Amazon is devising a way for users to speak to their family members through its Alexa voice assistant, even after they’ve died.
At Amazon’s Re:Mars conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Rohit Prasad, senior vice president and head scientist for the Alexa team, detailed a feature that allows the voice assistant to replicate a specific human voice.
In a demonstration video, a child said, “Alexa, can Grandma finish reading me the Wizard of Oz?”
Alexa confirmed the request with the default, robotic voice, then immediately switched to a softer, more humanlike tone, seemingly mimicking the child’s family member.
