[97553] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Great-News: You have Just-Earned an Amazon-Prime Reward! Simply complete a short-survey
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (AmazonRewards)
Mon May 1 10:25:18 2017
Date: Mon, 1 May 2017 10:16:32 -0400
From: AmazonRewards <amazonrewards@yourbonusrewardsspecials.com>
To: <mit-talk-mtg@charon.mit.edu>
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<td bgcolor=3D"#FFFF00"><p style=3D"color:#000000; font-size:21px;=
font-weight:bolder; text-align: center; ">Amazon-Rewards</p></td>=20
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<a href=3D"http://www.yourbonusrewardsspecials.com/destroyer-socializing/c9cH8W6V4m8BcJ112tftUuUKxwufUrFMsKkhgzftUzONV61d"><img src=3D"http://www.yourbonusrewardsspecials.com/8457amRW48Tfu112CftUuUKxwufUrFMsKkhgzftUzONVf40/dimmers-bijectively" width=3D"395" height=
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</center><p></p> <p>Great News! You have just been-selected to take p=
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</center><p></p> <p><a href=3D"http://www.yourbonusrewardsspecials.com/destroyer-socializing/c9cH8W6V4m8BcJ112tftUuUKxwufUrFMsKkhgzftUzONV61d">Visit Here to Get-Started<=
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<td style=3D"font-size:10px; font-family:Cambria, 'Hoefler Text', 'Lib=
eration Serif', Times, 'Times New Roman', serif">These rewardads-can be.hal=
ted by <a href=3D"http://www.yourbonusrewardsspecials.com/c0586VV4V8mdHg112yftUuUKxwufUrFMsKkhgzftUzONV659/Francoise-ascetics">going-here</a>.<br /> PO Box.No.971_Reno, NV#=
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eration Serif', Times, 'Times New Roman', serif"> </td>=20
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<td style=3D"font-size: 11px">Or you can.halt these-bonusads-right <a =
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<p>The Amazon Echo is an unlikely hit. After all, the world's larges=
t online retailer hasn't always won its bets on hardware. (RIP, Fire Phone.=
) And a gadget that relies solely on voice? Let's just say Siri hasn't insp=
ired confidence. Yet Amazon has by one estimate sold some 3 million of the =
squat cylinders since the Echo launched in November, 2014. The company does=
n't share sales data, but it did say Alexa, the voice-activated software th=
at powers Echo, is active in millions of places, including smartphone apps =
and other Amazon gadgets. And this month the Echo surpassed more than 1,000=
â??skills,â?=9D or apps, after the company opened up the softw=
are developer kit last spring. This third-party enthusiasm could create a v=
irtuous cycle where the more Echo does, the more it sells, just like the iP=
hone after Apple opened the App Store. Right now, tech's biggest companies =
are all working on creating products and services that, like Alexa, aren't =
tethered to one single device. For Facebook, it's Messenger. For Apple, it'=
s Siri. Google has Allo for messaging, and the speaker Home, which is suspi=
ciously reminiscent of the Echo. Each company is creating its version of th=
e post-hardware, post-app future. But Amazon has an advantage. Not only has=
the Echo been on sale for 19 months, helping Amazon build on what the Echo=
can do and what it can understand, but the company also has the massive Am=
azon Web Services cloud infrastructure, which underpins everyone from Netfl=
ix to the CIA.. â??The great thing about Alexa is it's based in the c=
loud, so we can improve it every minute,â?=9D says Dave Limp, Amazon'=
s head of devices. â??Alexa is constantly getting smarter.â?=9D=
Trying to Understand</p>=20
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The Echo runs only a small amount of code on the device itself&a=
circ;??just enough to listen for the â??Alexaâ?=9D that wakes i=
t up. But even that isn't simpleâ??â??far-field recognition&aci=
rc;?=9D isolates the sound of your voice, a trick that depends upon machine=
learning and deep neural networks to distinguish that word from all the ot=
hers. Once Alexa â??hearsâ?=9D it, the Echo streams everything =
you say to Amazon's cloud.=20
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There, Alexa transforms your speech into text that the system at=
tempts to decipher using natural language processing, an AI discipline that=
parses grammar and syntax. Alexa tries its best to understand, and then pi=
ngs the right database to retrieve the relevant info. It will send â?=
?How tall is the Golden Gate Bridge?â?=9D to a knowledge database lik=
e Wikipedia and â??Alexa, play me some Coldplayâ?=9D into its v=
ast jukebox. â??Alexa, read me Moby Dickâ?=9D draws on Amazon's=
own trove of data on books. Finally, Alexa sends the response to your devi=
ce, where a voice refined by still more machine learning reads it back to y=
ou. Amazon wants all this to happen in two seconds or less, Limp says. Skil=
led Labor
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As much as Limp resists comparing the Echo to a smartphone, he s=
truggles to explain how it works without falling back on that metaphor. It'=
s difficult to compare the device to any other user interface, he argues. A=
fter all, how many other mass market digital devices don't have a screen? &=
acirc;??An Alexa â??skill' is how the Echo extends itself, the way yo=
ur smartphone extends itself through apps,â?=9D Limp says. But to run=
an app, you must download it, install it, and launch it. Skills run entire=
ly in the cloudâ??and don't take up memory on the device. â??If=
you really have an appetite, you could enable a thousand skills,â?=
=9D says Limp. Of course, without a screen, you have to remember them all. =
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Alexa also uses AWS Lambda, which Amazon markets as a way to run=
code in the cloud without individual servers. â??What we externalize=
for other developers, we also use in our internal teams, because it works =
so well,â?=9D Limp says. More than 1,000 people at Amazon are now wor=
king on Alexa around the world. The Future of Internet Services It's an int=
eresting play: Make hands-free and screen-free the future of the Internet. =
â??No one's saying this is absolutely the way the world is going to e=
volve, but it feels very natural,â?=9D says Sameer Ghandi of the vent=
ure capital firm Accel. He expects tasks like finding movies, booking reser=
vations, and retrieving basic information to catch on quickly. More complic=
ated tasks like shopping (say, for clothes, not consumables) will take long=
er. Of course, app-less services will be limited by what the AI behind them=
can understand. Whether queries come by text, as in Messenger, or voice, a=
s with Siri, doesn't matter as much as the process of trying to understand =
that request. â??Certain questions involve much deeper levels of infe=
rence than simple ones, like finding information or looking things up,&acir=
c;?=9D says Noah Smith, a University of Washington computer scientist worki=
ng on natural language processing. Asking Alexa, â??How long would it=
take to fly to Mumbai?â?=9D is one thing,â?=9D Smith says. &ac=
irc;??It's something else entirely to ask, â??I don't have a car righ=
t now, but I'm in a town where I can rent oneâ??is that a better opti=
on than trying to take public transportation?â?=9D
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