With this feature, the company wants, among other things, to give users a new opportunity to “record memories” of their deceased relatives, especially given how many loved ones have gone missing due to the Covid-19 pandemic. For example, during the presentation, Amazon Senior Vice President and Alexa Principal Research Associate Rohit Prasad asked Grandma to read The Wizard of Oz in her voice. Alexa confirmed the request with a standard voice and then switched to a new audio system.

How does it work

The system for simulating the human voice, as TechCrunch writes No more than one minute of audio recording required. After analysis, the speaker will be able to imitate the speech features of another person, including the dead.

While AI won’t alleviate the pain of loss, it will help preserve memories,
Rohit Prasad said.

While the technology is still in development, there are no further details about it, but Amazon believes that “the company can achieve a very impressive sound.” It is also unknown when the feature will be available to the public.

More on Alexa:

• Amazon Alexa is a voice assistant integrated into Amazon’s voice device.
• These include Echo (a small fixed speaker for home setup), Echo Dot (miniature version of a speaker with weak speakers), Tap (a portable speaker you can take with you on the go), Fire TV set-top boxes, and others.
• The technology allows you to perform various actions using voice commands. For example, you can ask an assistant to turn on the music and read the news, report the weather or traffic jams, shop or call a taxi. In addition, you can control the system of the “smart” house, turn on and off the lights, appliances, temperature control and more.
• Alexa is always on and listening for the next user command. To activate, simply search for its name.
• The closest analogues are Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant and Microsoft’s much less popular Cortana, which does not work in Ukraine.