Alice Voice Assistant

The main articles are:

• Smart Speakers Voice Assistants (Global Market)
• Smart speakers Voice assistants (Russian market)
• Speech technology: On the path from recognition to understanding

Alice is a voice assistant created in Yandex. She turns on music and video, answers questions, runs errands and is ready to support the conversation on any topic. You can control your smart home through smart speakers with Alice - Yandex.Station, Irbis A, DEXP Smartbox, Elari Smartbeat and LG XBOOM AI ThinQ WK7Y. And also through Yandex.Phone and mobile applications - Yandex, Yandex.Browser, Yandex.Navigator and Yandex.Launcher.

2024

Update for Yandex Stations with the ability to choose the availability of the baby monitor mode

On April 25, 2024, Yandex announced the release of Alice's April update for Yandex Stations. Read more here.

"Alice" with the "Pro" option

On April 10, 2024, Yandex introduced Alice to the next generation - based on the YandexGPT neural network. It will be possible to communicate with a virtual assistant as with a smart thoughtful interlocutor. Now Alice knows how to explain complex concepts and phenomena, propose ideas and keep the context of the conversation. Alice is available to all users on all major devices and platforms. And for those who need a powerful Yandex neural network to solve creative problems or the help of a virtual nanny, the "About" option has appeared.

"Alice"

According to the company, Alice learned to explain the difficult in simple language. For example, she will tell you how a tornado occurs and how a steam humidifier differs from an ultrasonic humidifier. In this she is helped by the YandexGPT neural network, trained on large amounts of information from the Internet. Until now, Alice answered about 60% of questions, and in other cases offered to search for an answer on the Internet or send search results. In April 2024, she answers 95% of questions and can name the source of information if she found it on the website.

With Alice, you can now create something new without going into "Let's Come Up" mode. For example, you can simply ask: "Alice, what to give a colleague?" Or "Alice, what to cook for breakfast?." And to work with texts, a separate Chat with Alice appeared on a.ya.ru - you can compose theses, slogans and other texts in it. Chat is synchronized for different devices: you can start a dialogue on your computer and continue on your smartphone. In addition, it is possible to conduct several chats at the same time: for example, write a text with Alice in one, and ask her questions in the other. Context and communication history are preserved in every chat without mixing.

You can communicate with Alice as a person, moving from one topic to another. The assistant learned to hold the context of the conversation. For example, if you ask Alice to advise a breed of dog of a small size, and then ask "how much time does it need to devote?" - Alice will understand from the context what this is about. The virtual assistant began to ask additional questions, as people do when they do not understand something. And if the interlocutor distracts or thinks, Alice will wait for his replica.

An additional option "Pro" gives access to Yandex's powerful generative neural network - for April 2024, this is YandexGPT 3 Pro. Thanks to her, Alice is able to give detailed answers, work with different styles and formats and follow instructions with several conditions. The option will be useful for marketers, journalists, copywriters and other specialists to solve professional problems. For example, they can, together with Alice, style texts, invent concepts and conduct brainstorms on different topics.

"Alice"

Alice Pro is useful not only in work, but also at home: the assistant has mastered the skills of a virtual nanny. It will help to instill useful habits in the child and establish the daily routine: it will wake up and exercise in time, and remind you before going to bed that you need to brush your teeth. The "Pro" option has educational quests and games prepared by the Yandex Textbook team. Quests introduce scientific discoveries, inventions, animals and plants, traditions of different countries and imply the active participation of a child - the plot depends on his answers. Games enrich vocabulary, develop logical thinking, train oral numeracy skills, and help prepare for school.

The "Pro" option is available to Yandex Plus subscribers and costs 100 rubles a month.

2023

As part of Xiaomi Smart Display

September 7, 2023 introduced the "Smart Display" Xiaomi with Alice - the first joint product of Yandex and Xiaomi. With its help, you can watch videos, listen to music, manage a smart home, call loved ones, and most importantly - not only hear, but also see Alice's answers. The hardware of the device was developed by Xiaomi, and the software in Yandex. Read more here.

Optimizing Alice's Device Management Skills

Russian producer Devices smart home Ujin June 22, 2023 announced the release of Alice's updated device management skill.

The updated skill has become even more convenient and faster, and many processes occur imperceptibly for the user. For example, device states are updated automatically, and getting the current state is 10 times faster. In addition, the functionality of the skill has expanded. You can now create event-based smart home scenarios in the Smart Home with Alice app. The simplest example is to turn on the light bulb if the sensor has detected movement.

It became possible to change the operating modes of devices and use other previously unavailable options. For example, adjust the brightness and lighting mode, the degree of opening of the curtains, the degree of strength of coffee, etc. Also, the developers taught Alice to understand commands without a target value, for example, you can simply ask the voice assistant to make the room warmer or the light brighter. 

Another important update is that the Smart Home with Alice app now displays more supported devices. This means that the user will be able to transfer not only Ujin devices, but also other integrated manufacturers, for example, Redmond, Xiaomi, Aqara, Tion. The user will be able to control all devices through Alice when synchronizing accounts, and they will not need to be restarted.

