How To Set Up Vivint With Alexa

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More likely than not, you've asked a virtual assistant to Google something for you; adjust your music; or add an date to your in-phone calendar. From Apple's Siri to the e'er-handy Google Assistant, these AI helpers are here to lend a (nonexistent) mitt. These days, one of the nigh popular virtual assistants is Amazon's Alexa, which is at present in millions of homes beyond the globe.

When it comes to setting timers and alarms, tapping into your at-habitation security cameras, reordering your Amazon staples or emceeing your workout playlist, Alexa is more than adept. Simply how did this at present-ubiquitous virtual assistant come to be? And, possibly more than pressingly, are smart home features similar Alexa prophylactic?

What Is Amazon's Alexa?

Every bit mentioned before, intelligent virtual assistants — or artificial intelligence (A.I.) administration — are commonplace these days. Using an A.I. system, these assistants, like Siri or Google Assistant, emulate homo interactions and complete tasks for u.s.a.. First introduced in 2022, Alexa is Amazon's foray into the virtual assistant realm. While Apple'southward Siri is known for being in the palm of your paw a la your iPhone, Amazon'due south Alexa — and Alexa Vocalization Services (AVS) — can be found in an abundance of the company's smart tech products, including various iterations of the Amazon Echo also as the Amazon Burn down Telly.

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But the smart habitation functionality doesn't stop with your devices. In fact, Alexa-enabled lite switches, security cameras, speakers, lamps, thermostats, and soundbars are used by millions. So, what tin Alexa exercise to help? The possibilities are (almost) endless, especially considering that the Alexa Skill Kit allows you lot to mold the virtual assistant'southward features to your particular lifestyle needs.

Some of the AI'southward well-nigh popular features include:

Finding recipes
Reading to you
Order takeout
Giving advice
Answering questions
Solving math issues
Translating words
Tracking Amazon packages
Providing news updates
Reading your emails
Calling or messaging contacts, no typing needed
Setting up reminders, timers and alarms
Enabling video cameras for security purposes
Integrating with smart-home tech, including lights, speakers, alarms and more
Shopping (and re-ordering) products online
Accessing music, videos and other content

Who Is the Vocalization of Alexa?

So, why did Amazon call its virtual assistant Alexa? According to the company, it's a tribute to the Library of Alexandria, which, centuries ago, was intended to hold the globe's knowledge. Much like this aboriginal library, Alexa collects information — and learns. An added bonus? The letter "X" isn't all that common in the English linguistic communication, which makes things a little less confusing since saying, "Alexa" actually "wakes up" your virtual assistant.

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Of course, if yous know an Alexa, you tin can alter that "wake word" to something less commonplace. Still, that moniker is what the virtual assistant is known as — and it's the default name. So, is at that place a voice histrion behind Amazon's virtual assistant? Co-ordinate to Alexa's creator, Amazon exec Toni Reid, the virtual banana's voice actually comes from text-to-speech technology. That is, there isn't a real person behind that default Alexa vocalism.

Still, the voice has been coded female — or, in other words, voice that expresses what are typically thought of in western social club as feminine traits. This pick certainly underlines the gender bias that has seeped into A.I. "An algorithm is an opinion expressed in code," Ivana Bartoletti, founder of the networking grouping Women Leading in A.I., told The Guardian. "If it'south mostly men developing the algorithm, then of class the results volition be biased… You're educational activity the machine how to make a decision." All of this to say, intelligent voice administration are doing the non-so-smart matter of continuing to normalize the subservience of women, especially since the bulk of our exchanges with these assistants boils down to commands.

While other virtual assistants, like Siri and Google Banana, allow you to alter the default vox and accents, Amazon has taken things a step further. Recently, the company has employed celebrities, similar Avengers star Samuel 50. Jackson, to lend their voices to the technology. Using a "'neural text-to-speech' engine to mimic celebrities' voices on Alexa-powered devices," Amazon volition "utilise recordings the stars provide every bit the basis for other computer-generated utterances" (via BBC). In other words, if you've ever wanted Jackson to "roast you" or quote Pulp Fiction, that's now a possibility. In the near futurity, Amazon plans to add more than celeb voices to Alexa'southward roster.

Is Amazon'due south Virtual Assistant Safe?

Every bit with any new applied science, Alexa has been met with some mistrust and doubt. (Later all, we all call back Disney Channel'south Smart House, right?) Withal, that hasn't deterred millions from purchasing an Alexa-powered device. In fact, according to NBC News, an impressive "one-quarter of American households now have an Amazon Echo powered by Alexa."

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In 2022, a Portland family raised some serious concerns well-nigh Alexa and their personal security. "My husband and I would joke and say I'd bet these devices are listening to what we're saying," Danielle [redacted] told a local news outlet. But that joke evolved into something much more concerning: During a conversation about hardwood floors, someone in the household uttered something that sounded similar Alexa, the virtual banana's "wake word." Once activated, the device heard the couple say something about sending a message, and so it dutifully recorded their conversation and forwarded it to someone on their contact list. Non optimal. Danielle called the moment "a total privacy invasion," and although information technology was an easily traceable error, it however gave many would-be Echo owners pause.

Reportedly, Alexa isn't recording your conversations to spy on you. Instead, the assistant is recording for curt bursts of time, and so that what yous say is sent back to the Amazon computer system; this data is then used to provide you lot with an respond or help consummate a task. "Amazon says it keeps our recordings to better products, not to sell them," applied science columnist Geoffrey A. Fowler wrote in The Washington Post — a paper owned past Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. "But someday personal information sticks around, information technology's a take a chance."

"Alexa is always getting smarter, which is only possible past training [the virtual assistant] with voice recordings to improve understand requests, provide more than authentic responses, and personalize the customer experience," Beatrice Geoffrin, director of Alexa privacy, said in a statement. But is better customer service actually worth that invasion of privacy — that supposedly encrypted annal of conversations you've had with Alexa?

Alexa and the Future of A.I.

If you've ever wondered what a smart habitation of the future will look like, Alexa has made all of those Infinite Historic period imaginings experience all the more viable, instead of simply some sci-fi pipe dream. In addition to smart televisions, cameras, domicile security systems, soundbars, and lighting, Alexa, and other virtual assistants, is entering the globe of appliances and cars every bit well.

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Take you e'er wanted to speak to your fridge or oven? Alexa will exist able to help with that. Meanwhile, Amazon has besides struck a bargain with major automobile manufacturers, ensuring that it's Each Auto technology will bring all that virtual assistant convenience and functionality on the route. Without a incertitude, Alexa's vocalisation-activated technology is here to stay. And the potential of these virtual assistants will just keep growing.