Amazon Launches Care Hub, and Alexa Starts Asking Follow-Up Questions The virtual assistant is now capable of predicting what your goals are.

By Stephanie Mlot

entrepreneur daily

This story originally appeared on PCMag

Amazon via PC Mag

Christmas has come early for Amazon Alexa users. The virtual assistant's latest update means it can better predict customers' goals and help make remote caregiving easier.

Ideally, interacting with Alexa would be "as natural as interacting with another human being," according to Amazon, which previously integrated sophisticated conversational experiences into the AI.

Predicting Goals

Well on its way to reaching the Holy Grail, Amazon this week introduced a skill that lets Alexa infer customers "latent goals" — requests you didn't even know you wanted to make.

For instance, ask how long it takes to steep tea, and the latent goal could be setting a timer for steeping a cup of tea. Alexa might suggest, "Five minutes is a good place to start," then follow up by asking if you want to set a five-minute timer.

"Transitions like this appear simple," Amazon AI scientists Anjishnu Kumar and Anand Rathi wrote in a blog post. "But under the hood a number of sophisticated algorithms are running to detect latent goals, formulate them into actions that frequently span different skills and surface them to customers in a way that doesn't feel disruptive."

Obviously, not all conversations come with a latent goal; asking Alexa for "recipes for chicken" does not require a follow up to play chicken sounds (as one initial prototype incorrectly assumed). That responsibility is left up to a deep learning-based trigger model, which factors in various aspects of dialogue context, including whether the user has engaged with multi-skill suggestions in the past.

The function — currently available in English in the U.S. — improves with use; regularly ask about the daily weather forecast, and Alexa could one day automatically offer advice about an umbrella or sunscreen.

Related: Everything You Can Do With Amazon Alexa

When you live alone, plants and smart assistants are often your closest companions, especially during a pandemic that's forcing families to support aging loved ones from afar. Which is why Amazon launched Care Hub: a set of features designed to simplify remote caregiving.

Your family member or friend will need an Echo or Alexa-enabled device; you can connect via the Alexa mobile app to access alerts, activity feed, and two-way calling. Security measures limit what folks can see, so while you may notice your parents used Alexa for entertainment, you won't know what song or podcast they listened to, or what command they used.

Perhaps most importantly, Care Hub also serves as an emergency contact solution. In a crisis, simply say, "Alexa, call for help," and the device will call, text, or send a push notification to the designated confidant.

Stephanie Mlot

Reporter at PCMag

Stephanie began as a PCMag reporter in May 2012. She moved to New York City from Frederick, Md., where she worked for four years as a multimedia reporter at the second-largest daily newspaper in Maryland. She interned at Baltimore magazine and graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania (in the town of Indiana, in the state of Pennsylvania) with a degree in journalism and mass communications.

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Editor's Pick

Side Hustle

This Gen Zer's Stylish Side Hustle Earns About $20,000 a Month and Paid Off His Parents' $200,000 Debt: 'I Enjoy the Hands-Off Nature'

Ray Cao went from working as a barista for $8 an hour to being a successful seller on online marketplace StockX.

Starting a Business

I Was a 25-Year-Old Nurse When I Started a Side Hustle to Combat Anxiety. It Made $1 Million in 7 Months — Then Sold for a Life-Changing Amount.

Sarah Michelle Boes knew there had to be a better way to prepare for her stress-inducing nurse practitioner's exam — so she created it.

Business Ideas

63 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2024

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2024.