As a way of making your Amazon Echo more complex and layered than what it currently is, Amazon is planning on releasing an update that will give Alexa the ability to have a memory. That means the artificial intelligence (AI) will be able to remember shopping lists, birthdays and other important events that you don’t want to forget.
Amazon released a statement explaining that they’re giving these abilities to Alexa as a way of enabling more natural interactions with the AI while also eliminating friction, which they describe as something that prevents you from achieving your desired goal. This new feature will make Alexa more personalized and different than all of the other Echos in the world.
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According to Mashable, this memory ability is similar to a reminder, but the difference is that the information is stored indefinitely in the device and could potentially make communicating with it much easier and less, for lack of a better word, robotic.
Amazon claims that they have a lot of plans for Alexa, where the AI will grow and so will human-robot interactions. Alexa’s memory is one of many features that Amazon plans on releasing this year, including other ways of improving the AI’s communication abilities, such as understanding context and having the ability to respond to follow-up questions. For example, instead of calling Alexa’s name 20 times to get its attention, you could just ask, “Alexa, what’s the weather?” and follow up with “How about next week?”
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While these improvements sound like little things, they are important building blocks that are paving the way to the future of AI. In a couple of years, you may find yourself having a meaningful conversation with Alexa instead of just listening to its weather updates.