Our goal as a developer and manufacturer is, first of all, to simplify the user's life, freeing him from routine actions. Give him the opportunity to feel a different level of comfort, whether it be an apartment in a residential complex, a cottage in a village or an office in a business center. Each action should be intuitive, a person does not need to have special knowledge. Therefore, we are constantly working on the quality of the user experience: integrating devices of other brands, improving our own devices, developing an updated Alice skill for our smart home, commented on the owner of the product "Smart home Ujin" Alexander Polomoshnov.

Integration with YandexGPT neural network

Yandex has introduced a new generation language model YandexGPT in Alice. Thanks to the neural network, the voice assistant learned to write texts and offer ideas almost as well as a person who understands the topic. The press service of the Russian company announced this on May 17, 2023.

The new feature is available in the Yandex application, Browser, Stations and smart TVs with Alice. Saying "Alice, let's come up with it!," You can set her tasks. The virtual assistant will write a script for the graduation, draw up a business letter, offer a travel plan and wedding gift options. The developers are warned that by May 17, 2023, the technology is working in testing mode: Alice may be mistaken in facts, which does not prevent it from creating new ones - with the help of its erudition and ability to draw conclusions.

It is noted that the YandexGPT neural network built into Alice was trained on Yandex supercomputers. The training took place in two stages. In order for the neural network to absorb knowledge about the world, at first it was shown publicly available texts - materials of books, sites, articles. They were selected using Yandex search technologies, which allow you to find the most useful among billions of documents.

Unlike previous language models, the YandexGPT neural network has been further trained on hundreds of thousands of examples of meaningful and well-written answers. That is why she answers as simply and clearly as a knowledgeable person. To collect and prepare such examples, Yandex used its crowdsourcing technologies and a team of AI coaches.

Today's launch is the first step. The neural network is constantly learning, so every day "Alice" will become smarter. For example, now she answers the question, not paying attention to previous remarks, but in the future she will learn to take into account the context of the conversation. Yandex will introduce new generation neural networks into its other products, primarily in search, the company said in a statement.

2022

Adding to the Yandex home page

Alice appeared on the ya.ru - now users of all the main browsers ones for and can communicate with her computer. smartphone The company Yandex announced this on December 13, 2022. The assistant will find the right one, information support the conversation about everything in the world, open his favorite playlist or build a route to the office.

Alice can and should be asked questions. She will quickly answer many of them in her voice: for example, how to translate New Year's greetings into dozens of languages, how long is Vladivostok, or what is the yuan rate. If the question is more complex, she will send it to the search results page. And Alice can also compose a song using neural networks or speculate about what love is.

Шаблон:Quote 'author = said Sergei Melnik, head of Alice and Smart Devices.

Activating Alice on the main page is simple - just click on it. The assistant can also be found in Yandex Browser, Yandex mobile application with Alice and Yandex Stations.

The skill of recognizing all family members

"Alice" learned to distinguish the voices of family members and select music individually for everyone. For example, one will include his favorite jazz, and the other - rock. Plus, the whole family can now run a smart home on the House with Alice app. This became known on October 11, 2022.

Previously, "Alice" tried to take into account the tastes of all family members, mixing their favorite tracks - as a result, they did not always manage to listen only to what they liked. And if the owner of the device asked "Alice" to remember his voice, the rest could no longer like. Now any family member with a Yandex plus subscription can say "Alice, I like" - and she will add the track to his playlist. Everyone will be able to listen to their favorite music and personal stream of tracks. These features are available in all Yandex smart speakers.

: "The column with" Alice "is a family device. Moms and dads, teenagers and elderly people communicate with her. Everyone has their own musical preferences, so it is so important that Alice recognizes by the voice of all family members, reported by Sergei Melnik, head of Alice and Yandex smart devices

Loved ones will also be able to manage a smart home using the Home with Alice app. For example, now you do not need to wait for the owner of the device to launch a robot vacuum cleaner through the application. Any of the home ones from their phone will be able to do this.

"Alice" can remember up to five family members, including the owner of the device. To do this, he needs to ask loved ones to download the Home with Alice app and invite them to run a smart home. After that, family members will be able to get acquainted with "Alice" so that she remembers their voices^[1]family members.

The skill to set a reminder

On September 8, 2022, Yandex announced that it had become even more convenient to communicate with Alice in the Yandex application - she was constantly learning new things. Now the assistant can put a reminder, read aloud the text on the site and give quick access to the popular functions of the application.

Alice can be asked to read aloud pages on the Internet, and she will read out recipes when her hands are busy while cooking - just say "Alice, read the page." And the assistant can also put a reminder and show a to-do list so as not to forget about anything.

Alice has quick access to frequently used features: for example, you can listen to music and switch your favorite tracks right in Alice's window. There you can also call contacts from the telephone book - for example, at the command "Alice, call your mother." The assistant right in the window will specify which of the numbers to call if there are several of them.

