Raised in a family of engineers in India, Rohit Prasad’s first research task was to find a TV to watch his favorite shows. Star Trek“This was back when television was still a rarity in India,” he said. “But whenever Star Trek It was on, but I managed to find it and plant myself in front of it. Unlike many of his Trekkies, Prasad wasn’t a space nerd keen on exploring new worlds or meeting distant civilizations. He was fascinated by the show’s talking computer. “It’s an omnipotent voice-activated computer that you can request by just saying ‘computer,'” he said. “It inspired me a lot and made me want to create something that would change people’s lives.”
he did Over the past decade, Prasad has helped build Amazon’s conversational AI, Alexa, into the technology that now powers people in millions of homes around the world. Amazon recently announced that in addition to his role as lead scientist, Prasad is also the new leader of the Alexa business. “We have built a solid foundation to achieve our vision of Alexa becoming an indispensable personal assistant, advisor and companion for everyone, everywhere,” he said. “Alexa is one of the world’s most beloved advanced AI applications. doing.”
We recently met with Prasad to hear about his plans for Alexa and his passion for AI.
For many people, talking computers are still science fiction. How do you make it a reality?
i was inspired by Star Trek I always wanted to participate in building such computers. Therefore, I majored in speech processing in graduate school and chose conversational AI as my first job. Our team has been developing Alexa for the last 10 years. Alexa is an essential and trusted AI assistant, advisor, and service designed to be a companion for everyone, everywhere. Today, I feel closer than ever to realizing that dream.
Where is Alexa now?
I still have to pinch myself. Alexa started as an idea on a whiteboard and in less than a decade has turned into an AI service that millions of customers interact with billions of times each week in different languages and cultures around the world. Even in the last year, his interactions with Alexa have increased by more than 30%.
What is behind this growth?
Our work begins and ends with the benefit of our customers. We’ve doubled down on the experience that our customers love the most. For example, when we first launched Alexa, customers could only do a handful of things with the service, including playing music and setting timers and alarms. Today, more than 130,000 skills are available to customers to control their smart home, watch videos and shows, shop, learn about any topic, and more. All this is made possible by Alexa’s AI, he one of the most complex AI systems with over 30 different machine learning systems. A major reason for this growth is not only how well Alexa has become responsive to customer requests, but also how Alexa initiates actions on behalf of customers (what we call proactive assistance). ) is also available.
What are some examples of proactive assistance?
Alexa Hunches and Routines are two great examples of how Alexa revolutionizes everyday convenience. This allows Alexa to proactively anticipate your needs and automate your day. I love my Alexa routine in the morning. When you turn off your wake-up alarm, Alexa automatically turns on his bedside lights, tells you the weather for the day, and starts your NPR Morning His edition. Hunches also gives you peace of mind knowing that if you leave the garage door open, for example, Alexa will tell you and automatically close the door. It’s pretty magical. Over 30% of his Alexa actions in smart home control are now initiated by Alexa.
Another example is in the entertainment area. We recently launched a conversational experience called “What Should I Watch?” Combine Alexa and Fire TV recommendations to turn Alexa into an entertainment expert and help you find the content you love on your Echo Show and Fire TV. Another example is Thursday Night Football in the United States. We launched the ability to ask Alexa for the latest in-game player and team stats without interrupting your live game stream.
What about shopping with Alexa?
Shopping is a great place to see Alexa evolve. Initially, you can add items to your shopping list. Now, Alexa can help you place orders, answer product questions, and receive delivery notifications using just your voice. We also recently announced a new feature (coming soon) called Shop the Look. Leveraging AI breakthroughs in multimodal understanding, you can say things like “Alexa, show me my green yoga pants” and select products on the screen to see fashion, home and beauty products directly on the Echo Show. You can browse. People love shopping with Alexa. His 50% of Alexa customers have made a purchase using their device.
What are your future plans for Alexa? Also, can you tell us about what your team is working on?
Alexa is getting smarter every day, but it’s far from the final frontier. Today, you can use Alexa to do everything from entertainment and information queries, to controlling and automating your smart home, shopping, and more. But Alexa is already far more than a voice assistant. It is also an expert advisor and companion of some. When I let him know that he had the thermostat set to 72 degrees when no one was home, he was proactively advised to conserve energy. Certain customers, especially children and seniors, have a companion-like relationship with Alexa and Alexa’s Kids+, engaging in much longer conversations beyond one-turn requests.
To successfully meet the ever-increasing expectations of Alexa, we need to use something called generalized intelligence. This is when AI can learn multiple tasks and adapt continuously under limited human supervision. Alexa is one of the most fertile proving grounds for advancing generalized intelligence, as well as advancing human-like interaction capabilities beyond voice interaction.
What does this mean?
Communication between people, hopefully with Alexa, includes not only voice, but also facial expressions, hand gestures, body language, and more. So, in addition to advancing Alexa’s voice AI, we’re also investing in multimodal AI to enhance Alexa’s ability to process various sensory signals, including visual, tactile, and ultrasonic, as well as voice. A more natural interaction makes Alexa a better assistant, advisor, and companion. This is characteristic of conversational AI applications like Alexa.
In addition to conversational AI, ambient intelligence is also often mentioned. How does ambient intelligence apply to Alexa?
Ambient intelligence is the science that enables the various devices, sensors, and technologies in your environment to work seamlessly together to help and delight you at all times. This intelligence is there when you need it, even anticipating your needs, but disappears into the background when you don’t. Routines that help Alexa anticipate your needs and automate your day Alexa, with features like and Hunches, is basically what Amazon is doing with ambient intelligence. (See us and read Ambient Intelligence Explainer.)
What is your vision for the future?
I think it’s counterintuitive to hear someone who has made a career in consumer tech and AI, but I don’t think you should think too much about technology. Instead, we should focus on experiences that make your life simpler, not more complicated. , we want to be able to spend more time on the people and things that matter most.
In many ways, Alexa today is already much more powerful than it was Star Trek The computer that inspired me. But as Amazon says, it’s still day one. We have an ambitious vision and are optimistic to continue to delight our customers and provide more value.
