Soon, Alexa could be as silly as your neighborhood troll



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Photo: Alex Cranz (Gizmodo)

The next time you ask Alexa a question, the answer may come from a hike with an internet connection. Amazon is publicly launching its Alexa Answers program, a way for the company to use participatory resources to answer questions for which Alexa has no answer.

Alexa Answers was initially introduced in December in a small invitational beta group. The difference is now literally no matter who can bring answers. Me, you, your neighbor Gary. No matter who. If you sign up for the program, you will be asked to browse the questions "relevant to your interests or expertise". From there, you will be able to answer a question shared by Alexa, citing the source as "according to an Amazon customer". Amazon is also playing the process. Participants will also have a dashboard giving access to statistics, such as the number of responses they provided, the way their responses were evaluated and the number of times their responses were shared by Alexa.

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Here are some examples of questions about Alexa:

  • How many birds migrate?
  • What is juniper syrup?
  • Where is the most snow?
  • Where was the biggest surf wave in the world?
  • How long does it take for an ice cube tray to freeze?
  • Which states surround Illinois?
  • What is the appropriate amount of sleep?
  • How many instruments does Stevie Wonder play?
  • How much does it cost in a handful of alcohol?

It's hard to imagine anyone really knowing the answer to most of these questions. It is likely that participants will just search for the answer on Google before inserting it. And according to a Fast Company report, Amazon does not require quotes from source people who use to find their answers. So, on the one hand, this is probably a participatory alternative for Amazon that does not have the huge search engine capabilities of Google Assistant, for example. Moreover, nothing prevents potential trolls from trying to spam the program with joke responses. Aside from the dubious call of executive board glory, what other incentives do people have to do Amazon's work for free, instead of introducing chaos?

"We rely on the positive energy and good faith of contributors, and we use machine learning and algorithms to eliminate the noisiest, the meanest. But we will not remove the magical experience that we can offer to 99 customers because one person had something different in mind, "Bart Barton, Vice President, told the company. Alexa, Amazon information.

Um agree. Sure. Because the algorithms have never failed. In any case, the next time Alexa answers your question "according to an Amazon client," you may be able to simply watch it on your phone.

[Fast Company]

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