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But many challenges remain, as anyone who tries to have an actual conversa-
tion with Siri or Alexa well knows. Vlahos devotes a chapter to the ongoing ef-
forts to meet the conversational challenge, but as yet, no one has won the Alexa
Prize Socialbot Grand Challenge re-
ward of $1 million for building a “so-
cialbot that can converse coherently
and engagingly with humans on popu-
lar topics for 20 minutes.”
Ta l k t o Me does a terrific job of ex-
plaining why voice computing is such a
fascinating and promising technology.
It also explains why, as Vlahos writes,
“across the landscape, companies ranging from Facebook to 1-800-Flowers are
eying it and asking: How will the voice revolution affect us? Is this an opportu-
nity or a threat? Voice creates new ways to sell things, advertise, and monetize
people’s attention. To interact with consumers for marketing or customer service.
To collect data and profit from it. To make bookings and provide services from
matchmaking to therapy.”
Of course, figuring out all these new ways — and introducing them success-
fully — is the task at hand. +
Many challenges in
voice computing
remain, as anyone who
tries to have an actual
conversation with Siri
or Alexa well knows.
Theodore Kinni
[email protected]
is a contributing editor of
strategy+business. He also blogs at
Reading, Writing re: Management
and is @tedkinni on Twitter.