Amazon Vows To Make Alexa Smarter, Kills Off Eavesdropping Bug

Amazon is about to make its Alexa voice assistant smarter. It has also killed off a bug that allowed Echo smart speakers to eavesdrop even when the devices have been switched off. Earlier this week, the head of the Alexa Machine Learning team, Ruhi Sarikaya, wrote a blog post about the e-commerce giant's plan of making Alexa more friction-free. According to Sarikaya, friction refers to any variable that impedes progress toward a goal and Amazon is "obsessively focused" on eliminating friction from the interactions of customers with the physical and digital world. "[We're] focused on making Alexa smarter and more natural to engage with," Sarikaya said.