Google Assistant to Help Fix Boilers, Amazon’s Alexa to Launch Interactive Audio Original, and More
This week in Conversational AI
Google Assistant to become a virtual boiler handyman
Now there exists a voice app for Google Assistant designed to help people maintain and fix their boilers this winter. The app, created by United Kingdom utility service British Gas is meant to become an alternative for calling out a repairman, especially as increased demand when the weather is cold leads to longer wait times.
Smart speaker owners think personalization gets “too personal”
According to the new American Trends Panel survey held by the Pew Research Center, 54% of smart speaker owners are cautious about sharing the personal information needed for the AI to learn and don’t want their voice assistant’s personalization ability to improve. In June 2019, the ATP collected data from around 4,300 people in the U.S. — more than half of them (equivalent to 13% of adults in the country) are concerned about how much data their smart speaker is collecting.
Amazon enables in-skill purchasing in Europe
Amazon announced the general availability of In-Skill Purchasing (ISP) for Alexa skills published in France, Italy, and Spain. Now skill developers can earn money by offering premium content in their Alexa skills published in those countries. According to Amazon, “ISP currently supports one-time purchases for entitlements that unlock access to features or content in your skill, subscriptions that offer access to premium features or content for a while, and consumables, which can be purchased, depleted and purchased again.”
Amazon Alexa to launch the first interactive audio series
According to Variety, a new serialized young adult adventure series “Tala’s World” is coming to Alexa-powered smart speakers. Produced by audio startup Xandra, and licensed exclusively by Amazon, the show consists of seven episodes and listeners can experience an audio adventure where they need to collect clues, interview suspects, and solve a crime.
