Alexa adds support for Hindi, India's most widely used language

September 18th

Amazon Echo device (Andres Urena/Pexels)

Alexa can now converse with users in Hindi, culminating a yearlong push to support India's most popular language across Amazon's platform. Previously, Amazon added Alexa support for Hinglish, a colloquial mix of Hindi and English. The company also added Hindi text to amazon.com and its app last year.

Hindi, the most widely spoken language in India, is the fourth most spoken language in the world.

Amazon also said that Alexa-enabled devices will soon support multi-lingual interactions, meaning that users can switch between Hindi and English when talking to Alexa in the near future.

The way Indian users interact with Alexa may differ from customers elsewhere, which could strengthen Alexa's ability to understand questions posed in unconventional ways. Rohit Prasad, Amazon's VP of Alexa AI, said the following at a press conference today:

A lot of how people in India engage with their smartphones and internet services is different from those in the United States. For instance, in India, people often search the name of an actor instead of the singer or the band when they are looking for a particular song

Amazon Alexa

Alexa is embedded in more devices than any other AI assistant, from kitchen appliances to cars, security cameras and jewlery. She also plays multiple roles. At times a home automator, Alexa can also be a point-of-contact with police and an audio playmate for children. She may also soon speak with others on your behalf, according to announcements from Amazon's latest hardware event. Follow news on Alexa here. Read more →

Alexa pushes deeper into ambient computing with new wearables and a long-distance wireless network

September 26th

At its annual hardware event, Amazon announced an array of new devices, appliances, and features for its Alexa AI assistant.

Now anyone can join Amazon's Q&A community to write answers for Alexa

September 13th

The crowdsourced site Alexa Answers was previously invite-only.

Amazon adds option allowing users to disable human reviews of their Alexa recordings

August 2nd

The move comes after Bloomberg discovered in April the company uses contractors and employees to review audio clips recorded by Alexa

Sections

Surveillance and Privacy

August 16th

AI-enabled technologies produce and rely on vast troves of personal data, most of which is unregulated and vulnerable to theft and misuse.

These technologies include:

Facial recognition: It helps users unlock their smartphones. It also helps police in China track criminal suspects and monitor members of the Uyghur ethnic minority.
Personalization: It helps consumers make necessary purchases and discover entertainment, but also encourages developers to collect personal data from increasingly far-flung sources.
Voice assistants: They help users answer questions, create calendar events, and set alarms. They also record audio accidentally, and until recently relied on human reviewers to listen to private audio to improve their responses.
Smart home products: Similar to voice assistants, these products allow users to remotely operate appliances, set temperatures and access security footage. They also collect a vast amount of private information about the home life of their users.

Go deeper →

Sign up

Diagram is written, run and developed by me, Blake Hunsicker. Diagram is designed to help you explore the news and catch up on what you want to know.

I have a lot of new features in the works. For occasional updates, consider sharing your email below.