Chris Infotainment

A Glimpse into Amazon’s Secret Lab Around 1 p.m. local time on the 5th, at Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle, Washington. After stepping off the elevator on the 30th floor of the Day 1 Building and passing through a door marked “restricted area,” a “household” appeared. Refrigerators, TVs, and other appliances, along with furniture including a sofa, were arranged as if someone lived there. This is a laboratory for developing Amazon’s voice assistant “Alexa” and the device “Echo” that integrates it. Amazon first opened this lab, dubbed the “Amazon secret apartment,” to an overseas press corps, and among domestic media, this newspaper was the only one granted access. Alexa, Evolving into a Smarter AI Assistant “Alexa,” embedded in the voice-recognition smart speaker “Echo,” was first released in 2015 as a voice assistant that played music, set alarms, and performed similar functions. At the time, reactions praised it as “a science fiction (SF) film becoming reality,” with a speaker th...

A Glimpse into Amazon’s Secret Apartment Around 1 p.m., local time, on the 5th, at Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle, Washington State. After stepping off the elevator on the 30th floor of the Day One Building and passing through a door marked “Restricted Area,” a “household” space appeared. This large studio-like area was furnished with appliances such as a refrigerator and TV, as well as furniture including a sofa, arranged as if someone actually lived there. Amazon smart speakers “Echo” of various designs were installed throughout the space. Daniel Rausch, Amazon’s vice president of the Alexa and Echo division, who was standing behind the kitchen island, asked the device questions like, “I want to buy a coffee machine. Can you recommend one?” and “Take a photo of the space in front of you and share your thoughts.” This is a laboratory for developing Amazon’s voice assistant “Alexa” and the Echo devices that house it. The residential space was recreated to test the technology in an...