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AI Star Wars Prequels

Amazon Announces 'Hey Disney' Voice Assistant Using Star Wars, Pixar, and Disney Characters (aboutamazon.com) 48

Posted by EditorDavid from the Alexa-alternatives dept.
"Hey Disney" is the answer to a riddle that nobody asked: What do you get when you cross Amazon's Alexa voice assistant with the voices of Disney characters?

Long-time Slashdot reader destinyland writes: In a few months (and for a few bucks) you'll be able to purchase what Amazon calls a "first-of-its-kind voice assistant" for your Echo devices. Yes, your favorite Disney, Pixar, and Star Wars characters will be available to tell you jokes or play trivia games — whether it's Mickey Mouse, Dory the fish from Finding Nemo, or Olaf the snowman from Frozen.
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Amazon Announces 'Hey Disney' Voice Assistant Using Star Wars, Pixar, and Disney Characters More

Amazon Announces 'Hey Disney' Voice Assistant Using Star Wars, Pixar, and Disney Characters

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  • Le Sigh... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Gimmicky trash just adding to out landfills.
  • All your favorite characters can come into your house and spy on your conversations!

  • You too can pay money for the privilege of having Disney advertise its crappy properties to you all day!

  • Disney Stock Fell 44 Percent in 2022 (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    https://www.hollywoodreporter.... [hollywoodreporter.com]!

    Disney is flailing.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Well come on, we know you want to say the word woke and talk about the new black mermaid.

    • I don't like a lot of newer stuff Disney is producing, but Avatar already made money - and is still going...

      So it's not like it's all bad news for Disney.

  • We use Samuel L. Jackson... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by turp182 ( 1020263 ) on Saturday January 07, 2023 @11:04AM (#63187394) Journal

    We say "Hey Samuel!" and he kicks in, complete with the expected profanity. Pretty fun actually.

    Cost $5 I think, well worth it.

    And if you use Alexa, it's also fun to give them names. We have "Morgan Freeman" and "Jesus" so they end up saying things like "alarm stopped on Jesus."

    It's fantastic.

  • This is just the beginning. Imagine having novels narrated to you in the soothing voice of Stephen Hawking. Personally, I'm anxiously awaiting the opportunity to hear an erotic novel as narrated by Liv Tyler. At that point, I may never leave the house again.
  • I am just preparing for my new robot overlords.

  • Joe Camel (Score:4, Insightful)

    by awwshit ( 6214476 ) on Saturday January 07, 2023 @11:06AM (#63187406)

    Amazon figured out that adults mostly don't need to talk to their electronics. Better get the next generation hooked, make life 'easy' for little ones that are less capable and make it 'fun'. One day society will figure out that electronic spies are not cool and Amazon and Disney will look like Joe Camel.

  • In previous weeks we've read of the despair felt by Amazon as they've been unable to drain people's bank accounts with Alexia. It is nice to see that they've turned things around and will be able to ADD YOUR GOLD TO THEIR GOLD GIVING THEIR GOLD.

  • ...the workers. The people who brought those voices to life! It says Dory can tell me jokes, which is Ellen DeGeneres, is she actually supplying the voice or will it be some deepfake for which Ellen gets no money just the horror of hearing her likeness interact with kids all over the world?

    • Ellen's a shitty abusive/exploitative human being.

      You're asking us a variation of "I disagree with what you say but will defend to the death your right to say it".

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Jharish ( 101858 )

        I wasn't singling Ellen out for any reason other than Dory was mentioned in the original article and it was the only one where I knew the voice actor off the top of my head. Wasn't trying to start a pissing contest of which voice actor is the most reprehensible as much as wondering if Amazon/Disney is doing this with the idea of paying the people who give life to those very characters.

    • just the horror of hearing her likeness interact with kids all over the world?

