Alexa & Friends
41 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 3 ratingsA weekly interview show about Amazon's voice AI, featuring the diverse set of people that research, build, and create amazing voice experiences. You'll hear from scientists and product development team members at Amazon, as well as voice designers and developers from around the world. Hosted by Jeff Blankenburg, Principal Technical Evangelist at Amazon Alexa.
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Episodes
Rob Stanbridge, Vocala & VoiceLab
December 20, 2021 05:00 - 32 minutes - 22.4 MBJoin host Jeff Blankenburg in his conversation with Rob Stanbridge as they discuss many of the successful games that have come out of his agency, Vocala, as well as his history evaluating comedians, and what the future of voice analytics will be!
Shilp Agarwal, Blutag
December 13, 2021 13:00 - 53 minutes - 36.6 MBJoin host Jeff Blankenburg in his discussion with Shilp Agarwal as they discuss the future of voice commerce and how his company, Blutag, looks to the future of selling products using this technology.
João Paulo Alquéres, Iara Digital
December 06, 2021 13:00 - 51 minutes - 35.2 MBJoin host Jeff Blankenburg as he chats with João Paulo Alquéres about his beginnings as a voice developer, his path to creating his agency Iara Digital, and what it means to be recognized as an Alexa Champion.
Angel Calvo, Alexa Smart Home
November 29, 2021 13:00 - 56 minutes - 38.9 MBJoin host Jeff Blankenburg for an interview with Angel Calvo, Director of Software Development for Alexa Smart Home. They discuss the future of devices in our homes, the ways that people use these devices, and some of the challenges that smart home devices present.
Pradeep Natarajan, Amazon Science
November 22, 2021 13:00 - 1 hour - 42 MBPradeep Natarajan, Amazon principal applied scientist, discusses his work with Alexa, and the significance machine learning has had in the field computer vision and deep neural networks. He also covers his career, and his participation in the ICCV 2021 workshop "Instance-level recognition", which focused on artworks, landmarks, and products.
Aaron Hsu, Blerp
November 15, 2021 13:00 - 47 minutes - 32.6 MBHost Jeff Blankenburg interviews Aaron Hsu from Blerp about the inspiration for creating his library of sound clips, how they integrate with different software, and the future of sounds.
Ashish Jha, Alexa Champion
November 08, 2021 13:00 - 56 minutes - 38.9 MBJoin host Jeff Blankenburg as he chats with Ashish Jha, one of the new Alexa Champions, about his path that led him to Alexa as a college student, and how it has shaped his career since graduation.
Abhishek Suthan, CEO, Pulse Labs
November 01, 2021 12:00 - 52 minutes - 36.2 MBJoin host Jeff Blankenburg as he talks with Abhishek Suthan about how Pulse Labs helps developers measure relevant interactions, sentiments, and end-to-end experiences from consumers within their natural environments.
Jasha Droppo, Sr Principal Scientist, Alexa Speech
October 25, 2021 12:00 - 1 hour - 42.8 MBHost Jeff Blankenburg chats with Jasha Droppo from the Alexa Speech team about his research, the foundations of speech synthesis technologies, and his rich history in the field.
Maaike Coppens - OpenDialog.ai and Alexa Champion
October 18, 2021 13:00 - 59 minutes - 40.9 MBHost Jeff Blankenburg chat with Alexa Champion Maaike Coppens about the future of voice technology, low-code solutions to creating voice experiences, and her path to becoming a Champion!
Mara Segal, Senior Manager, Product Management, Alexa Household
October 11, 2021 12:00 - 50 minutes - 34.5 MBJoin host Jeff Blankenburg for an interview with Mara Segal, where we cover her colorful background, her love of cookbooks, and the future of ambient computing in your kitchen!
Yang Liu, Principal Scientist, Alexa AI
October 04, 2021 12:00 - 1 hour - 43.5 MBJoin host Jeff Blankenburg for an interview with Yang Liu, a Principal Scientist on the Alexa AI team. We discuss her educational background, her vast amount of published research, and her outlook on the future of this growing technology.
