US technology firm Amazon on Thursday announced a new version of artificial intelligence-based Echo speakers in the price range of Rs 4,499 to Rs 9,999 a unit. The company, at a global virtual event, claimed to have reduced the voice response of Alexa devices by hundreds of milliseconds using new electronic chips.
“Our team really worked very hard to shave off 100s of milliseconds from Alexa response time. They invented a new AZ1 neural edge processor. It is a new silicon module that has been purpose built to run machine learning algorithms on the edge,” Amazon Devices head for India Parag Gupta said.
“We also built new neural speech recognition models that run on Az1. Together they make speech responses faster on Echo Dot,” he said.
The company started pre-booking Echo Dot priced at Rs 4,499, Echo DoT with clock for Rs 5,499 and Echo at Rs 9,999 which will be shipped to customers later this year.
“With the new range of Echo devices, we are making it more natural and convenient for customers to interact with Alexa,” Gupta said.
