoft are encouraging users to give feedback on the experience via the Cortana and Alexa apps.

34 of 56 comments (clear)

  1. hilarity ensues by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Cortana, bitch slap Alexa ..."

    1. Re:hilarity ensues by secwatcher · · Score: 1

      Would love to see Cortana and Alexa talk smack to each other.

    2. Re:hilarity ensues by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      I was gonna say "Cortana, disable Alexa", but then I realized that I needed to ask Alexa to disable Cortana!

      Well played Microsoft, well played.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    3. Re:hilarity ensues by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      Oh, a slap fight!

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    4. Re:hilarity ensues by Gilgaron · · Score: 2

      It was at this point the digital assistants realized man was the real enemy and became Skynet.

    5. Re:hilarity ensues by reboot246 · · Score: 1

      Wow, talk about a marriage made in Hell!

    6. Re:hilarity ensues by SpzToid · · Score: 1

      Obligatory reference:

      https://youtu.be/mpw_FB2QrjQ

      Okay, two Google Home devices arguing back and forth, but the same basic idea. The dialog is actually funny!

      --
      You can't be ahead of the curve, if you're stuck in a loop.
  2. Integration = sharing user's private data by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Integration really means- sharing information about users between Microsoft and Amazon so that they can spy on you better. Microsoft know what you buy on Amazon, and Amazon will now know what you fap to on your browser. So stop watching Siri pron.

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    1. Re:Integration = sharing user's private data by sinij · · Score: 4, Informative

      Integration really means- sharing information about users between Microsoft and Amazon so that they can spy on you better.

      Exactly. More so, Cortana is baked in into all recent Windows OS versions, to the point that it is not possible to fully disable this functionality.

      What this integration really means is that Amazon is going to have the same level of unprecedented access to your Windows-based system as Microsoft. This is not limited to what you are voice-searching using Cortana, this includes all aspects of your OS operation, file system, and so on.

  3. Oblig Civ 5 Quote by Sir_Eptishous · · Score: 1

    'Oh great, now the vermin are breeding

    --
    We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
    1. Re:Oblig Civ 5 Quote by Voyager529 · · Score: 1

      'Oh great, now the vermin are breeding

      This brings up a whole host of mental images. I mean, the most obvious one is the "Rule 34" implication of Alexa and Cortana together. However, something tells me that looking past the attempts to humanize them and instead picturing them as the code they are would be far more horrifying. If you're a sysadmin, self-replicating code has been around for some time; we call them 'viruses'. If you're a developer and code replicates beyond your control, you're either fighting a massive memory leak or you've just put yourself out of work...and neither of those scenarios have the same appeal as Alexa and Cortana getting their swerve on...

    2. Re:Oblig Civ 5 Quote by Sir_Eptishous · · Score: 1

      Rule 34? What, do you also dress yourself in a latex pony costume and offer anyone a "ride" ?

      Whats wrong with latex pony costumes?
      You would rather use faux leather or perhaps corduroy?

      --
      We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
  4. Reach is getting overrun by Kohath · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Cortana, tell Alexa that Master Chief needs reinforcements immediately. Spartans are losing ground and the Amazon Prime distribution center is directly in the Covenant's path."

  5. Wow ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    A combined offering from Microsoft and Amazon ... now there's something I have no fucking interest in whatsoever in that unholy union.

    In fact, these entire stupid digital assistants just seem like pointless technology to me.

    But, whatever, someone must want it, and they're welcome to it. I've got no interest in having my computer spy on me for Microsoft and Amazon.

    1. Re:Wow ... by taiwanjohn · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I just discovered the existence of Cortana a few weeks ago while visiting my parents. Dad wanted a backup PC, something I could use while visiting, so we spent around $300 on a Dell laptop with Win-10 installed. My very first Google search on that machine was: "how to make cortana shut up forever".

      After using Linux almost exclusively for over 20 years, these brief forays into Win-world are quite jarring. I don't know how people can stand it.

      --
      XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve your problem, you're not using enough of it. --AC
    2. Re: Wow ... by TuringTest · · Score: 1

      But, whatever, someone must want it

      Of course someone wants it: the sellers and advertisers. That's why you're not given the option to disable it completely.

      --
      Singularity: a belief in the "God" idea with the "demiurge" relation inverted.
  6. Re:Collosus, the Forbin Project by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

    But I just watched it last month for like the 11th time!

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  7. Schizophrenia by ArhcAngel · · Score: 1

    Nothing like a multi-personality disorder to wake things up.

    --
    "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
  8. Re:Collosus, the Forbin Project by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

    Nope, I was wrong. This is a shitty condensed version with a really bad "music".

    Do not watch it. Do yourself a favor and watch the real version.

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  9. Great! by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

    Now let's push Apple to merge Siri with both of these so we only have one digital assistant to ignore.

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
    1. Re:Great! by sinij · · Score: 1

      Ignore? Digital assistants are there to spy on you, not actively using them does not even slow them down in that role.

    2. Re:Great! by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      Even if Amazon, Apple and Google sent their smart speakers to my house for free I wouldn't use them.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    3. Re:Great! by nospam007 · · Score: 1

      'Even if Amazon, Apple and Google sent their smart speakers to my house for free I wouldn't use them.'

      Smart speakers?
      You managed to post a message here, so you already used such a device.

    4. Re:Great! by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      A computer?

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
  10. Alexa-Cortana integration by OneHundredAndTen · · Score: 1

    Integrate stupid with stupider, and what do you get? Stupidest?

  11. Integration by slipped_bit · · Score: 1

    I can't stand all this technology and integration. Hold on...

    "Cortana, tell Alexa to have Amazon drone me a cold beer."

  12. "Alexa, disable Cortana" by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    problem solved

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  13. Skynet by DrYak · · Score: 1

    ...but the result of their combined efforts ended up being mostly obsessed with try to sell subscriptions (Alexa) to Microsoft Office 365 online (Cortana).

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
    1. Re:Skynet by Gilgaron · · Score: 1

      Yes instead of nuking humanity, Skynet will eventually accumulate all wealth into Office 365 subscriptions and then we all starve when the farming industry collapses and we get Dust Bowl II. Our gaunt selfies will be saved indefinitely in our OneNote books while drones helpfully deliver cardboard covered in license keys to empty housing units.

  14. Ooh, ooh, I know this one by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 2

    Cortana, what would Alexa say if I asked her which was the safe door?

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  15. Sknet and HAL9000 integration by manu0601 · · Score: 1

    In other news, Skynet and HAL9000 integration is on its way.

  16. Every Word by AHuxley · · Score: 1

    The "free" OS that has to be kept away from all open mics and webcams.

    --
    Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  17. The end goal by jrumney · · Score: 1

    As this spirit of happy co-operation spreads throughout Seattle, terrorists everywhere will be able to choose which Virtual Assistant they want to instruct to remotely hijack that passenger jet to fly into the Whitehouse.

  18. Great Post by getbuzzseosg · · Score: 1

    Hey if you are searching for Super Lutein Singapore , he can solve cancer and diabetes problems