Do you know our voices are unique just like our fingerprints? That is why there are voice-activated locks developed for maximum security. Artificial intelligence manages to find its place in almost all of our daily use applications. Remember, when Alexa started? A few years back, there were some concerned with their privacy. But, as technological innovations advance, there are people willing to share personal information up to ninety-percent to get better and personalized services. Some of the well-known applications of AI are our GPS systems, Google Home, Alexa, and Siri. We all know how Alexa or Siri works.
How does Alexa work?
Just like us humans, Alexa wakes up to the call of its name. There, the solution to some people’s primary privacy concern is sorted. It doesn’t listen to our private conversations. That being said, do you know Amazon introduced Alexa Lex for anyone to develop their own chatbots? Alexa uses Speech recognition and Natural Language Processing technologies. It sorts through previous data to perform functions as specific as ‘playing sleep music’. That is why one just doesn’t go back to not using Alexa after using it for a while. It just becomes an integral part of life that has been missing.
Why is it necessary?
Just like I said, a virtual assistant can hold that much of a necessity. Simply because, they make our chores easier and better. Who has the time to remember every important date and message? A virtual assistant does not only that. Alexa delivers messages. You can even order a Domino’s pizza using Alexa. It interacts with many home appliances of Philips and other such manufacturers making home automation possible. Amazon developed an oven that works along with Alexa. It is said that Amazon has introduced more than 90,000 functions of Alexa to explore.
The expansion don’t end there. Wolfram Alpha answering engine has tied up with Alexa to provide precise academic answers to questions asked by users. The subjects include history, science, geography, astronomy and so on.
Is that all?
Other than home automation and just merely executing commands, AI finds its uses in other services as well. There are other applications used in the education sector and daily life.
Cognii virtual assistant is an interactive device. It provides answers to education-related queries. Data Mining and Artificial Intelligence are responsible for their automation. Edwin, a by-product of Google Assistant provides personalized courses for English certification exams. Similarly, robot Ani uses AI to build an adaptable platform. The interactive chatbot teaches business English. One can apply for Artificial Intelligence course to know more about it.
How far have the advancements reached?
There could be other applications of AI in voice technology. But, a noble and indispensable innovation is this, the Replika. It is named “the AI companion who cares”. It is built to have meaningful conversations with its users and is meant to be a companion for humans. Similarly, Woebot, an AI-fuelled mental health device is used for cognitive behavioural therapy.
Voice assistants and their evolution
Apple launched Siri on 14th of April, 2011. Before that, IBM created the idea of a speech recognition tool in the 1960’s. It was able to recognize digits and 16 words. With time, the machines have learnt to overcome language barriers such as slangs and acronyms. The role of voice assistants has updated from being a luxury to a necessity. The increased global consumption of smart speakers is an example.
Apart from being a companion or a voice assistant, these devices are engineered with the objective of integrating with other devices too. Brands like Whirlpool, Philips, Delta, LG and Haier support home assistance. Associating well-known and fundamental home appliances benefits both the ends in business. The advantages are: Reduced energy usage, cost cut-down, demand for specific brands, demand for adaptable devices and others. It is believed that the evolution of voice assistants will lead to multi-turn interactions.
With the continued push towards development, Google’s Alexa and Microsoft’s Cortana have expanded their skills in numbers. These devices perform as much as 90,000 commands easily. Google Assistant wants to have continued conversations. A collaboration of Alexa and Cortana is on the way. This improvement will lead to much specific organizational and executional tasks.
Creating more Alexa skills
We can expand the skillset by implementing features such as decision trees. This could have more time by adopting smart choices. These algorithms execute a clear course of action and arrive at clear conclusions. Also, slot collection can be enabled in Alexa by dialog management. This feature can be expanded to adapt to different user needs.
Alexa responds only to its name. We can’t change the wakeup word. This is because, such devices understand simple language better. That is why, in some cases only specific commands work. Features such as entity resolution have aided in understanding complex conversations with the user. Strengthening interaction models can lead to registering human thoughts better.
The future of speech-recognition services
Apart from speech-to-text interfaces, speech recognition can be expanded into translation services. Facebook has upgraded its recognition services with the help of Wit.ai. Wit.ai, a fellow company in Japan, enables robots to perform tasks mimicking humans. Transcription services obtained from this technology can be applied in healthcare, law enforcement, legal and other sectors. Applications such as Dolbey records the electronic medical reports of patients.
Developers, businesses or anyone can make use of software development skills to construct customized skills for specific purposes.
