Foundering

Amazon Part 2: The Obsessive Secrecy Around Alexa

Mar 10, 2022
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ANECDOTE

Amazon's Secret Acquisition

  • Amazon acquired Yap, a small speech transcription company, in secrecy.
  • Jeff Adams, Yap's CEO, was kept in the dark about Amazon's plans for his technology.
ANECDOTE

Bezos's Vision for Alexa

  • Bezos envisioned a $20 voice-controlled device powered by the cloud after a lunch discussion with Gregg Hart.
  • This device would eventually become Alexa, Amazon's AI virtual assistant.
ANECDOTE

The Far-Field Speech Recognition Challenge

  • The Alexa team, codenamed Doppler, faced the challenge of far-field speech recognition.
  • Gregg Hart encouraged them to solve the problem, despite the technology not existing yet.
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