Amazon Invests $100 Million In Alexa Voice Development

July 1, 2015 at 1:03 pm By

The Amazon Skill Kit is not the only tool that the online retail giant plans on providing developers. The company is also investing $100 million into the Alexa Voice Development project that invites developers from companies all over to participate in.

“The company will house its investment under the Alexa Fund, named after the cloud-based virtual assistant voice service behind its Amazon Echo ‘smart speaker,'” according to The Var Guy.

“The voice recognition capabilities enable Echo to provide services such as home entertainment, shopping and home automation control.”

The investment is to continue the development of the Alexa Voice Service that is directly associated with Amazon’s Echo. Developers will be able to integrate the AVS technology into any electronic device they choose that uses Wi-Fi. Once they’ve integrated the technology, they are then able to used the ASK to create their own commands.

“Experiences designed around the human voice will fundamentally improve the way people use technology,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and chief executive, according to the report.

“Since introducing Amazon Echo, we’ve heard from developers, manufacturers, and start-ups of all sizes who want to innovate with this new technology,” he continued.

“With the Alexa Fund, we want to empower people to explore the boundaries of voice technology. We’re eager to see what they come up with.”

The $100 million investment will only be distributed based on Amazon’s decisions on whether or not the company has the potential to build innovative apps with Alexa SDK. Amazon said that they will also be paying particular attention to companies developing products for the home, according to the report. Think of these products as voice automated lights, security systems or other products for the home that would be more convenient with a voice automated feature.

“There’s more than money at stake here for companies gaining Amazon’s backing,” says DH Kass of The Var Guy.

“The company said it will also offer early access to SDK capabilities, hands-on development support, additional marketing support on Amazon.com, placement at Amazon showcase events and membership in AWS Activate.”

So far Amazon has invested in a few companies like Garageio, a garage door monitoring system. However, Amazon seems to be open to even more innovative ideas that have yet to cross their path.

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