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It does show a bit of a lack of imagination that the engineers and product team at Amazon didn't realise the impact of using a human name for something you issu

It does show a bit of a lack of imagination that the engineers and product team at Amazon didn't realise the impact of using a human name for something you issue commands to. If it had to be a human name for whatever reason it would have at least made sense to choose one that's very unusual to minimize the effect. On the other hand, Amazon Alexa is 8 years old, so if you have a 6 year old child called Alexa some of the responsibility has to be on the parents..

crooked-v 5y ago
> so if you have a 6 year old child called Alexa some of the responsibility has to be on the parents Why should parents be expected to predict the future popularity of a major corporation's use of the same name?
- quaintdev 5y ago
  Now no one is going to ever use name Alexa.
  - sam_lowry_ 5y ago
    Pretty much like Adolf.
    - Tempest1981 5y ago
      or Karen, unfortunately
- onion2k 5y ago
  It didn't require any predictive skills. Amazon Alexa was already very popular in 2016. It only required choosing a name that wasn't being used in a product at the time.
tsimionescu 5y ago
I can't even imagine that they 'didn't realize'. They did, obviously, but couldn't care less. Their marketing wanted a human name so that it sounded approachable, so that's what they did.
- extraAccount 5y ago
  Exactly. And I don't think anyone could have predicted that people will complain about it so late. But there are other issues that they probably didn't forsee. People have complained that they are all female as well, but I could see why an engineer would want to mimic Star Trek or didn't think in detail about giving it a gendered name and voice to start with. Other voice assistants aren't as easy to pronounce as Alexa as well; Mycroft, Siri, Ok Google, Bixby.
  - onion2k 5y ago
    Other voice assistants aren't as easy to pronounce as Alexa as well; Mycroft, Siri, Ok Google, Bixby. Those examples tell us that teams making these products do think about the impact of the name they choose if they're willing to accept something less "name like" will still work well, and maybe the Alexa team could have done better.
    - thomasahle 5y ago
      Siri is a common name in Norway and Sweden. Much more common than Alexa.
  - Brian_K_White 5y ago
    So far in this whole thread I still haven't seen anyone mention Cortana, even in a list like yours that included Mycroft! I don't know I just like the image of MS's product being that irrelevant.
    - moonbug 5y ago
      wait, Windows has a voice agent?
unishark 5y ago
Did the engineers have any input in the name? It certainly is surprising to me that kids would care. And then that they would think an AI product is a negative versus a positive or neutral example of the name. I thought bullies were more concerned with physical prowess or complexion or such things. Maybe they should just deal with the bullies themselves rather than blaming 3rd parties for the insults bullies come up with.
- onion2k 5y ago
  Did the engineers have any input in the name? Of course they did. They could have raised it at any point. That would be input. I think your question is really "Did the engineers have any real power over the name?". Obviously the final decision came down to someone who probably wasn't an engineer, but that doesn't mean the engineering team couldn't influence the outcome at all. Engineers can't abdicate all responsibility for the outcomes of their work simply because they don't make the final decision. Everyone on a project is responsible in some way for what happens as a result of it.
  - unishark 5y ago
    We aren't talking about engineers making advertising algorithms then washing their hands of them. It's quite common for engineers to develop a product using some code name, then hand it off to other groups such as marketing who decide what to call it after the fact. The engineers would have no idea whether it will be called "Alexa" or "XJ47B" and may even be long gone by the time it is decided anyway. I think the question as I posed it works just fine. One simply needs a reasonable standard of what it means to have input. By your standard, everyone on earth had input since we all could have personally hounded Jeff Bezos with tweets or thrown ourselves in front of Amazon trucks as they tried to leave the warehouses. But certain employees were responsible for making these specific decisions on behalf of the company and those people may or may not have accepted input from employees. I suspect you already know what process is most likely to be in place at a large company like Amazon.
edwardwatson 5y ago
I'm in the UK and have never met someone called Alexa. Is it really a common name? Perhaps it is in the US, but it's not like Amazon chose a popular human name e.g. Sarah, Ben, etc. Of all things I am suspicious of why they would choose a female name for an assistant.
- zweifuss 5y ago
  Around here it is a not too rare nickname for Alexandra.
- asteroidbelt 5y ago
  > Sarah, Ben Alexa is easy to recognize by software with very low error rate unlike Sarah or Ben. > Of all things I am suspicious of why they would choose a female name for an assistant. For the same reason airport announcements are usually voiced by women. For the same reason satnav is voiced by women. For the same reason language learning tapes are voiced by women. People (both men and women) are more comfortable listening to women. I suspect you suspect it is because of assistant being women stereotype, not it's not that, and no need to look for social injustice everywhere.
- tzs 5y ago
  If they had picked a male name they would have received complaints that it is sending a message that if you need help you should ask a man. They are going to lose on that front no matter which way they go, so likely the best approach is to pick which works best technically. I'd expect that would be a female voice due to less low frequency components, making it easier to get it to sound good on a small speaker.
- walshemj 5y ago
  Mine some times triggers on Alex and has gone off during a wfh call
ElViajero 5y ago
> On the other hand, Amazon Alexa is 8 years old, so if you have a 6 year old child called Alexa some of the responsibility has to be on the parents.. So, your mother's name was Alexandra, you decide to give that name to your daughter. But, no, because Amazon took ownership of that name. There are things that people value when naming their children, that includes usually loved ones. Big corporations are not in the list of things to take into account. If it has to be now we are in a dark place.

