{"id":50048,"date":"2017-11-01T06:25:17","date_gmt":"2017-11-01T06:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=50048"},"modified":"2017-11-01T06:25:17","modified_gmt":"2017-11-01T06:25:17","slug":"amazon-teaches-alexa-to-speak-hinglish-apple-set-to-follow-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/technology\/amazon-teaches-alexa-to-speak-hinglish-apple-set-to-follow-suit.html","title":{"rendered":"Amazon teaches Alexa to speak Hinglish, Apple set to follow suit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amazon teaches Alexa to speak Hinglish, Apple set to follow suit<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Amazon teaches Alexa to speak Hinglish, Apple set to follow suit:- Amazon.com Inc. is starting to learn Hinglish. The US-based e-commerce company is beginning to ship Echo speakers in India this week, about a year after bringing them to foreign markets like the UK and Germany. In that time, teams of linguists, speech scientists, developers and engineers have given a decidedly local makeover to the Alexa virtual assistant that powers the speakers.<\/span><\/p>\n

This Alexa uses a blend of Hindi and English and speaks with an unmistakably Indian accent. She knows Independence Day is 15 August, not 4 July, and wishes listeners \u201cHappy Diwali and a prosperous New Year!\u201d She also refers to the living room as \u201cdrawing room\u201d and can add jeera (cumin), haldi (turmeric) and atta (flour) to your shopping list. Then there are her cricket jokes. (Don\u2019t ask.)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted our devices to talk, walk and feel Indian,\u201d said Parag Gupta, head of product management for Amazon Devices in India. \u201cAlexa is not a visiting American, she has a very Indian personality.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAmazon isn\u2019t alone. Technology giants from Apple Inc. to Google are targeting this nation of 1.3 billion people by training virtual assistants in the heterogeneity of its languages and subcultures. Though many people understand American or British English, they\u2019re more comfortable with assistants who sound more like them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hinglish borrows parts of both languages, including the grammar. In some cases words are fused together to mean something different. The key is for the digital assistant to understand a sentence using a mixture of both, yet grasp what they mean and their context.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hinglish is particularly important as technology spreads beyond major cities to India\u2019s hinterland, where declining prices are fuelling adoption of smartphones and the internet. Many users are first-generation literates obsessed with Bollywood movies and cricket games who are just starting to use digital payments, e-commerce and social networks. Flawless English just won\u2019t cut it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\u201cGlobal firms realize that India has several populations, each the size of entire countries in Europe, that can\u2019t be cracked open with American English,\u201d said Ravi Gururaj, a Bengaluru-based entrepreneur and co-founder of Harvard Angels India. \u201cThey have to adapt with Hinglish.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Alphabet Inc. has introduced a Hinglish-speaking Google Assistant that powers its instant messaging app Allo.<\/span><\/p>\n

Apple began advertising last year to hire native Hindi\/Indian English speakers to help evolve and enrich Siri by crafting \u201cculturally appropriate dialog for India\u201d. And the latest operating system pre-loaded into this year\u2019s iPhone 8, as well as the newest iPhone X, allows Siri users to set its keyboard to Hinglish.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tim Cook, Apple\u2019s chief executive officer, told an Indian newspaper that his company is thinking through \u201cevery single way\u201d to make the Siri experience better for Indian consumers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cVoice-based interfaces are fast emerging and given that Amazon, Apple, Google and others are using them to increase reach and convenience, Hinglish is the way to achieve that,\u201d said M.S. Krishnan, professor of technology and operations at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. \u201cIt is a trend.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Amazon is sparing no expense. CEO Jeff Bezos has pledged to invest $5 billion in India as he battles local rival Flipkart Online Services Pvt. for supremacy in e-commerce, with part of the money going into thousands of hours of work to conquer the language barrier. The accent has been an \u201cincredibly hard skill to develop,\u201d said Amazon\u2019s Gupta.<\/span><\/p>\n

Amazon incorporated Indian intonations, pauses and even local humor in its Echo devices. Alexa responds to Hinglish questions such as \u201cWhat is your good name?\u201d and fields a query of \u201cAlexa, should I carry an umbrella today?\u201d by instantly providing the weather forecast. The voice assistant can fetch music from the Bollywood blockbuster film Dil Chahta Hai and recount stories from the ancient Panchatantra children\u2019s fables.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want local customers to have to change their behavior to use our devices,\u201d Gupta said. \u201cWe want to learn and get better over time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For the Indian market, Amazon has slashed 30% off the price tag of its devices.<\/span><\/p>\n

Amazon has also worked with third-party developers who have built more than 10,000 extensions for Alexa\u2014from summoning cabs through Ola to recommending Deepika Padukone movies to finding the perfect recipe for Hyderabad biryani. For contrast, Amazon began selling Echo devices in the US three years ago with a mere 13 skills.<\/span><\/p>\n

Local knowledge is only growing more important. A Google KPMG report from April said the country\u2019s 234 million Indian language users have already overtaken its 175 English internet users, and a large chunk of these prefer to speak rather than type. The study projects the Indian language user base will grow to 534 million in the next four years and Hindi-speaking users alone will overtake English speakers on the internet.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf a virtual assistant sounds local, natural and personal, users will gravitate toward it giving companies the competitive edge,\u201d said Gururaj, the technology investor. \u201cSounding like an American robot or chatbot can never work. It will be lost in translation.\u201d Bloomberg.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0http:\/\/deathrattlesports.com\/amazon-teaches-alexa-to-speak-hinglish-apple-set-to-follow-suit\/138980<\/span><\/p>\n

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