Alice's interface in the Yandex application has also changed - she has learned to adapt to different content. When needed, it changes shape, leaving more useful space on the smartphone screen. Right from the window with Alice, you can now go to the chat with the assistant, to the smart camera or see the full list of skills.

Alice becomes an indispensable personal assistant - millions of users turn to her every day for help in Yandex mobile applications. It helps you find information, translate documents using a smart camera and learn new things on trips. It's just nice to chat with Alice, "said Dmitry Timko, head of the Yandex and Yandex.Browser application.

With Alice, users can more effectively solve more than just daily tasks. Yandex's voice assistant is already helping to decide on the choice of household appliances and find the best price for the product. Alice becomes an integral part of life: you can ask her to set up a number identifier, tell the child a fairy tale, or use a smart camera to find a sofa exactly like in an interior magazine.

"Alice" in the search for "Yandex" will help in solving difficult issues

Alice search Yandex is constantly developing - she has long been more than just voice an assistant who helps solve only simple problems in. Internet Now she has learned to recognize the long-term interest of users in certain topics and connect search sessions with each other. This became known on July 29, 2022.

For example, for several weeks, the user periodically studied the topic of buying a car in search, sometimes distracted by other things. Alice learned to capture the user's interest and offer a special block on the topic, thanks to which you can return to it at any time.

In order to connect search sessions with each other, several technologies were used, one of which is a classifier. This is a tool that defines the topic of a particular request. At his disposal is a neural network trained on the basis of YaLM. It is used for tasks related to the processing of natural language - it understands the principle of text construction and knows the laws of linguistics. It is this neural network that distinguishes search queries on one topic, connecting them with each other.

There are millions of user requests. Literally on the fly, algorithms distinguish from them those that relate to large topics, processing hundreds of terabytes of data as quickly as possible. Such a global task as, for example, buying a property, choosing a car, a wedding, requires a thoughtful immersion. And similar situations in the search have already passed millions of Yandex users.

Based on the context of their requests, Alice will help you get down to business wisely: she will tell you what to study, and what pitfalls lay in wait for other users on the way. Alice is prudent: she will take into account not even the most obvious questions that did not occur to users if they never encountered such a thing, said in a message from Yandex.

For example, if in the Yandex application you enter a request to "buy a car," the user will see a special block with Alice: it will help you delve into the process at any of the stages - from choosing a car model to applying for insurance.

Alice stores context by linking search sessions to each other, even if there were breaks between them. For example, a month ago you planned to buy a new car, but then something distracted you, or just changed plans. Thanks to Alice, it is possible at any time to return to studying this topic - all queries will remain, as if you compared the equipment of the machines in the search yesterday. And all the pages that have been postponed for later can be found in favorites on this topic, noted the director of the Search business group, advertising and cloud services Yandex Pyotr Popov.

With the help of Alice, the experience of other Internet users and their requests in similar situations will definitely be taken into account.

But dozens of articles and materials read need to be managed not to lose. Alice will make sure that all articles, just searches in search and everything that the user found on the topic, can be collected in one place. The information is available in one click, and you can return to it at any time. In the Yandex application, a special section will appear right under the search bar on the main page - if the user returns to studying the topic over and over again. The section in the application can be deleted by a long click on it. You can also clean the query history in the settings if you go to the topic page. Alice already knows how to navigate such big topics as buying real estate and a car, renting a home, opening a business, organizing a wedding, choosing a kindergarten, going to school, choosing a career, pregnancy. And this is just the beginning, noted in Yandex.

As part of the appendix "House with Alice"

On February 18, 2022, Yandex announced the release of a mobile application with voice control "House with Alice." With its help, you can interact with many smart devices, and also configure them so that they work smoothly and themselves turn on at the right time. Read more here.

2021

The Skill to Call Your Contact List

Alice learned to call the contact list from Yandex mobile applications and. Yandex.Maps This was Yandex announced on December 16, 2021. Alice's help will be very useful in a situation where you cannot be distracted, but you need to call: for example, while driving or while caring for a child. Suffice it to say: "Alice, call your mother" - and she will dial the number if you open her access to contacts. And Alice knows how to call emergency services - for example, you can ask her to call an ambulance.

When there are two contacts with the same name in the list, Alice will clarify who exactly needs to call and which of the numbers if several phones are indicated in the contact card.

Alice learned to perform the request so well thanks to speech recognition technology: the voice assistant adapts to the user's contact book, and this helps to even better recognize rare names and surnames - recorded in the address book in both Russian and translit.

If the user no longer wants Alice to have access to his contact list, the data can always be deleted in the Yandex ID account. Calls with Alice on the contact list will be available in the latest versions of the applications - the user will only need to update them.

The skill of reading the text of an e-book aloud

On November 19, 2021, it became known that Yandex had updated the Reader e-book reading service by adding a text voicing function to it. The voice assistant "Alice" is responsible for reading aloud. Read more here.

