Microsoft demonstrates the consolidation of Alexa and Cortana

Microsoft demonstrates the consolidation of Alexa and Cortana. Two of the war's leading fighters were involved in what may turn out to be an important moment, Amazon and Microsoft, in a battle waged by tech giants who want their artificial intelligence assistants in all kinds of electronics - joined forces? Hey? Later this year, Alexa will be available on Windows 10 PCs and Cortana will be available on Amazon's most popular Alexa-enabled devices like the Echo, Echo Dot, and Echo Show.

To be clear, this is not a merger of the two AI assistants. It is an integration that grants guest access. By saying "Cortana, open Alexa," you can start over 18,000 Alexa skills or buy food, and you can check your email by saying "Alexa, open Cortana." According to the New York Times, the two companies have been working behind the scenes on the partnership since May 2016. This suggests that they may initiate further integration and cross-pollination in the future.

This upcoming integration, and the challenge it presents to competitors like Google, Apple, and Samsung, is the AI ​​assistant landscape and what consumers can expect from AI-powered devices. We still don't know to what extent Microsoft and Amazon will work together on this, or how competitors will respond to calls for differences made by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, but here are some potential risks. And the prizes present are the deal.

Both Cortana and Alexa will soon be available on tens of millions of devices. The biggest payoff may be the simple fact that the deal brings the leader in smart speaker sales to the leader in PC AI assistants. This spring, Windows 10 with Cortana was installed on more than 500 million devices. Meanwhile, Amazon had the most popular smart speaker, although the company does not share sales figures. By comparison, in the same time period, Google Assistant was on 100 million devices and Apple's Siri was on 375 million devices.

Amazon has said that "millions" of Alexa devices were sold last holiday season and the most popular item sold on Prime Day last month was the Echo Dot. Voice analytics company VoiceLabs estimates that Amazon will sell about 25 million Alexa-enabled devices in 2017, while this spring the electronics market predicted that Amazon would account for about 70 percent of all smart speaker sales in the US. Providing Alexa and Cortana together could be a potential selling point for both the Echo Smart Speaker and Windows PCs.

If you already have a Windows PC and an Alexa smart speaker, it's probably not all that important to you, but it has the potential to change the way millions of people interact with AI assistants. As Amazon and Microsoft work with businesses or provide digital services through their artificial intelligence assistants, the partners know they can potentially perform tens of millions of tricks on their millions of additional devices, making Amazon or Microsoft their rivals. You can create more incentives to work compared to.

As Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement, "There will be many successful smart agents, each with access to different data sets and different specialized skill areas." Together, your strengths will complement each other and provide customers with a richer and even more fruitful experience. The deep integration of the two bots can allow Microsoft and Amazon to focus on their strengths and core businesses.

Both attendees can do a lot today, from telling jokes and calendar events to shopping with your voice, but if they decide to do so, they can stop being generalists. Microsoft can dig into areas like email, help with business and business services, and the kinds of things you're most likely to do on a personal computer. And Amazon may be better off buying and growing its ecosystem of third-party voice apps.

You can imagine Cortana will soon deliver meeting summaries and emails or enter the workplace in general, while Alexa can serve as the voice of the Whole Foods shopping assistant in the store or of the personal or delivery drone. Prior to the launch of the Alexa Startup Accelerator earlier this year, Managing Director Avil Ginzburg said he wanted to make Seattle a "city of voice," an area that attracts leading minds in the field and is awesome or practical. Looking for startups to create valuable experiences.

Right now, Amazon and Microsoft are only talking about working together by having Cortana and Alexa be guests of each other, but if the two companies decide to partner on some of their initiatives, so $ 100 million of Alexa funding or As the Alexa Accelerator to support the development of voice computing, Microsoft and Amazon can make Seattle the hub of interactive computing.

Amazon and Microsoft have shown an outside interest in bots that can hold conversations, not to engage in interesting SaaS integration or to tell jokes. Amazon has initiatives like Alexa Rewards, which entice developers to create friendlier bots, and while it's not much like a Herz Johansen Inn, you can test bots that say "Alexa, let's chat" for 20 minutes. Let's try to keep the conversation going. Meanwhile, Microsoft has built its own communication bots, including Zo, Tay, and Xiaoice.

The two assistants already have a synergy, although it seems a bit one-sided. When you ask your Amazon device "Alexa", do you know Cortana? "You certainly respond with a statement like" We've been hanging out lately. "But when you ask Cortana," Hi Cortana, do you know Alexa? "Responds," I don't know Alexa, but I've heard of Alexa. If you have Alexa, I would have just turned it on. If so, forgive Alexa. "To which your Echo response may be," Don't worry. "

If the two together formed AI assistants, who are powerful and gossipy, they could decide constitutional progress not by innovation but by results. Microsoft insists that interactive bots maintain higher levels of engagement than bots that only respond to voice commands, and more than 90 percent of Alexa skills attract visitors who return after their first week of activity. Failing at This lack of commitment may be why Amazon has just started paying Alexa developers which makes the skill more attractive.

