Do you want to call your smart speaker with your favorite name?: IT Heat Column

About three years after Amazon.com launched the first "Amazon Echo" in November 2014, 2017 saw a number of smart speakers announced and released. When the Echo appeared, I honestly couldn't imagine such a situation (although Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak predicted it).

Finally, there are some options in Japan. I reserved the charcoal of "Google Home Mini" (arrival after October 23rd). I'm a little disappointed that the tap on the top has been disabled since I made a reservation. For example, if a call comes in while the music is playing, it would be easier to pat me on the head than say "Ok Google, stop" while answering the call.

Oh yeah, in Japan you can now use "Hey, Google" as a hot word to call "Google Home" in addition to "OK Google" is good news (not available on Android devices). "OK" or "Hey" or "Hi" is kind of embarrassing.

Among many smart speakers, Google is the only company whose name is called out. Google's AI assistant's real name (?) is "Google Assistant", and when you call it "Google".

The names and hotwords of AI assistants installed in smart speakers from other companies are as follows.

Among the eight (?) people, three are clearly women: Alexa, Cortana, and Alice, and the rest have neutral names. I think that Xiaomi's "student" may not like having classmates in the house, but since I don't understand the nuances of Chinese, it may be a broader meaning. Alibaba's "spirit" seems to be reliable.

By the way, Yandex is the largest search engine in Russia. The Yandex assistant's name is "Alice" in the English press release, but it's pronounced "Alisa" in Russian. Russian names for women always end in "a".

Names are pretty important. As a Japanese person, I still feel a sense of incongruity every time I say "Hey Shiri" to Siri. It's great that Amazon allows you to change your hotwords. If you get close to him, you'll want to call him by his nickname.

Only for Google, I thought that "Google Assistant" was a dull name, but as I call out "Hey, Google" many times every day, I feel like I'm gradually becoming more familiar with Google. Maybe that was the goal.