The skill to accept the readings of Mosenergosbyt meters

On June 17, 2021, Naumen reported that the bot assistant of Mosenergosbyt, created on the Naumen Erudite platform, learned to accept meter readings through Yandex.Alisa. Read more here.

SDEK parcel tracking skill

Voice assistant "Alice" will calculate the cost of the order, track the parcel and call the courier SDEK to the house. This was reported on April 28, 2021 in SDEK. These opportunities have appeared thanks to a skill developed on the platform. Yandex Dialogs. To use the help of "Alice," it is enough to say aloud one of the commands: "Alice, start the SDEK skill," "ask SDEK where my order is" or "ask SDEK to call a courier."

You can use the service from anywhere in the world. SDEK is confident that the voice assistant will provide additional convenience for users and simplify the client's path. The company plans to further develop in the direction of digital transformation, updating and optimization of its own IT platform, as well as introduce additional services on popular platforms. According to SDEK experts, business digitalization opens up new opportunities to increase the level of client service.

"Our company is keeping pace with the times and is committed to being on all modern platforms to be closer to its customers. When we wanted to release a skill for the voice assistant "Alice," then, first of all, we decided to check how much it will be in demand among our customers. Today, with the help of "Alice," customers can find out the status of their parcel, calculate the approximate cost of sending from one city to another and call a courier, naming their phone number "Alice," - said Maxim Karpin, head of the project office of SDEK.

Earlier, SDEK has already launched a functional chat bot for Viber.

2020

Organization of interaction with Samsung soundbars

Samsung Electronics is expanding the number of devices that support voice control functions based on the Alice intelligent assistant. Now owners of Samsung's soundbar line will be able to control them with Alice. This became known on December 4, 2020. In total, 13 models of audio systems from 2018-2020 received Alice's support for December 2020.

With voice commands, users will be able to turn soundbars on and off, as well as completely control the volume. This functionality will be available for wireless audio systems and soundbars with support for Dolby Atmos and Sound +. Voice control is carried out through any gadget with support for an assistant from Yandex, for example, through a smart speaker, smartphone or PC with an open browser. The interaction is based on the open platform Samsung SmartThings, which combines smart home devices connected to Wi-Fi.

In addition, some models of Samsung washing machines and robotic vacuum cleaners, which were previously compatible with Alice, received updated functionality. Now they can not only be turned on and off using voice commands, but also paused. Also, for vacuum cleaners, you can set the speed of operation.

You can activate the functions that have appeared in the "Devices" section of the "Yandex" application. To do this, in the list you need to select a smart home system from Samsung and set the skill for Samsung SmartThings in the menu that opens. After that, all capabilities are activated automatically. If the skill is already tied and the devices are in the list, you need to find the Skill for Samsung SmartThings and click "Update Device List^[2].

Availability of "Alice" on Hyundai Smart TV

On November 23, 2020, the company Hyundai presented two series Smart TV with a multimedia platform Yandex voice assistant and Alice. More. here

Teaching the skill to draw pictures on any topic

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This is the first voice assistant in the world to generate pictures on any topic, Yandex says. -- >

For "Alice" to create a picture, it is enough to ask: "Alice, draw a panda" or "Alice, draw an autumn landscape." She is able to portray even what is difficult to imagine - for example, inspiration. "Alice" tries not to repeat herself and create a new image every time. You can download it to transfer it to a T-shirt, print it on canvas, or, for example, make it the background in a video conference.

"Alice" creates images on demand using two neural networks. One of them was trained on the works of artists of the twentieth century and knows how to generate paintings. Another neural network determines what is depicted on them. To teach a neural network how to match the semantic closeness of an image and words, it was trained on search queries. Thus, "Alice" always knows what picture to offer the user.

"Alice" understands painting and can tell about the work of famous masters. If you show her a random photo and ask: "What picture does this look like?," You will remember the appropriate picture. The voice assistant is also able to recognize what is depicted in the picture and determine which of the famous people a person looks like.

All these features are available in the Yandex mobile application and in Yandex.Browser, where there is an Alice voice assistant^[3].

Training Alice to call a virtual assistant Raiffeisen Bank

On April 2, 2020, Raiffeisen Bank"" reported that users of the services Yandex"" can find out about Raiffeisen Bank products, pick up credit card and leave a request for a manager's call, bank just by talking with Alice.

{{quote 'author = explained Ilya Shchirov, leading project manager of Raiffeisenbank's Customer Relations Department' Conversational AIs are becoming part of an increasing number of devices and are rapidly gaining popularity among users around the world, changing consumer habits as well. We also note a trend towards the growing popularity of voice input, so we plan to develop this direction. Our goal is to ensure that products and services are available to customers in those channels where they are comfortable, }}

By activating the voice assistant on any device (station, navigator, mobile phone, in a browser, etc.), you just need to say: "Alice, start the Raiffeisen Bank skill."

To complete the application, Alice will ask the user to consent to the processing of personal data, specify the name and phone number. In the near future, a bank employee will contact the client to issue the product.

The skill will expand, and in the future Alice will be able to help with the personal choice of debit cards, savings and insurance products of Raiffeisen Bank.

