Amazon opens Alexa AI technology for the first time so car makers can create custom assistants



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Amazon will now grant third-party companies the unprecedented privilege of accessing the basic artificial intelligence that underpins its digital assistant Alexa, a first for the company’s AI platform.

While Amazon has made it possible for companies to develop skills for Alexa and allows almost all manufacturers of consumer electronics to integrate Alexa into a compatible product, the e-commerce giant has not licensed the technology to Underlying AI for use in other wizard-like products. Amazon calls the new offering Alexa Custom Assistant, and starts by focusing on the automotive market.

Amazon is doing this to give not only automakers, but any business in need of a digital voice assistant, more control over the software experience. This will allow businesses to create their own wake-up calls as well as personalized voices and abilities, according to Amazon, “will coexist” with Alexa because it is designed to work today. For the automotive market, this gives Amazon the added benefit of having its software built right into cars.

“Building an intelligent assistant is complex, time consuming and expensive. In addition, the rate of innovation and change is accelerating and assistants are improving and becoming ever smarter, requiring substantial ongoing investments, ”the company explains in a blog post. “The Alexa Custom Assistant addresses this challenge by enabling businesses to leverage Alexa’s world-class technology stack to build their own smart assistant without the investment, long development cycles, and resources to build it from scratch and build it. maintain over time. ”

Amazon says businesses will have access to custom wake-up words that use “the same state-of-the-art process” used to develop new Alexa wake words. Businesses can create their own unique voices for assistants with help from Amazon’s ‘voice science experts’ who will help manage the recording process and the machine learning-based algorithms to create the voice library .

In-car displays and software experiences have proven to be a ripe market for companies like Amazon, Apple, and Google. But only these last two tech giants have their own mobile operating systems that enable plug-in platforms like Apple’s CarPlay and Google’s Android Auto. Amazon made deals with automakers, most recently with Lamborghini and EV startup Rivian at CES 2021 earlier this week, for direct Alexa integrations, and Amazon’s Echo Auto platform can be accessed via a mobile application or via a dongle that you plug into your car. But these are not as transparent as the competition offered by Apple and Google.

Much like how Amazon has strategically resolved its disadvantage over mobile phones, where Siri and Google Assistant reign supreme, to carve out a dominant position in the smart home, it is now trying to better position Alexa as an integrated solution in environments that may not require a phone at all, thus avoiding the need to compete directly with Apple and Google.

The first company to agree to build its own Alexa-based assistant is car maker Fiat Chrysler (FCA), which has an ongoing relationship with Amazon to integrate some of its technologies, like Amazon Fire TV-powered displays, into its cars. . The financial terms of any deal between Amazon and FCA have not been disclosed, and it is not clear whether Amazon is instructing automakers to license AI technology rather than freely giving it away.

Regardless, Amazon also says its intentions are to give all businesses, not just automakers, a faster, cheaper, and less complex way to create their own voice experiences that feel tailored, instead of just settling for third-party integration. a service.

Alexa Custom Assistant also allows custom AI products to stay in control and dictate information about special features, while Alexa can handle more general application-related requests such as music playback and directions. “For example, if a customer asks Alexa to roll down a car window or how to troubleshoot a device, the request will be routed to the brand’s assistant. If a customer asks the brand’s assistant to play an audiobook, the request will be routed to Alexa, ”the blog read.

Amazon Says Alexa Custom Assistant Will Be Available Today For Businesses In The United States And Canada As Well As Australia, Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy , Japan, Mexico, New Zealand and Spain.

Update January 15 at 8:46 a.m.ET: Added more information about the Alexa Custom Assistant and how it’s available to more than just automakers.

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