Your Amazon Echo Can Now Speak to You in Samuel L. Jackson's Voice

Amazon is taking a leaf out of Google's book by feature popular, celebrity voices on its smart assistant, Alexa. The latest, and the first one to feature on Amazon's Echo lineup of smart speakers, is none other than popular Hollywood actor, Samuel L. Jackson. As long as you are in US, the Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown star can now be found in any of your Echo speakers, and all you need to do is ask "Alexa, introduce me to Samuel L. Jackson".

However, the service won't come for free. To get Jackson as Alexa's special voice, you will be required to pay $0.99 for it. The sum will be charged directly from your Amazon Pay balance or your registered payment methods, when you say the above catchphrase. Alternatively, you can also choose to do so manually, by activating the requisite Alexa skill. However, it is important to note that even after enabling the feature, Jackson's voice will not entirely replace Alexa's original voice. Instead, you will be required to specifically ask for it, by saying, "Alexa, ask Samuel L. Jackson", followed by a query of your choice.

Queries answered by Jackson will range from specific points about him, his life, movie roles and such, as well as certain trivial tasks too. To make this possible, the actor has lent his voice via extensive recording snippets, including phrases that are made famous by him. For certain generic queries asked to Jackson, the resultant voice will be a synthesis of artificial processing, taking cues from his original voice itself.

Interestingly, die-hard fans of Jackson's work will be pleased to note that Amazon will also include an 'explicit' version of Samuel L. Jackson's voice within Alexa, giving what many might state a more authentic version of the actor. If, however, you have kids or parents at home, Jackson will also oblige to your request of 'clean' voice responses, thereby suiting queries from various audiences and age groups. All things considered, it's a bit of a pity that Jackson and his famous phrases won't feature in Alexa devices in India, at least right now.