Amazon speakers have the Alexa assistant built into them

Amazon wants to give customers the option to set Alexa, the company's voice assistant, to sound like their grandmother or someone else.

At the Re:Mars Conference on Wednesday, Amazon SVP Rohit & Middot; Rohit Prasad, the company's chief executive, said the company was working on a system that would allow Alexa to mimic any sound after hearing less than a minute of audio.

Getting artificial intelligence (AI) to talk like a partner has become a development priority, prasad said, especially during the pandemic, when many people have lost their loved ones. "While AI can't take away the pain of losing a loved one, it can definitely keep the memories alive." He said.

In one demo video, a child says, "Alexa, can you get Grandma to finish reading me the Wizard of Oz?" Alexa then confirmed the request with a default mechanical voice, then immediately switched to a softer, more human-like tone that appeared to mimic the child's family members.

Prasad said the feature is currently under development. Amazon declined to say when the feature would be rolled out to the public. While this feature is ostensibly used to replicate any sound, it can help honor deceased family members.

Amazon's goal with Alexa, he said, is to achieve "generalized intelligence," or the ability to adapt to a user's environment and learn new concepts with little external input. The goal, he says, is "not to be confused with the omniscient, omnipotent Super Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)." Alphabet's DeepMind unit and Elon & Middot; OpenAI, co-founded by Elon Musk, is seeking AGI. (Author/Xiao Yu)

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