Apple and Google have yet to say whether they would consider an equal partnership. But when your two biggest competitors form the team, you have to respond in some way. Anyone who likes voice-powered AI assistants should be excited to see how rivals Alexa and Cortana respond, not just available today, but coming soon. For example, Facebook is reportedly working on a smart speaker and video chat device that could rival Amazon's Echo program.

All of this is good news for end users as it shows how the Intelligent Assistance giants will continue to advance while defining the capabilities of popular assistants. Amazon and Microsoft compete directly with Google, Apple, Facebook and Samsung, with each having the largest funding for continuous improvement, Dan Miller of Opus Research, an artificial intelligence assistant analytics and commerce writing firm.

You have written Without limiting your access to the broader world of social information, services and graphics, you have set an example to choose your preferred interfaces that are important to your lives. Has Microsoft formed such a partnership to date, or has Microsoft increased the ability to deal with companies like Walmart, as Google Assistant did a few weeks ago?

We do not yet know to what extent this partnership will shape the company's business. Speaking of voice apps, Amazon has a big head at Microsoft. Now it has more than 18,000. On the other hand, Microsoft has not released any official data on the growth of Cortana's third-party ecosystem. Why bother with Cortana's skills when Alexa's skills are too readily available in the store?

There is not as much risk as a result. The Harman Kardon Invoke smart speaker was first introduced with Cortana. The Harman speaker may be expected to arrive in the coming weeks and the Alexa-Microsoft partnership won't start until the end of the year, but today the news ensures that anyone considering buying an Invoke Smart will buy the speaker instead. an Echo device. Consumers' motivation to buy any smart speaker powered by Cortana can be leveraged with this deal.

Depending on who you are, you can think of it as a good or a bad thing. I go with the bad. JLo and Ben Affleck become benifers and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are known as Brangelina, AI assistants can have bad pet names too. The association was reported hours before MSPowerUser began referring to the couple as AlexaTana.

Of course, it's not the end of the world if your device gets a silly pet name like a celebrity couple, but Alexa and Cortana are a marketing ploy for tech companies and their proprietary services as they are personal assistants. Hey? Muddling the waters around that name probably doesn't require either of these companies. This partnership seems both unique as a challenge for Google and Apple to bring together AI assistants.

A support for the experience, and a challenge for two companies that have missed the mobile revolution. The Cortana and Alexa apps are available on iOS and Android phones, but the idea of ​​interoperability between AI assistants is new on this scale. There is not enough information yet on how this partnership will or will not extend beyond guest access, but it turns out that it is nonetheless a deal that will definitely change our thinking, which an AI assistant can do. Can.

The original version of this article stated that the Alexa fund is worth $ 150 million, although the funding for the seed of the Alexa ecosystem and the advancement of voice computing is actually $ 100 million. Microsoft Shows Consolidation of Alexa and Cortana: Microsoft announced its consolidation of Alexa and Cortana a year ago, and the partnership is reviving one today.

Despite falling behind both Google Assistant and Alexa, Microsoft's Cortana will access and consolidate the right side of Amazon's modernization. Today at Microsoft's build montage, the item maker showed Cortana running on Alexa and in a different way. Joining only works by calling Cortana with the title "Alexa, Open Cortana".

You will then have the ability to "send an email" to a clear person, such as a follow-up request or asking for directions that you won't be able to do with Alexa alone. Similarly, you can choose Alexa within the Cortana interface in Windows 10 and get the capabilities provided by Alexa. Microsoft and Amazon now use this combination, and the partnership currently has limited beta testing in progress.

Neither organization is adequately focusing on when end customers will have the ability to participate, as Microsoft agreed on a site to accept more information when the combination of Alexa and Cortana went live anyway. It is forced Microsoft presents the Alexa and Cortana mixes Microsoft issued its Alexa and Cortana mixes a year ago, and the association is giving an animation today.

Despite falling behind Google Assistant and Alexa, Microsoft's Cortana will long partner with Amazon's motorized partner. Today at Microsoft's construction meeting, the cheesemaker showed Cortana on Alexa and in an alternate way. The mix basically works by calling Cortana "Alexa, Open Cortana". You will then have the ability to "send an email" to an urgent person, such as a follow-up demand or application course that you couldn't do regularly with Alexa alone.

Similarly, you can choose Alexa within the Cortana interface in Windows 10 and get the adaptations that Alexa provides. Microsoft and Amazon have been grappling with this union until now, and the partnership is currently running a restricted beta test. Neither association focuses precisely on when end customers will be able to connect to it, in any case Microsoft will push a site to agree to recognize more data when Alexa and Cortana go live.