Alice's skill was created by a joint development team of the bank and vendor platform. Raiffeisen Bank will be engaged in the development of the direction. Voice assistant replicas and communication style were developed by the bank's contact center team based on the experience of advising clients on products and positioning the Raiffeisen Bank brand.

2019

Training Alice to call Tele2 digital assistant

On December 16, 2019, Tele2 announced the launch of another skill for Alice, a virtual assistant to Yandex. She calls the digital assistant Tele2 on command, which will answer popular questions from subscribers.

The launch of a virtual assistant based on artificial intelligence technologies is another stage in the development of digital service in the company, created in addition to a chatbot, instant messengers and dialogues in social networks. Previously, Alice found a lost phone on a special command, and now calls a virtual assistant: he answers popular user questions and learns as he "communicates" with interlocutors.

Working on the basis neuronets allows the assistant to constantly improve. Already at the testing stage, he knows how to answer 900 questions. The virtual assistant advises on topics such as tariff parameters, balance checking, the address of the nearest office, the ability to share gigabytes, checking the list of paid services, service roaming in and much more.

The service has been launched in test mode and is available to all customers as of December 16, 2019. Even subscribers of other operators can contact the virtual assistant - the digital assistant built into Alice will answer questions about the transition to Tele2 via MNP. The skill works on any gadget where there is Alice - on the phone or tablet applications from Yandex, in the navigator, "" smart speaker Yandex.Station or on computer the "." Yandex.Browser To call the assistant, just say the phrase: "Alice, launch Tele2 personal assistant."

As of December 2019, Tele2 has about 25 digital customer support channels. We actively use chatbots, and their advantages in working with clients are obvious: they unload contact centers and process more than half of the questions from users of the site and the My Tele2 application. As for the voice assistant, in the future it will become the main interface when the client interacts with digital services. There are many successful cases in the world of adapting virtual assistants for various use cases. Tele2 as a high-tech company supports this trend. Launching a digital assistant based on artificial intelligence technologies, we respond to a request from our audience, which is waiting for non-standard solutions in the Tele2 service, said Roman Kananykhin, Sales and Customer Service Management Director

Integration with the Tricolor Smart Home system

On December 13, 2019, the GS Labs Research and Development Center announced the expansion of the functionality of the smart home system for Tricolor subscribers, realizing the ability to control through the voice assistant Alice from Yandex. Read more here.

Support for Turkish

In November 2019, Yandex announced support for the first foreign language in its voice assistant Alice. Now he understands the Turkish speech.

Turkish "Alice" can almost everything that the original version can in Russian - prompt the address, talk about the weather, build a route and give tips on the way.

Turkish "Alice," like Russian, supports free communication with the user on distracted topics. 

Alice "in Turkish is not a simple translation. All scenarios, including the answers of the assistant to various questions, were written specifically for Turkey, and the professional announcer Selay Tashdogen (Selay Taşdöğen) voices "Alice" in the Turkish version , - said in a message from Yandex.

Yandex.Navigator in Turkey is one of the most popular applications with an audience of 4 million users per month, and Alisa has proven itself to be an assistant on the road in the Russian version, Yandex explained the choice of a country and a service for integrating an assistant.

Earlier, the company said that Yandex was going to teach the voice assistant Alice to speak the languages ​ ​ of the CIS countries , including Ukrainian, Belarusian and Kazakh.

Support for Aqara smart home devices

The manufacturer of devices for smart home Aqara announced on November 7, 2019 the start of official sales in. Russia As noted, Aqara has learned to work Yandex Smart Home with its voice assistant Alice. Alice knows how to control light bulbs, wall switches, a smart outlet and the center of a smart home. Aqara Hub More. here

The skill of finding potentially dangerous moles to fight skin cancer

October 16, 2019 it became known about the appearance voice assistant "Alice" in the function of identifying dangerous moles to combat. skin cancer It was developed by the company Eora in conjunction with the social project "Live without fear." Facebook The head of Eora Roman Doronin spoke about the new product on his page on the social network. More. here

The skill of finding a lost phone for free using Tele2

Tele2, an alternative mobile operator, on August 23, 2019 announced the launch of a free search for a lost home or phone office for Yandex's virtual assistant.

At the user's command, Alice will contact the Tele2 network, and the company will call the phone lost at home or at work. The company believes that the skill will be in demand, since the audience of the virtual assistant exceeds 35 million people. Tele2 does not limit the circle of customers - subscribers of any operators can use Alice's skill.

To find a lost phone, the user just needs to say the phrase: "Alice, ask Tele2 to find my phone." On the first call, Alice will prompt the subscriber to bind his number to the device from which he plans to search in the future. smartphone It can be any gadget where there is Alice - a smart speaker Yandex.Station"," computer "with," "second Yandex.Browser phone or tablet with Yandex applications.

Registration of the number on the device is simple: Alice will ask the user to dictate the number, and then the confirmation code specified in the SMS. For the next search, it will be enough to say a code phrase, and the lost phone will start ringing.

