Amazon exec: Alexa should be able to talk to Siri

Edward C. Baig, USA Today:

Alexa and Siri, rival voice assistants on Amazon’s Echo and Apple’s iPhone, don’t directly communicate with one another. But the Amazon executive in charge of Alexa and the Amazon Echo said he’d welcome the idea.

“You should be able to tell `Alexa, ask Siri X,’” said David Limp, senior vice president of devices at Amazon.

“If Apple or Google want to come calling, my phone number is out there, they can call…I don’t know if I can envision it but I hope that will happen on behalf of customers,” Limp told a group of journalists at the Wired Business Conference Wednesday in New York.

Interesting politics, Limp reaching out through the media.

I would welcome a common currency for AI assistants, a language that would allow them to communicate with each other. There’s obvious resistance to that approach, since it would weaken the walls of the ecosystem. But it would open doors for collaboration, and that’s a win for end users.