Amazon Alexa
Overview
Alexa is a virtual assistant developed by Amazon, first used in the Amazon Echo and the Amazon Echo Dot smart speakers developed by Amazon Lab126. It is capable of voice interaction, music playback, making to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, playing audiobooks, and providing weather, traffic, sports, and other real-time information, such as news. Alexa can also control several smart devices using itself as a home automation system. Users are able to extend the Alexa capabilities by installing "skills" (additional functionality developed by third-party vendors, in other settings more commonly called apps) such as weather programs and audio features.
Development
The technology behind Alexa was inspired by the computer voice and conversational system on board the Starship Enterprise in science fiction TV series and movies, beginning with Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Alexa and its associated devices became widespread within homes throughout the United States, leading to a significant impact on the smart home industry.
Features
Alexa offers weather reports provided by AccuWeather and news from a variety of sources, including radio stations and the BBC. Alexa supports many subscription-based and free streaming services, including but not limited to Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, and iHeartRadio. Not all services are available in every country. For example, Sirius XM is not available in Canada.
Alexa Skills Kit
The Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) is a collection of self-service APIs and tools that make it fast and easy for developers to create new voice-driven capabilities for Alexa. ASK is a useful tool for independent developers, designers, and brands to create new ways to engage and delight customers with Alexa.
Privacy concerns
In 2019, Amazon reported that Alexa voice recordings are kept indefinitely, and that it employs an international team that transcribes as much as 1% of all Alexa recordings, which are then used to improve Alexa's voice recognition.