What you need to know
- Bollywood Star Amitabh Bachchan will be lending his voice to Amazon's Alexa voice assistant in India.
- Amitabh Bachchan is among the most popular actors in India and has a universal appeal.
- Consumers in India will be able to access his voice on Alexa-enabled devices next year.
Amazon's Alexa voice assistant will soon get its first celebrity voice in India. The retail giant has announced that it has partnered with Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan to "create a unique celebrity voice experience."
Puneesh Kumar, Country Leader for Alexa, Amazon India. said in a statement:
Mr Bachchan's voice is truly memorable for any Indian who has grown-up with Bollywood. This combination delivers a perfect pitch to further delight and simplify the lives of our customers.
Consumers in India will be able to ask Alexa for help and get responses to their requests in Amitabh Bachchan's voice sometime next year. However, the unique celebrity voice experience will only be available to customers who purchase the Amitabh Bachchan voice experience.
As per Bloomberg, Amazon will be using neural speech technology to make its Alexa voice assistant sound like Bachchan, without requiring the actor to record every word in his voice. A similar approach was used by Google when it roped in musician John Legend to lend his voice for a celebrity voice cameo for the Google Assistant. Amazon will be using the actor's voice to provide weather updates, motivational quotes, advice, and more.
Amazon Echo Dot (3rd Gen)
The Echo Dot (3rd Gen) is one of Amazon's most popular smart speakers, thanks to its compact size. While it doesn't offer room-filling sound like the more expensive Echo smart speakers, it does give you full Alexa functionality.