Rafael Sanches - Anycart
September 27, 2021 04:00 - 51 minutes - 35.6 MBJoin host Jeff Blankenburg for an interview with Rafael Sanchez. We dive into his history, his discovery of his passion for voice and Alexa, and how he is trying to shape the future of ordering food for your meals with Anycart.
Dyung Ngo, Alexa Champion, CogniVocal
September 20, 2021 12:00 - 53 minutes - 37 MBJoin host Jeff Blankenburg in an interview with Dyung Ngo that spans his departure from Vietnam, his history as a technologist, and his view of the future of healthcare and ambient computing.
Nataki Edwards, Director of Engagement and Operations for Alexa Voice Service
September 13, 2021 12:00 - 54 minutes - 37.3 MBJoin host Jeff Blankenburg in a personal interview with Nataki Edwards as they discuss her background, the current state of hardware development and Alexa, and where she sees this technology in the future.
Special Episode: Alexa Live Recap
September 08, 2021 14:00 - 1 hour - 42.5 MBIn this special episode, Jeff Blankenburg and Paul Cutsinger recap all of the big announcements from Alexa Live 2021.
Julia Hirschberg, Amazon Scholar and Columbia University Professor
August 30, 2021 12:00 - 49 minutes - 34.3 MBJeff Blankenburg has a deep discussion with Julia Hirschberg about what it means to be an Amazon Scholar, some of her research into computer language and speech, and the future of this technology.
Chad Conway, Founder and Head of Products, Span.io
August 23, 2021 12:00 - 56 minutes - 38.5 MBJeff Blankenburg chats with Chad Conway about Span, smart homes, and the future of ambient computing in our living spaces. You'll hear about the end of light switches as we know them.
Atif Khan, Senior Manager of Software Development, Alexa Video
August 16, 2021 12:00 - 58 minutes - 40.4 MBJeff Blankenburg discusses the advent of Alexa Video with Atif Khan, and the importance that video will play in the future of ambient computing.
Ariya Rastrow, Senior Principal Scientist, Alexa Speech
August 09, 2021 12:00 - 1 hour - 43.2 MBJeff Blankenburg interviews Ariya Rastrow about his history with speech research and the advancements that make technology like Alexa possible.
Ian Freed, CEO & Co-Founder of Bamboo Learning
August 02, 2021 12:00 - 59 minutes - 40.6 MBJeff Blankenburg interviews Ian Freed about his voice based education company, Bamboo Learning. They chat about his rich history with Amazon, and the future of education with machine learning and ambient computing.
Oleg Stavitsky & Max Zaytsev from Endel
July 26, 2021 12:00 - 50 minutes - 34.4 MBJeff Blankenburg interviews two of the creators of Endel, which is an AI approach to relaxation, focus, and sleep.
Neha Monga, Senior Manager, Alexa Social
July 19, 2021 12:00 - 56 minutes - 38.9 MBJeff Blankenburg interviews Neha Monga about how Alexa can help you engage with social networks, and where this will lead in the future.
Nikko Strom, VP/Distinguished Scientist, Alexa AI
July 12, 2021 12:00 - 1 hour - 43.6 MBJeff Blankenburg interviews Nikko Strom about his early start with Alexa, and where he sees the technology heading in the future.
Adam Elman, Principal UX Designer, Alexa Household
July 05, 2021 12:00 - 1 hour - 42.5 MBJeff Blankenburg interviews Adam Elman about the future of user interfaces, especially for voice.
Spyros Matsoukas, Senior Principal Scientist, Alexa AI
June 28, 2021 12:00 - 55 minutes - 38.3 MBJeff Blankenburg interviews Spyros Matsoukas about the science and research that he's working on for the future of Alexa.
