Amazon`s Alexa will respond faster, thanks to own new chip.

Amazon is designing its own artificial intelligence (A.I.) chips that would add speech recognition directly to Alexa-powered devices and allow the voice assistant to respond more quickly. The goal is for the hardware to be built into any device that features Alexa, including the Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, and Echo Plus.

As users of Alexa-powered devices may have noticed, there is a small delay between making an inquiry or request and getting a response from Alexa. That’s because the voice assistant must contact the cloud and interpret the command before it is able to formulate a response. 

By processing more data on the devices rather than in the cloud, the devices should theoretically be able to formulate a reply more speedily and operate more efficiently overall. While the device will still have to contact the cloud for more complex requests, the addition of speech recognition would eliminate the delay in simple tasks, such as reporting the time.

In 2015, Amazon acquired chip designer Annapurna Labs. The company is now producing A.I. chips that specifically suit Amazon’s own hardware needs. Amazon is also currently in the process of hiring chip engineers for Amazon Web Services, which suggests that the company may be introducing its own proprietary chips for that department as well.

The news of yet another tech giant embarking on its own A.I. chip creation poses a threat to companies like Nvidia and Intel. Both companies specialize in manufacturing chips and have shifted much of their expertise to the creation of A.I. chips. Now, many of their former customers are becoming their competition.

Amazon is not the first major company to produce its own A.I. chips in hopes of elevating its products above those of the competition. The Mountain View, California-based Google currently uses its own chips to support features like Street View, Translate, and Search. Silicon Valley tech giant Apple has also designed and deployed custom A.I. chips in its own products.

DT

Alexa loses her voice and shows hilarious new options on Super Bowl Ad. Video.

Alexa Loses Her Voice – Amazon Super Bowl LII Commercial from Lucky Generals on Vimeo.

In the latest Amazon video, the voice assistant Alexa loses her voice, and the company needs to find replacements. Jeff Bezos restlessly asks if the new team will do its job and his employees assure him that there will be no problem.

While the 90-second video unfolds, Cardi B sings her hit track “Bodak Yellow” instead of country music, Gordon Ramsay uses his abusive language to explain the complicated recipe of grilled cheese sandwich, and Anthony Hopkins speaks with dramatic pauses, terrifying the unsuspecting Alexa owner.

During various breaks in the first three quarters of the Super Bowl, Amazon will broadcast short 15-second videos with the stars receiving their headsets to work as Alexa replacements. Then the culmination will be in the fourth quarter when the full 90-second video is expected to air.

Alexa loses her voice on Amazon`s Super Bowl Ad, starring Jeff Bezos CEO. New AI speaker product model coming?

The ad opens on a woman brushing her teeth and asking Alexa a common morning question: “What’s the weather like today?” Alexa answers, “In Austin, it’s 60 degrees with a chance — ” before coughing and going out of commission.

As news reports on Alexa losing her voice take over televisions, Amazon`s CEO  Jeff Bezos runs to his crew to find out how such a thing could have happened. His team says a replacement is ready to go at Bezos’s command.

“And you’re sure this is going to work?” he asks. The team responds with a not exactly resounding “yeah,” leaving open the question of who exactly will replace Alexa’s voice.

Whether Alexa got sick (the flu is pretty severe this year) or needs a break from constantly answering questions, things aren’t looking too good for the virtual assistant in Amazon’s Super Bowl ad.

However a replacement seems to be on the way. New  Alexa AI speaker product model?  or your guess ?????

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Amazon introduces the new Fire HD 10.1" tablet with Alexa included for $149.99

Introducing the All-New Amazon Fire HD 10: 1080p Full HD Display, Faster Performance, Longer Battery Life, and Alexa Hands-Free—now only $149.99

