Talk:Amazon Alexa

Hi, I'm Daylen

Hi Wikipedians! I'm Daylenca, the creator of this page. This is article one of ten that I am planning to make this August. If you have any questions or comments, please leave a message on my talk page. Also, it would be great to have some help in writing this article.

Please note: Some content on the article has been copied from the Amazon Echo page

Daylen (talk) 20:42, 1 August 2016 (UTC)

Hi Daylen, I added some details about Alexa that I found and rearranged Alexa Prize details to give article more structure. Not sure I can help with the Skills section, but will check the coming days. --W w smith (talk) 19:01, 16 November 2016 (UTC)

Added Amazon Lex service

Hi Daylen, I added the new announced Amazon Lex service as a paragraph to this article. Any suggestions to extend/change? BTW: Would it make sense to review the Amazon Alexa#Skills section and place it as sub-heading 1 under the Amazon Alexa#Alexa Skills Kit? Best --W w smith (talk) 15:45, 1 December 2016 (UTC)

Who Pyaepy (talk) 01:26, 10 June 2020 (UTC)

Change name Pyaepy (talk) 01:27, 10 June 2020 (UTC)

Gender

Why is this device referred to as a "she?" 65.189.101.217 (talk) 23:20, 27 December 2016 (UTC)

Very little mentioned about privacy

I would have thought an entire section regarding privacy concerns would be appropriate.

--Chris Fletcher (talk) 10:08, 9 July 2017 (UTC)

New devices

<<UPDATE>>

Amazon released a bunch of new Alexa devices, so can someone add them to the device list please? Thanks! :-) CrazyMinecart88 01:24, 4 November 2018 (UTC)

About "Privacy Concerns"

In November 2018, Amazon sent 1700 recordings of an American couple to an unrelated European man. The incident proves that Alexa records people without their knowledge.

I think this is misleading. The 1700 records are only of queries to Alexa, and anyone that use Alexa on their phone or an Alexa enabled device know that the queries are saved since you have an history on the Alexa app and you can play the clip Alexa heard.

Reading this, I thought someone had a proof that Echo devices were recording everything even when we didn't call them and that was sent to Amazon. Shywim (talk) 10:50, 8 January 2019 (UTC)

Copyright problem removed

Prior content in this article duplicated one or more previously published sources. The material was copied from: https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/29/amazon-is-testing-a-spanish-language-alexa-experience-in-u-s-ahead-of-a-launch-this-year/. Copied or closely paraphrased material has been rewritten or removed and must not be restored, unless it is duly released under a compatible license. (For more information, please see "using copyrighted works from others" if you are not the copyright holder of this material, or "donating copyrighted materials" if you are.)

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Bilingual mode

Doesn't this device have a bilingual mode like English/Spanish in the U.S. and English/French in Canada? sion8 ^{talk page} 06:18, 10 December 2020 (UTC)

Evolution from Ivona and development in Gdansk, Poland

It appears that Alexa came out of a predecessor Amazon bought named Ivona [1][2] in Poland and that it continues to be developed there [3]. Input about further/better sources and suggestions for proposed content welcome. -Chumchum7 (talk) 15:51, 28 November 2021 (UTC)

According to Alexa's jobs postings ([4]), Alexa is developed pretty much across multiple countries. Amazon made multiple acquisitions for Alexa beyond IVONA (List of mergers and acquisitions by Amazon), and as the PR release referenced in the TechCrunch article said, IVONA is a "text-to-speech technology company", which is only a small part of voice assistant features in my opinion. Disclaimer: I am an Alexa employee and these are all public information. Phy25 (talk) 05:15, 12 February 2022 (UTC)

@Phy25: If you are an Alexa employee then I recommend you read WP:COI and WP:PAID and follow the directions in both. ― Blaze Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 05:23, 12 February 2022 (UTC)

Noted, thanks, I didn't know this before. I hope I have called this out clearly enough, but opinions here are my own. Please use judgement :) Phy25 (talk) 06:49, 12 February 2022 (UTC)

@Phy25: I understand, but if you are being paid at all you must disclose it. Even if you just have a COI you must disclose it. ― Blaze Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 16:47, 12 February 2022 (UTC)

speculation in privacy concerns

A few points made about privacy are unsourced, or speculative conclusions presented as fact.

For example: "During the Chris Watts interrogation/interview video[101] at timestamp 16:15:15, Watts was told by the interrogator, "We know that there's an Alexa in your house, and you know those are trained to record distress", indicating Alexa may send recordings to Amazon if certain frequencies and decibels (that can only be heard during intense arguments or screams) are detected"

Is speculation without evidence or sources for the conclusions drawn. Especially as US police are allowed to lie during an interrogation, there is no evidence for this specific speculation but the quote is being presented as factually accurate 86.19.119.174 (talk) 21:38, 24 January 2023 (UTC)