Jeff Bezos had a strong desire for a voice computer. He’s been saying this publicly since the early days of Amazon, telling anyone who will listen why voice can make interactions with technology easier and more natural. (And to buy stuff from Jeff Bezos.) But when a team at Amazon actually set out to make voice computers a reality, they faced an endless series of tough problems. Ultimately, however, they created two products, the Echo speaker and the Alexa voice assistant, that would help bring a new kind of computer to millions of people.
on this issue of version history, We tell the story of the Echo’s development inside Amazon, its surprise launch and immediate success, and its somewhat complicated life and legacy since then. David Pierce, Hayden Field, and Jennifer Pattison Tuohy discuss all the ways Amazon’s team nailed products like Siri, the devious and clever tests the team ran to see how people would use the device, and why Bezos decided to launch the Echo without any fanfare. Then, the hosts debated whether Alexa and Echo helped start the AI revolution, or missed the mark entirely.
This is the fifth episode of the third season of version history. Here’s how to get every episode and all our other fun stuff as soon as it drops:
If you want to learn more about the history of Alexa and Amazon Echo, here are some links to get you started:
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