If you've spoken to Amazon's Alexa voice assistant through the Alexa app or an Echo device, you may have wondered who the woman is behind the speaker.
We're highlighting some of the technology behind the virtual home assistant.
Who Is the Voice of Alexa?
Do you think that Alexa is voiced by a celebrity or an Amazon employee? You might be surprised to know that the voice of Alexa is not formed from any real person. Rather, Alexa's voice is generated by artificial intelligence.
Alexa's voice was developed using special software that evolved from text-to-speech technology. You've probably used the technology before if you've ever had a computer read a webpage aloud to you or speak a translation. It also powers screen reading tools developed for individuals with vision impairments.
Text-to-speech programs create "rules" that assign certain pre-recorded sounds to different strings of written letters. The software then vocalizes writing by following these rules. Such programs are regularly used by writers, proofreaders, and translators to check their written work.
How Does Alexa Sound So Human?
Most text-to-speech software tends to sound very mechanical or robotic. But Alexa speaks more like a regular person. This is because Amazon has developed its own proprietary text-to-speech program, enhanced with artificial intelligence, to make it sound more lifelike.
This type of process is known as neural-network text-to-speech. Rather than stringing together pre-recorded sounds, neural-network text-to-speech generates sounds from scratch, based on what's been learned from previous program sound clips and rules. Without a limiting set of rules, Alexa sounds more organic (rather than clunky).
This also means that the speaking potential is much larger than most text-to-speech programs, which are limited by how many pre-recorded sound bites they have in their software libraries.
Why Is Alexa's Voice Female?
Theoretically, Amazon could have programmed its text-to-speech program to vocalize in any sort of voice frequency, associated with any gender identity. However, research suggests that consumers prefer female voices in their digital assistants.
These voices are perceived as more sympathetic, helpful, and cordial. According to research, both men and women prefer their digital assistants to have female voices.
Why Is Alexa Named "Alexa"?
The name Alexa does not refer to a specific historical figure or voice actress. Rather, Amazon has said that the name Alexa is a reference to the library of Alexandria that existed in ancient Egypt.
This library was one of the largest and most prominent institutions in the ancient world and housed knowledge from all different civilizations and centuries. Like the library of Alexandria, Amazon hopes Alexa can be a portal to unlimited knowledge.
Learn More about Alexa
Now that you know more about the voice behind your Echo devices, it's time to see all that Alexa can do for you and your household.
Explore the range of features that Alexa can offer, which includes timers, alarms, music, games, as well as tasks like shopping and video conferencing.
