Samuel L. Jackson's voice is now available on Alexa devices

[midian182]

In brief: Are you tired of Alexa’s default voice and want something with a bit more authority? Then here’s some good news: you can now change the digital assistant into a version voiced by Samuel L. Jackson.

Amazon announced its Celebrity Voice Program back in September, and it’s now kicked off with the Pulp Fiction actor. If you want to hear Jackson take over Alexa, simply say, "Alexa, introduce me to Samuel L. Jackson." You can also manually download the Skill here. It costs 0.99 cents, but that seems like a small price for listening to Nick Fury all day. Best move fast, though—it goes up to $4.99 following the introductory period.

Jackson, of course, is well-know for using NSFW language in his roles, and you’re able to choose whether he uses expletives when taking over from Alexa.

The system doesn’t rely completely on pre-recorded phrases; instead, it utilizes Amazon’s neural text-to-speech model that imitates Jackson’s voice where needed.

For those who’d like to know more about Jackson, you can ask questions from this list, which include what it was like making Star Wars, how he got his big break, and his favorite vacation spot.

There are some things Jackson can’t do. The celebrity voice feature doesn’t support lists, reminders (“I ain’t reminding you of s**t!” he’ll tell you), skills, or using Alexa to shop for Amazon items.

Alexa isn’t the first digital assistant to use celebrity voices. Google Assistant users can have their AI voiced by John Legend and actress Issa Rae.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/83182-samuel-l-jackson-voice-now-available-alexa-devices.html

 

[stewi0001]

Nothing against Samuel L. Jackson, but I'd rather have characters from Homestar Runner.

 

[Raytrace3D]

Nothing against Samuel L. Jackson, but I'd rather have characters from Homestar Runner.

Alex, do I have new mail?

Strongbad: E-MAIL. E-MAIL.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

Nothing against Samuel L. Jackson, but I'd rather have characters from Homestar Runner.

I totally forgot about Homestar runner! I'm not getting anymore work done today!

 

[captaincranky]

Maybe people should buy two, one with Alexa, and one with Samuel L. Then stuff the two of them in the garage, and let them give one another orders.

One growls, one nags, it's a marriage made in heaven. (Or maybe hell. I suppose it would depend on who you were rooting for).

 

[HofyPC]

I want Homer Simpson or Eric Cartman.

 

[cliffordcooley]

I could get into this Samuel Device. All they need to do now is rename the device.

 

[netman]

Shouldn't it be called Samuela....?!

 

[Unusual Kmc]

Now this is something worth paying for

 

[PEnnn]

I'd buy the x-rated version, should there be one.......

 

[red1776]

And just in time fore Christmas.

 

[ZackL04]

So just canned answers to specific answers?

How hard would it have been to have him speak your reminders and weather?

I was hoping to pay for his voice and sit back and see my wifes reaction to her everyday commands...

 

[ZedRM]

Doesn't matter who's voice they use, digital assistants that have an internet connection will always be an unacceptable security and privacy risk.

No Thank You Amazon!

 

[Markoni35]

Doesn't matter who's voice they use, digital assistants that have an internet connection will always be an unacceptable security and privacy risk.

Exactly so. Just like SmartTVs. They recognize voice commands by sending all your conversations over the internet. In the good old times that would be called "eavesdropping" or just plain "spying".