Amazon users in the UK can now try and answer questions that Alexa doesn't know. The US tech company has announced the general availability of Alexa Answers in the UK – a crowd-sourced method of making its Alexa digital assistant more intelligent. The online hub offers users the chance to answer questions that Amazon's smart assistant Alexa didn't know the answer to. Users just need to sign in to their Amazon account at the Alexa Answers webpage and start browsing unanswered questions that they think they can answer. The UK launch will help Alexa get smart on topics specific to the UK, including the Spice Girls and the two-pound coin, Amazon hopes. In return for their knowledge, Alexa Answers users can earn points and get onto leaderboards on the hub.

AI isn't the end-all-be-all when it comes to conversational experiences like Amazon's Alexa. In fact, manual solutions to problems are sometimes superior to automated, AI-driven fixes. That's according to Amazon Alexa AI director of research science Janet Slifka, who spoke during a session today at VentureBeat's Transform 2020 conference. "If someone calls customer service and says something to the effect, 'Alexa doesn't understand me,' in many cases, we can be faster to the customer with a manual fix," Slifka said, describing her team's work in triage. "In some cases, it's almost required when you need words to enter the lexicon. You're probably not going to wait until you rebuilt and deploy a statistical model when a new word gains prominence, like'Brexit.'"

Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri, and Cortana can answer all sorts of questions that pop into users' heads, and they're improving every day. But what happens when a company like Amazon decides to crowdsource answers to fill gaps in its platform's knowledge? The result can range from amusing and perplexing to concerning. Alexa Answers allows any Amazon customer to submit responses to unanswered questions. When the web service launched in general availability a few weeks ago, Amazon gave assurances that submissions would be policed through a combination of automatic and manual review.

Amazon has announced a new program for its Echo smart speakers that will put anyone with an Amazon account in charge of answering search queries. The program, called Alexa Answers, will let users browse a list of unanswered questions like'What is the state snack of Texas?' (an example provided by Amazon's own web page) and submit their response. After the answer is entered into the database, the Echo's voice assistant, Alexa, will start relaying it to other users with the same query and an addendum stating that the data is'according to an Amazon customer.' Amazon is now crowd-sourcing answers to users' search queries through its popular smart-speaker, the Echo (pictured above) Participants will enter their answers -- 300 characters or less -- on a dedicated website where they will then compete with other participants to earn points and badges for'good' responses.' The program was officially launched last year, but was invite-only and included a relatively small pool of customers.

In December, Amazon launched a crowdsourced Q&A platform into beta with the goal of improving Alexa's ability to answer questions. That feature, Alexa Answers, is now live to all. Amazon says the feature was well-received by the early community of invite-only participants, who have since contributed hundreds of thousands of answers that have been shared with Alexa customers millions of times. To differentiate these answers from other Alexa responses, they're attributed to "an Amazon customer." As the company explained at launch, there are thousands of answers that had previously stumped Alexa, like "Where was Barbara Bush buried?," "Who wrote the score for Lord of the Rings?," "What's cork made out of?," and "Where do bats go in the winter?"

A version of Alexa won't tell kids where babies come from or spill the beans about Santa. It also won't explain some things kids might have heard on the news - like what Stormy Daniels does for a living. Amazon updated its voice assistant with a feature that can make Alexa more kid-friendly. Achild holds his Amazon Echo Dot in Kennesaw, Ga. Amazon updated its voice assistant with a feature that can make Alexa more kid-friendly.

If you make a purchase by clicking one of our links, we may earn a small share of the revenue. Our picks and opinions are independent from any business incentives. Amazon just made a surprise move in the ever-intensifying virtual assistant wars by putting Alexa on the iPhone via the Amazon app. It's not the first time a rival assistant has set up shop on the iPhone (Microsoft has a Cortana app for iPhone), but Amazon has an iPhone app that is used by millions! So we decided to put this new version of Alexa to the test against Siri.