Alexa Can Speak in Your Dead Grandmother's Voice. Thanks, We Hate It

In the very near future, Amazon's famed voice assistant, Alexa, may sound quite different from the dutiful (and impersonal) voice you've grown accustomed to since it rolled out in 2014. At least, that's what Rohit Prasad, Amazon's senior vice president and head scientist for Alexa, announced at Amazon's re:MARS conference, a global artificial intelligence (AI) event that Amazon founder and executive chair Jeff Bezos hosted over the summer. With just a one-minute audio sample, the technology could bring a loved one's voice bounding through an Echo device's speakers. Prasad used a short presentation to show the audience how the new speech-synthesizer technology could help us forge lasting memories of our deceased relatives. "Alexa, can grandma finish reading me The Wizard of Oz?" A young boy asked a cute Echo speaker with big Panda eyes.