Amazon's Alexa could soon mimic voice of dead relatives

The capability, unveiled at Amazon's Re:Mars conference in Las Vegas, is in development and would allow the virtual assistant to mimic the voice of a specific person based on a less than a minute of provided recording.

Rohit Prasad, senior vice president and head scientist for Alexa, said at the event Wednesday that the desire behind the feature was to build greater trust in the interactions users have with Alexa by putting more "human attributes of empathy and affect."

"These attributes have become even more important during the ongoing pandemic when so many of us have lost ones that we love," Prasad said.

"While AI can't eliminate that pain of loss, it can definitely make their memories last."