Amazon’s Alexa will soon be able to speak in the voice of a dead relative.
According to CBS News, Amazon announced Wednesday at their annual “re:Mars” conference, that they have added some new updates to their devices, and one for Alexa which will allow her to speak in the voice of a dead relative. The idea is that the feature will help those grieving or missing a loved one.
All Alexa needs is a short recording of someone’s voice and she can learn to mimic it in the new updates, according to CBS News.
In order to get Alexa to speak like a dead relative, Amazon has worked to require only a minute of high-quality audio, said Variety. It’s a way of uniquely preserving the memory of a loved one.
According to Variety, Alexa has been able to mimic celebrities in the past, including Melissa McCarthy and Shaquille O’Neal. To make that work, the celebrities had to record hours and hours of audio.
Senior Vice President and head scientist of Alexa AI at Amazon, Rohit Prasad said, that this new capability will help Alexa to develop companionship and human-like empathy, according to CBS News.
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