아마존과 마이크로소프트(MS)가 인공지능 비서 기능을 통합한다고 15일(현지시각) 발표했다.
지난해 8월에 1차 통합 계획을 밝힌 양사는 올해 말까지 연구개발을 끝으로 ‘알렉사(Alexa)’와 ‘코타나(Cortana)’ 플랫폼 기능을 공유할 예정이다.
이번 발표에 따르면 앞으로 알렉사는 이메일 응답, 달력 일정 추가 등 코타나의 주요 기능이 적용되고, 코타나 역시 알렉사의 4만 5천 개 이상 기능들이 추가될 계획이다.
아마존과 MS는 현재 서비스 개발을 위해 사용자들에게 피드백을 요청한 단계이며, 음악 스트리밍과 알람 설정 등 일부 기능을 제한했다고 알렸다. 통합 기능은 미국에서 먼저 공개될 예정이다.
일각에서는 정식 서비스 출시 이후 애플 시리(Siri), 구글 어시스턴트(Google Assistant)와의 경쟁이 치열해질 것으로 내다보고 있다.
Users of Amazon’s Alexa and Microsoft’s Cortana can now access features of the other’s virtual assistant, the companies announced Wednesday.
The integration gives Alexa and Cortana greater powers as they compete with Apple’s Siri and Alphabet’s Google Assistant. For example, a person with Cortana can now order products off Amazon or manage existing orders using voice instructions. Likewise, someone with an Echo could set up new calendar events and respond to emails with Cortana’s help.
The move comes almost a year after the tech giants revealed the plan for their assistants to be able to communicate with each other and three months after Microsoft detailed how the integration would work.
While Apple’s Siri predated Alexa and Cortana, both of which showed up in 2014, Siri has come to be lacking in capabilities by comparison as more developers have sought to develop third-party integrations with other assistants. Alexa has more than 45,000 “skills” that developers have come out with, while Cortana has more than 250. And Amazon has the lead when it comes to smart speaker device shipments.
Amazon and Microsoft are rolling out the integration to everyone in the U.S. as a public preview. People with Amazon Echo devices can access Cortana through Alexa, while Windows 10 PC and SamsungHarman Kardon Invoke speaker owners can get to Alexa directly from Cortana.
The companies will be asking users for feedback in order to improve the integration. It won’t be possible initially to do certain things, like streaming music and setting alarms. A Microsoft spokeswoman had no information about when the Alexa-Cortana connection will become available outside the U.S. and in other languages.
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