      Kids all over the world they are going to hear the voices of the voice actors used in the translations of the movies, or nothing at all. This Ellen Whatever is not a known voice outside USA, it would make no sense to have to pay additional royalties for a voice that kids will just find a silly English-speaking women and not the actual Dory character they know. According to Wikipedia the voice of Dory is Anabel Alonso in Spain (famous TV presenter), Patricia Palestino for Latin American audience, Anne Dorval

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Jharish ( 101858 )

        Good point about localization. But what if I ask for Alexa to use Darth Vader's voice. Will James Earl Jones be voicing it or will it be a deepfake of JEJ? I'm pretty sure he was Darth Vader in all language localizations, as googling isn't telling me otherwise.

        Here is a small list of voices I'd love to use:
        Jessica Rabbit
        Gozer(from the original Ghostbusters)
        Also would love if I can set Alexa to talk like the adults in the Charlie Brown cartoons so everything sounds like someone trying to talk through a muted

        • You made a good joke, I was just (over-)reacting on a small bit of it. Wikipedia lists the different actors that voiced "Dark Vador" in French https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] , "Dart Fener" in Italian https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] and the version in Spanish https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] (did not look for more, just picked up).

          I would not expect them to ask a famous American actor to make himself the doubling in many languages, especially in the first episodes when they did not have yet the knowled

          • One thing that got people on the wrong foot was that the Voice of Darth Vader was done by James Earl Jones...

        • Thinking again about it: they usually hire voice actors that have similar sounding voices, so it may be that the original voices are sufficiently similar to the localized. The question is to what extent a voice model acquired from a voice can be reused to have it speak in another language. What kind of accent do computer voices have when speaking foreign languages?

    • It would be interested to see how such a thing would play out legally. Voice generation doesn't seem to be well covered by existing laws and contracts. A contract might allow for re-use of recorded materials (with or without royalties paid), but is training an AI on these recordings to be considered "re-use", or something more?

  • Disney has a huge and very dedicated fan base. They could certainly charge $5 to add Disney voices to your current Alexa account. But this device is aimed at kids, apparently marketed as an Echo with Disney voices specifically for running Disney apps.

  • I'm not sure how I feel about asking questions of a fictitious character who famously can't remember anything.

  • STFU!

  • A few weeks back there was an article claiming that Amazon had lost some spectacular amount of money on Alexa. It implied that when they started the really didn't have a good vision of how it was going to make money in the first place.

    Maybe this is one of their ideas.

  • ... Alexa seems to be losing money but the boatload... Alexa, how did Amazon’s voice assistant rack up a $10bn loss? https://www.theguardian.com/co... [theguardian.com]
    • I think Alexa losing money is mostly an accounting thing.

      I order stuff from Amazon through my echos, and more importantly I've had an Amazon Music family subscription for years only so the echos I bought for me, my mother, and my brother could play whatever. I don't use it on my computer or phone, just the echos.

      Amazon Music shows the profit, but it's because of Alexa.
  • I for one look forward to ordering sex toys from a Disney villain. Hey, Shere Khan, I want a butt plug and handcuffs, and three bald eagle feathers.

  • Not sure if they thought this through... (Score:3)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Saturday January 07, 2023 @12:42PM (#63187578)

    "Hey Disney R2-D2! what's the weather like today:"

    "BEEP BOOP BEEP BEEP ORP"

    "What does that even mean?"

    "BEEP BLOOP BEEP BEEP"!

    "Never mind, Chewbacca what;'s the weather like?"

    "LIao'c howorcro whahoawo aooowararo!"

    "Well great."

  • Argwarrroooghh meeggoooh!
  • ... developing good stories people actually wanted to watch.

  • The fucking thing is going into the trash.
    Using a potato gun.

  • If they had a well implemented HAL-9000, I'd genuinely consider getting my first VA, however it is pretty clear that their choice of characters is aimed at marketing their product to children

  • Disney is dead. I wouldn't expect a response.

  • They need to find a way to make money off of these, right now it is a huge money sink for them. This is just a modern-day ring tone they are selling, cant blame them for trying.
  • Or more specifically, the voice of the computer in the original series. A computer voice as it should be, that lets you know unmistakably it is a computer. Only then will I consider getting a digital assistant.

  • As long as I can pick R2-D2 for my voice character.

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