Externally, a simple skill is based on artificial intelligence technology. Smart Alice will help the user and conduct a dialogue with him, even if he incorrectly named the code phrase or did not immediately find his phone.

Tele2 believes that this skill of Alice has great potential in the Russian market. According to the operator, the function of finding a phone using a virtual assistant is popular abroad and is one of the five most popular skills. At the same time, unlike the Russian one, the American version is paid.

Among Alice's popular skills among users are playing music, weather forecast, image recognition, route calculation, setting an alarm clock and translator.

Alice's voice assistant skills replenished with sounds

Yandex announced in June 2019 that now skill developers for Alice can use short audio recordings - lasting no more than two minutes. This way you can add replica acting, various sound effects or sounds to your skills that create a brand image. All this will allow companies to increase the involvement of users of the skill.

"Today, about 20% of Yandex's search traffic comes from voice queries, and this share is growing. Many companies have already learned to create voice skills for Alice, including Sony, HeadHunter, SkyEng, Qlean, Asics. The new functionality expands the possibilities of business communication with its clients, and also gives a wide scope for the imagination of developers, "said Daniil Kolesnikov, head of marketing at Alice.

You can download the audio recording in your personal account Dialogs, "for this you just need to transfer the file to the download area. In total, you can download up to 1 GB of materials. Audio tracks will be stored on Yandex servers and played back when the user interacts with the skill.

The opportunity has already been tested by several companies. So, the Finna team developed the skill "Citadel. Part Two, "in which the game plot takes place in short dialogues with the user. This skill uses about 50 sound tracks voiced by actors. The AppTractor team has created the "Birds of Russia" skill, which allows you to hear the voices of more than 40 birds and learn interesting facts about different species. And the project of the Getbeat.ru team "Cool Bits for Rap Track" finds free and paid bits in such parameters as speed, genre and mood.

Integration into Yandex: Smart Home

On May 23, 2019, Yandex introduced a smart home run by Alice. Now you can ask her to light up the light, lower the temperature on the air conditioner or make the TV louder. Yandex's smart home works with dozens of devices created by Philips, Redmond, Rubetek, Samsung and Xiaomi - smart bulbs, sockets and home electrical appliances. Read more here.

Integration into LG XBOOM AI ThinQ smart speaker WK7Y

On April 19, 2019, Yandex announced that Alice first settled in the Electronics LG device - the LG XBOOM AI ThinQ WK7Y smart speaker. Read more here.

Integration into the smart speaker Elari SmartBeat

On March 19, 2019, Elari and Yandex announced the start of federal sales of the Elari SmartBeat portable smart speaker with voice assistant Alice. Read more here.

Ability to turn on a radio station or TV channel

On March 15, 2019, Yandex announced that users of Yandex.Station, Irbis A and Dexp Smartbox smart speakers can now listen to the radio. Voice assistant Alice will help you find and turn on the radio station.

Dozens of radio stations are available in Yandex.Station and other smart speakers with Alice. To turn on the radio, it is enough to say: "Alice, turn on 91.2" or "Alice, turn on the radio" Maximum '. " Alice will determine where the person is and find a local version of the radio station. If you do not name a specific station, Alice will start a random one or turn on the one that the person listened to before. And if you ask: "Next" or "Previous," the voice assistant will find the closest in frequency. In addition, Alice knows how to answer the question of which radio stations she has.

With the help of Yandex.Station, you can also watch Yandex.Ether TV channels. As of March 2019, more than 140 TV channels are available on the Air, including about 20 Yandex channels. The company offers viewers content of different topics. They are broadcast from early morning to deep night, and without advertising. Some Ether channels can be watched in high resolution - thanks to Yandex DeepHD technology.

2018

Training in the skills of a guide in museums of the Sverdlovsk region

On December 26, 2018, the Great Northern Expedition Routes company announced that the voice assistant Alice could become a guide in museums in the Sverdlovsk Region by the spring of 2019 and tell visitors about Renaissance paintings, exhibits and artifacts, an artificial Earth satellite and Vitus Bering's expedition.

According to the company, the Mamatov publishing house, together with the platform of free audio excursions izi. TRAVEL plan to train Yandex's voice assistant. "Alice" will be able to become a guide in nine museums in the Sverdlovsk region, which were included in the project "Routes of the Great Northern Expedition." During his "studies," the audio assistant will master the data on the exhibits of museums in Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Tagil, Kamensk-Uralsky, Irbit, Verkhoturye, Verkhnyaya Pyshma, Turinsk, Kamyshlov and the village of Bilimbay. It will be enough for visitors to photograph an object from the exposition on a smartphone, and Alice will launch an audio guide about it.

According to the plan, "Alice" will become a real guide and will be able to tell stories about the original of Rubens's painting "Penitent Mary Magdalene and her sister Martha," a portrait of the Princess of the Netherlands by Van Dyck, guns cast for the expedition by Vitus Bering, a model of the first artificial satellite of the Earth and for December 2018 about another 200 rare exhibits from museum collections. Ildar Mamatov, author of the project "Routes of the Great Northern Expedition," member of the Russian Geographical Society

The voice assistant recognizes objects using computer vision. Then runs audio recordings from the izi platform. TRAVEL, which hosts audio guides from nearly 2,000 museums around the world as of December 2018.

