Over the weekend I spent a few hours learning how to get the Alexa to do things. I set up an AWS account on Amazon, as well as a Amazon Dev account. Took this tutorial, which was a great, no-dev skills needed intro into how to connect with Alexa on a very basic level. It was really fun being able to make Alexa say thing. FINALLY.
I didn’t even have to hurt my brain. The interface for creating a very basic skill is mad-libs fun.You set an “invocation” (wake word for your program). You list a bunch of ways someone might ask a question. Then a bunch of ways she may answer. Built in machine learning makes adds forgiveness and flexibility toward the invariably variable syntax humans will use.
I also found a function that lets you type something and Alexa says it. Super simple. Wonder if there’s something we can use for user testing here. A “ghost in the shell” parlor trick to learn about people’s interactions with a voice program.
Here is a motherlode of helpful resources.