Featuring a brilliant 10.1” 1080p Full HD display with over 2 million pixels, stereo speakers with Dolby Audio, and 32GB of internal storage with support for up to 256GB more via microSD—the all-new Fire HD 10 is designed from the ground up for entertainment Now 30% faster with 2x the RAM and an ultra-fast quad-core processor, plus up to 10 hours of battery life so you can enjoy all your favorite movies, TV shows, books, games, songs, and more Introducing Alexa hands-free for the first time on a Fire tablet—simply ask Alexa to play or pause a video, set a timer, play a song, dim the lights, open your calendar, or show your smart home security camera—using just your voice Amazon today announced the all-new Fire HD 10, the next-generation of Amazon’s largest tablet, now with a brilliant 10.1” widescreen 1080p Full HD display with over 2 million pixels. The new Fire HD 10 is 30% faster with 2x the RAM and an ultra-fast quad-core processor, plus 32GB internal storage and up to 10 hours of battery life—now only $149.99. Fire HD 10 also introduces Alexa hands-free for the first time on a Fire tablet—just ask Alexa to play or pause a video, find music, dim the lights, set a timer, show your calendar, and more, simply by using your voice. The all-new Fire HD 10 is available for pre-order starting today. For less than $150, the all-new Fire HD 10 offers a beautiful 1080p Full HD display, faster performance, more storage, and up to 10 hours of battery life,” said Kevin Keith, General Manager, Amazon Devices. “We’re also excited to introduce Alexa hands-free for the first time on a Fire tablet. Now, you can ask Alexa to play a video, show you your calendar, dim the lights, and much more—using just your voice.” With a 10.1” widescreen 1080p Full HD display, fast quad-core processor, and up to 10 hours of battery life, Fire HD 10 is the perfect tablet for enjoying entertainment, including your favorite movies, TV shows, books, magazines, apps, and games. With options for 32GB or 64GB of storage, plus up to 256GB of additional storage via microSD card, you have plenty of space to store offline video downloads from Amazon Video, Netflix, and Showtime. Should you forget to download your favorite show before you leave the house, On Deck has you covered with a selection of TV shows and movies already downloaded and ready to watch. Fire HD 10 also includes For You, a new personalized page on the tablet home screen that makes it easy for customers to quickly get back to reading, watching, playing or listening—and to quickly find what’s next. For You learns what a customer loves to do on the tablet, and then presents personalized recommendations across a variety of entertainment categories like books, videos, songs, and apps to help customers get the most out of their tablet. Customers can also quickly access family photos from Prime Photos and see their local weather right from the For You home screen. The new For You page is also now available for customers on previous generation Fire tablets. For only $149.99, the all-new Fire HD 10 includes: Full HD display—Brilliant 10.1” widescreen 1080p display (1920 x 1200) with over 2 million pixels (224 ppi) for bright, vivid image quality. Faster performance—Quad-core processor with up to 1.8 GHz and 2GB of RAM—2x the RAM and 30% faster than the previous generation Fire HD 10—delivering quick app launches, smooth videos and games, and great overall performance. More storage—The most storage available on a Fire tablet with options for 32GB or 64GB, and support for up to 256GB of expandable storage via microSD. Plus, enjoy free unlimited cloud storage for all Amazon content and photos taken with Fire tablets. Longer battery life—Up to 10 hours of mixed use battery life, giving you the flexibility to go wherever the day takes you. Alexa hands-free—Just ask Alexa to play a song, pause a movie, read audiobooks, answer questions, show your calendar, control your smart home, and more on your Fire tablet. Dolby Atmos Audio—Custom-tuned, dual stereo speakers for immersive and high-quality sound. Incredible reliability—As measured in tumble tests, Fire HD 10 is more durable than the latest iPad Pro 10.5”—and costs hundreds of dollars less. Dual-band Wi-Fi—Seamlessly stream your favorite videos with dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi support. Front- and rear-facing cameras—Video chat with friends and family with the front-facing camera, take and share photos, and save them for later with free, unlimited cloud storage for all photos taken on Fire devices. World’s best content selection—Access to millions of movies, TV shows, songs, books, magazines, apps, and games. Watch downloaded videos anywhere with a Prime membership, Netflix plan, or Showtime subscription. Amazon-exclusive features—ASAP, X-Ray, Whispersync, Second Screen, Amazon FreeTime, Family Library, For You, Blue Shade, On Deck, and more. Screen Sharing—Let an Amazon expert guide you remotely through any feature on your screen, available 24x7, 365 days a year—for free. Introducing Alexa Hands-Free. Last year Amazon brought Alexa, the brain behind Amazon Echo, to Fire tablets making it even easier for you to enjoy endless entertainment by simply pressing a button and asking. Now, with the new Fire HD 10, Alexa is available hands-free—when connected to Wi-Fi, simply say the wake word “Alexa” and ask Alexa to control video playback (play, pause, rewind, and fast forward), launch an app, play your favorite song, or read an audiobook aloud. You can also ask Alexa to answer questions, read the news, get traffic and weather reports, set alarms and timers, and more—Alexa provides voice responses paired with visual cards on your Fire tablet’s display, and can even respond when your tablet screen is on standby. Alexa offers access to over 15,000 skills so you can stream music from Pandora, check your flight status with Expedia, or order a pizza from Domino’s. You can also use Alexa hands-free on the new Fire HD 10 to control a range of smart home devices from SmartThings, Insteon, ecobee, Wink, and more. Dim the lights or adjust the thermostat using just your voice. Also, for the first time on a Fire tablet, you can ask Alexa to show you what’s on your smart home security camera with compatible devices from Nest, Ring, and Arlo—new feature coming soon. Because Alexa is cloud-based, it’s always getting smarter; meaning even more Alexa capabilities for Fire tablets will be available in the future. Alexa hands-free will be available on the all-new Fire HD 10 via a free, over-the-air software update. The update will begin rolling out to customers starting October 11. Availability. The all-new Fire HD 10 is available for pre-order beginning today with 32GB or 64GB of storage starting at $149.99 at www.amazon.com/firehd10. Fire HD 10 now comes in three fun color options: Black, Marine Blue and Punch Red, and starts shipping October 11. Protective covers are also available for Fire HD 10 in Black, Marine Blue, Punch Red, and Cobalt Purple, and can stand in both portrait and landscape orientations—only $39.99. About Amazon. Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit www.amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews. Source: Amazon Amazon.com, Inc. Media Hotline Amazon-pr@amazon.com www.amazon.com/pr

ALEXA is now available on Amazon`s FIRE tablets

Endless entertainment is now one press away. Press & ask, and Alexa will respond to you and will even show visual responses to certain questions. Alexa, the cloud-based voice service that is the brain behind Amazon Echo, can play music, launch games, read audiobooks, and more.