In this chapter, we will explore a new genre of assistants that are taking over the world, voice-powered home assistants. These are AI-powered chatbots that assume the functionality of your assistant at home. They sit on a table in your living room and interact with you using voice. They are called smart speakers but they are not just speakers. They are assistants, much like the ones we have explored in the earlier chapters, but with an embodiment of their own. One of the more popular ones is called Alexa, and is made by Amazon. While the embodiment, which is that of a speaker, is called Echo, the assistant is called Alexa.
There are other smart speakers on the market (for example, Google Home). However, Amazon Echo seems to be leading the race with a market share of around 70% in 2017. The use of smart speaker home assistants is also projected to grow...