The organizers of the project collected data for "Alice" during the preparation of excursion routes in cities, where as of December 2018, more than 300 people studied the places associated with the expedition of Vitus Bering with the help of a historical quest in the footsteps of the captain-commander.

Advice on insurance issues from Absolute Insurance

On December 14, 2018, Absolute Insurance announced that Alice's virtual voice assistant will now advise the company's clients on insurance issues. According to the company, the Absolute Insurance skill is available in Yandex.Browser and on smartphones.

Alice answers the most common customer questions for December 2018, which were received based on the analysis of calls to the contact center by phone and through the company's website. As a result, the voice assistant will help reduce the load of contact center operators when answering simple questions. Alice also helps customers understand the main insurance products of the company and sends it to the purchase page of the insurance policy.

In the future, it is planned to "teach" Alice to pre-fill the calculator and calculate the cost of insurance at the request of customers, as well as online to issue and pay for the policy. Thus, the company's customers will be able to purchase insurance using exclusively voice commands. To start a conversation, the user must say the activation phrase: "Start the Absolute Insurance skill!

Absolute Insurance is taking steps to bring the dialogue with Alice as close as possible to the usual human communication, to make it more thematically diverse, comfortable and effective. For the convenience of potential policyholders, in the near future the Absolute Insurance skill will be released for Yandex.Station.

Smart devices with Alice - IRBIS A and DEXP Smartbox

On November 19, 2018, Yandex introduced compact devices with Alice - IRBIS A and DEXP Smartbox.

According to the company, outwardly the devices resemble mini-speakers, but inside everyone has a miniature computer. Alice lives on a computer, who understands human speech and helps with simple things. Both devices are light and compact, no more than a tea cup, so they are convenient to use throughout the house. In the kitchen, such an assistant will tell you how much to cook semolina porridge, and set a timer so that it does not burn. In the children's room - he will tell a fairy tale and sing a song, play or chat with children. In the bedroom - will set an alarm and turn on pleasant music or the noise of the sea so that it is easier to sleep. In the living room - will tell you the time or will tell you the latest news.

Smart assistants are no longer the future, they are firmly in our lives. For example, Yandex.Station users for November 2018 turn to it on average 20 times a day. So that there are more such assistants, we have created the Yandex.IO platform, which allows the manufacturer to make its product "smart" itself. For November 2018, we are pleased to present the first devices created by our partners on this platform " Konstantin Kruglov, Yandex Experimental Product Director

Both devices operate from the electrical network. They can also be connected to external acoustics: DEXP Smartbox via Bluetooth, and IRBIS A via wire.

As of November 2018, along with IRBIS A and DEXP Smartbox, Alice already lives in 3G children's watches Elari KidPhone Sony and Xperia Ear Duo headphones, as well as at the Station, in, and Navigator Browser other Yandex services.

Additional skill "I am a professional"

On October 16, 2018, SPBPU announced that voice assistant Alice had learned to help in career guidance.

You can turn to her not only for help in solving everyday problems, but also for advice in choosing a profession. The emerging skill of the voice assistant is called "I am a professional." This is a career guidance test, the results of which will tell users about their tendencies and suitable areas of activity. With the help of seven original questions about triangles, horse and jokes, the user will be helped to choose one of 11 specialties related to the directions of the "I am a professional" Olympiad, whose technical partner is Yandex. To start the test, you need to turn to Alice with a request: "Start the skill 'I am a professional'."

As of October 2018, the Olympiad has more than 100 partner employers, with HR consultants of most of whom we constantly work. But Alice, of course, is an HR expert at the Olympiad with artificial intelligence.

Career guidance with Alice is an interesting idea. Very reminiscent of the game 'Akinator', only Alice solves the problem harder - guesses who you are. A small entertainment survey results in a result that amazingly describes you. In addition, perhaps Alice will see something else in you that you do not even know.

Registration for the Olympics "I am a professional" started on September 26, 2018. Until November 22, all Russian students and recent university graduates can apply for 54 directions of the Olympiad. Demos of tasks and profile webinars from teachers of Russian universities are already available for participants on the portal. These materials will allow you to better prepare for tests.

Alice Prize Competition

On October 10, 2018, Yandex announced the Alice Prize competition. Each month, the company will reward developers who teach Alice various skills. By the end of 2018, they will receive a total of more than a million rubles. The competition was launched in honor of Alice's birthday.

Anyone can teach Alice something. To do this, you need to come up with a skill script, program it in any language and add it to the voice assistant through the Dialogs platform. The skill will appear in Alice's directory and will be available to all users. They will be able to find it in the corresponding thematic section or selection. And so that as many people as possible learn about Alice's added skill, you can talk about it, for example, on social networks.

