The potential for Amazon to offer a checking account should frighten most bankers. Not just because of their enormous customer base and their ability to leverage consumer insight for personalization. But because Amazon could be the ultimate open banking power play. Subscribe to The Financial Brand via email for FREE!According to various sources, Amazon is considering partnering with various banks in an effort to offer a "checking-account-like" product for consumers. It has been reported by The Wall Street Journal that Amazon is in early discussions with organizations, including J.P. Morgan Chase, Capital One and others, to launch Amazon-branded checking accounts targeted at younger customers and under served segments.

Amazon is making it easier for developers to add a variety of sound effects to their Alexa skills. The tech giant has launched a library full of built-in audio clips people can use to add -- in Amazon's words -- "unique sounds" to their creations. Of course, by the time most developers are done tweaking their skills to add the audio clips, they'll no longer seem unique. In fact, you should probably probably get used to hearing the same thing again and again. But developers do have quite a wide selection to choose from with 14 categories that include sounds you'd usually hear in cartoons and sci-fi shows, as as well as sounds of nature, humans and animals.

Amazon's latest bid to boost its smart assistant's skill set is centered around kids. Alexa Skills Challenge: Kids wants Alexa tricks aimed at kids under the age of 13, with the best ones claiming cash prizes from a fund of $250,000. The overall winner will claim $25,000, so a farm yard animal noise generator won't cut it. All eligible participants in the challenge will also pick up a limited-edition Echo Dot, and there's dedicated prizes for high school and university student devs. Amazon is looking for educational or fun vocal tricks for its voice assistant profile, having added kids skill functionality back in August.

Amazon's Alexa has become the flag-bearer for AI assistants. Not only does she possess an exhaustive list of useful skills, but she's also started finding new homes in everything from phones to cars, watches, little robots and even refrigerators. There's a reason Amazon's Echo and Echo Dot speakers are particularly suited for ordering Alexa around at home, though. They both feature a fancy far-field, seven-microphone setup and audio processing smarts that help Alexa understand your muffled commands shouted from the downstairs bathroom. Today, Amazon's announced it's releasing this mixture of hardware and software in a new development kit, so other companies can build Alexa prisons that recognize you want to add mixed spices to your shopping list, and not listen to a Spice Girls mix (liar).