crooked-v 5y ago

> so if you have a 6 year old child called Alexa some of the responsibility has to be on the parents Why should parents be expected to predict the future popularity of a major corporation's use of the same name?

quaintdev 5y ago
Now no one is going to ever use name Alexa.
- sam_lowry_ 5y ago
  Pretty much like Adolf.
  - Tempest1981 5y ago
    or Karen, unfortunately
onion2k 5y ago
It didn't require any predictive skills. Amazon Alexa was already very popular in 2016. It only required choosing a name that wasn't being used in a product at the time.

tsimionescu 5y ago

I can't even imagine that they 'didn't realize'. They did, obviously, but couldn't care less. Their marketing wanted a human name so that it sounded approachable, so that's what they did.

extraAccount 5y ago
Exactly. And I don't think anyone could have predicted that people will complain about it so late. But there are other issues that they probably didn't forsee. People have complained that they are all female as well, but I could see why an engineer would want to mimic Star Trek or didn't think in detail about giving it a gendered name and voice to start with. Other voice assistants aren't as easy to pronounce as Alexa as well; Mycroft, Siri, Ok Google, Bixby.
- onion2k 5y ago
  Other voice assistants aren't as easy to pronounce as Alexa as well; Mycroft, Siri, Ok Google, Bixby. Those examples tell us that teams making these products do think about the impact of the name they choose if they're willing to accept something less "name like" will still work well, and maybe the Alexa team could have done better.
  - thomasahle 5y ago
    Siri is a common name in Norway and Sweden. Much more common than Alexa.
- Brian_K_White 5y ago
  So far in this whole thread I still haven't seen anyone mention Cortana, even in a list like yours that included Mycroft! I don't know I just like the image of MS's product being that irrelevant.
  - moonbug 5y ago
    wait, Windows has a voice agent?

unishark 5y ago

Did the engineers have any input in the name? It certainly is surprising to me that kids would care. And then that they would think an AI product is a negative versus a positive or neutral example of the name. I thought bullies were more concerned with physical prowess or complexion or such things. Maybe they should just deal with the bullies themselves rather than blaming 3rd parties for the insults bullies come up with.

onion2k 5y ago
Did the engineers have any input in the name? Of course they did. They could have raised it at any point. That would be input. I think your question is really "Did the engineers have any real power over the name?". Obviously the final decision came down to someone who probably wasn't an engineer, but that doesn't mean the engineering team couldn't influence the outcome at all. Engineers can't abdicate all responsibility for the outcomes of their work simply because they don't make the final decision. Everyone on a project is responsible in some way for what happens as a result of it.
- unishark 5y ago
  We aren't talking about engineers making advertising algorithms then washing their hands of them. It's quite common for engineers to develop a product using some code name, then hand it off to other groups such as marketing who decide what to call it after the fact. The engineers would have no idea whether it will be called "Alexa" or "XJ47B" and may even be long gone by the time it is decided anyway. I think the question as I posed it works just fine. One simply needs a reasonable standard of what it means to have input. By your standard, everyone on earth had input since we all could have personally hounded Jeff Bezos with tweets or thrown ourselves in front of Amazon trucks as they tried to leave the warehouses. But certain employees were responsible for making these specific decisions on behalf of the company and those people may or may not have accepted input from employees. I suspect you already know what process is most likely to be in place at a large company like Amazon.

edwardwatson 5y ago

I'm in the UK and have never met someone called Alexa. Is it really a common name? Perhaps it is in the US, but it's not like Amazon chose a popular human name e.g. Sarah, Ben, etc. Of all things I am suspicious of why they would choose a female name for an assistant.

zweifuss 5y ago
Around here it is a not too rare nickname for Alexandra.
asteroidbelt 5y ago
> Sarah, Ben Alexa is easy to recognize by software with very low error rate unlike Sarah or Ben. > Of all things I am suspicious of why they would choose a female name for an assistant. For the same reason airport announcements are usually voiced by women. For the same reason satnav is voiced by women. For the same reason language learning tapes are voiced by women. People (both men and women) are more comfortable listening to women. I suspect you suspect it is because of assistant being women stereotype, not it's not that, and no need to look for social injustice everywhere.
tzs 5y ago
If they had picked a male name they would have received complaints that it is sending a message that if you need help you should ask a man. They are going to lose on that front no matter which way they go, so likely the best approach is to pick which works best technically. I'd expect that would be a female voice due to less low frequency components, making it easier to get it to sound good on a small speaker.
walshemj 5y ago
Mine some times triggers on Alex and has gone off during a wfh call

ElViajero 5y ago

> On the other hand, Amazon Alexa is 8 years old, so if you have a 6 year old child called Alexa some of the responsibility has to be on the parents.. So, your mother's name was Alexandra, you decide to give that name to your daughter. But, no, because Amazon took ownership of that name. There are things that people value when naming their children, that includes usually loved ones. Big corporations are not in the list of things to take into account. If it has to be now we are in a dark place.