Once a month, Alice's team will pick the top five skills and reward their creators. The award will be received by the authors of the most popular skills, to which people return again and again. It will also take into account how useful these skills are - whether they make people's lives more pleasant and interesting. The author of the best skill will receive 150 thousand rubles, the remaining winners - 100, 85, 70 and 50 thousand rubles, respectively. Only independent developers can apply for the award, the competition will last until the end of 2018.

author '= Denis Filippov, Alice's director ' You don't have to be super to create a good skill programmer. Even a novice can do it. The idea itself is important here, the scenario of interaction with the user. If you manage to find something that people really need, the skill will become popular.

Alice is available in Yandex.Browser for Windows and mobile devices, in the Yandex application, Navigator and Yandex.Stationi. She knows how to search the Internet, knows many games and is able to help in business. As of October 2018, Alice has 28,000 skills in his arsenal, 900 of them are chatbots.

"Alice" learned to understand music and received computer vision

The voice assistant "Alice," developed by Yandex, has computer vision and musical hearing. If you show Alice a photo, she will understand what is depicted on it, and if you turn on the music, she will tell you a song and offer to listen to it on Yandex.Music^[4].

"Alice" recognizes from the photo a model and brand of a car, a breed of cat or dog, identifies an unfamiliar building or monument, will name a celebrity or a work of art. If there is text in the photo, "Alice" will offer to recognize it and translate it into Russian or another language using Yandex.Translator. Seeing a smartphone, a pair of shoes or another product - will find similar options on Yandex.Market or in Yandex's search.

If music is playing nearby, it is enough to ask: "Alice, what is playing now?" - and she will tell the song and the artist. In this "Alice" helps the technology "Yandex.Music," created on the basis of neural networks. The image recognition technology used by Alice has also been developed using machine learning. The same technology works, for example, in searching by pictures on a computer and in the Yandex application. Alexander Krainov, head of the Yandex computer vision service, spoke in more detail about how computer vision is used today at the YaC conference.

""Alice "is designed to help people with everyday activities - and she makes it better and better. She knew how to search the Internet, find out the situation on the road or the weather forecast for a long time, and this year she learned many more necessary things: to call a taxi, start an alarm clock, set a timer, "says Ilya Subbotin, head of the Alisa product. - Now "Alice" knows how to tell what kind of melody is playing on the radio, or to identify some mysterious fruit from the photo. And will continue to learn. "

2017

Gref called Yandex's voice assistant stupid. "Alice" could not answer him because of the first law of robotics

The head of Sberbank German Gref said on December 21 that the voice assistant Alice, released by Yandex in October 2017, is very stupid and needs to be improved. "I tried to talk to her, but I didn't really succeed," Gref^[5].

At the same time, Gref noted that amazing people work in Yandex, and the company's engineers are no worse than Google employees.

A few hours later, the Yandex press service replied to the head of Sberbank: "According to the first law of robotics, a robot cannot harm a person. And the robot, unfortunately, can offend everyone. " As the press service of the Meduse company said, Alice is not offended, works further and congratulates everyone on the New Year

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System Presentation

On October 10, 2017, Yandex introduced Alice, a voice assistant who will help find information on the Internet, tell you where to eat dinner, talk about the weather for tomorrow and help solve many other everyday problems.

Opportunities

Thanks to a neural network trained on a huge array of texts, you can just chat to Alice. According to the developers, she knows how to recognize and process incomplete phrases and questions, takes into account the context of what she said and is able to improvise, while endowed with character and even a sense of humor.

For example, Alice might be asked, "Where's the coffee nearby?," rather than dictating "astronaut street coffee shop." Alice will look into Yandex.Directory and offer a suitable place. In response to "Great, how to go there?" - will give a link to the route already built in Yandex.Cartag.

Voice and Technology

Alice knows how to recognize speech, determine the value of what was said and synthesize her voice in order to pronounce the answer thanks to SpeechKit speech technologies. She speaks in the voice of actress Tatyana Shitova. Alice was trained on Shitova's recordings using a neural network that glues sounds into words and selects intonation.

We wanted Alice to speak to people in their language, and not teach her how to do it, as computer interfaces have done in the past, "said Denis Filippov, head of Yandex's speech technologies. "For this, first of all, it is necessary that she understands real human speech, and not just perfectly uttered requests. This was one of the priorities when developing Alice, and now, according to our measurements, she is the best of the voice assistants for recognizing Russian speech. By the WER metric, Alice recognizes speech with an accuracy close to human.

Working with services and applications

Alice knows how to work with several Yandex services, including Search, Maps, Music and Weather. According to Yandex's plans, over time, it will learn to contact other services and will be able to do more - for example, advise a film or call a taxi.

In the future, other companies will also be able to give Alice access to their services, and she already knows how to launch third-party applications - you can ask her to open Instagram or VKontakte.

Availability

You can talk with Alice in the Yandex application and the beta version of the Voice Assistant for Windows. Soon it will appear in Yandex.Browser, and then in other Yandex products.

Notes