Andrew Breen, Senior Manager, Alexa Text-to-Speech
June 21, 2021 04:00 - 57 minutes - 39.4 MBJeff Blankenburg interviews Andrew Breen about the technology behind Alexa's text-to-speech engine, and how it all works.
Rachel Jiang, Head of Alexa Health and Wellness
June 14, 2021 11:00 - 53 minutes - 36.7 MBJeff Blankenburg interviews Rachel Jiang about the technology behind Alexa Health, and what the future of healthcare could look like in an ambient computing world.
Joel Farvault, Alexa Developer
June 07, 2021 11:00 - 58 minutes - 40.5 MBJoin Jeff and Justin as they interview Joel Farvault about building Alexa skills using Alexa Conversations.
Liron Torres, Director, Alexa Smart Properties
May 31, 2021 11:00 - 1 hour - 42.9 MBJeff interviews Liron Torres, and they talk about the future of voice in places like apartments, hotels, and even assisted living facilities.
Julie Daniel Davis - Educator & Alexa Champion
May 24, 2021 11:00 - 57 minutes - 39.6 MBJeff interviews Julie Daniel Davis, and they talk about the future of voice in education, and the best ways to use Alexa in the classroom.
Kayoko Yanagisawa - Senior Speech Scientist
May 18, 2021 01:00 - 47 minutes - 32.6 MBJeff discusses the future of synthetic speech and speech recognition with Kayoko Yanagisawa, as well as the exciting research and invention that is happening for Alexa's future.
Surbhi Rathore, CEO & Co-Founder, Symbl.ai
May 03, 2021 13:00 - 42 minutes - 29.3 MBJeff talks with Surbhi Rathore about where voice is headed, how Symbl.ai is helping developers get there, and what the future of voice and ambient computing could be.
Chris Wenneman, Director, Alexa Automotive
April 26, 2021 13:00 - 1 hour - 41.8 MBJeff discusses the future of automobiles and voice with Chris Wenneman, as well as the exciting research and invention that is happening with Alexa inside today's cars.
Yoelle Maarek, VP of Research and Science, Alexa Shopping
April 19, 2021 15:00 - 48 minutes - 33.5 MBJeff sits down with Yoelle Maarek to discuss the future of shopping on Alexa, and takes a behind the scenes look at what our research and science teams are working on.
Gokhan Tur, Principal Scientist, Alexa AI/Natural Understanding
April 05, 2021 12:00 - 50 minutes - 34.9 MBJeff Blankenburg sits with Gokhan Tur for a discussion about natural language understanding with Alexa, and the future of speech with artificial intelligence.
Daniel Marcu, Director, Alexa AI Search
March 29, 2021 04:00 - 1 hour - 42.3 MBJeff Blankenburg chats with Daniel Marcu about artificial intelligence, search, and the future of the industry.
Dilek Hakkani-Tur, Sr. Principal Scientist, Alexa AI
March 22, 2021 04:00 - 58 minutes - 40.5 MBJeff Blankenburg chats with Dilek Hakkani-Tur about Alexa AI, the challenges of building a conversational intelligence, and a look to the future of this technology.
Aaron Wilson, Senior Manager, Alexa Product Management
March 15, 2021 13:00 - 1 hour - 41.5 MBJeff Blankenburg sits down with Aaron Wilson, from the Alexa Product Team to talk about what is happening with Alexa development, the tools, and a look to the future.
Prem Natarajan - VP, Alexa AI & NLU
March 08, 2021 14:00 - 1 hour - 42.7 MBJeff Blankenburg, Alexa's Principal Technical Evangelist, interviews Prem Natarajan, Vice President of Alexa Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Understanding about the current state of voice AI, and the future of talking to computers.
Manoj Sindhwani - VP, Alexa Speech
March 01, 2021 13:00 - 59 minutes - 40.8 MBJeff Blankenburg sits down with Manoj Sindhwani to discuss the future of voice, AI, and speech.