Amazon opens up the voice control technology behind Alexa

Software and app developers can now use the technology that powers Amazon's Alexa assistant to add voice control to their creations. Amazon has opened up the service called "Lex" in what Reuters describes as a move to become the top player in voice-controlled computing. According to Werner Vogels, the e-commerce titan's CTO, Lex could lead to assistants and chatbots that sound friendlier and more human than their predecessors. That means Amazon can make it better and better by continuously feeding it data from people's interactions with Alexa. While the company's Echo sales will likely never match Apple's iPhone sales, Vogels said people use Alexa for various tasks around the house, but they tend to interact with their phones' voice assistants only when they're inside their vehicles.