For those of you that have always dreamed of falling asleep to Samuel L. Jackson’s dulcet tones, I have just the thing for you.
Well, Amazon does because its new celebrity voice program for Alexa has kicked off with the 70-year-old actor, allowing you to listen to the legend from the comfort of your own living room each and every day.
You can download Jackson’s voice for a special introductory price of 99 cents, and can do so by simply asking your Alexa: ‘Alexa, introduce me to Samuel L. Jackson.’
Once you’ve done that, you have the option to choose whether you want the ‘clean’ or ‘explicit’ version – let’s face it, if you’re not choosing the latter you need to have a serious word with yourself.
Just as you can with Alexa, you can get the actor to tell you the weather, play your music, set timers, wake you up, tell jokes, sing Happy Birthday, the list continues…
Here’s where it gets interesting though, because you can also get Jackson to tell you information about his career and personal interests. And as if all of that isn’t enough, you can even get the Hollywood A-lister to swear at you.
Because why wouldn’t you want that?
Unfortunately, it seems Jackson’s voice can’t replace Alexa’s entirely, but lucky users will be able to say commands such as: ‘Alexa, ask Sam to wake me up at 7am’, ‘Alexa, ask Sam to sing me happy birthday’, or ‘Alexa, ask Sam to get me the recipe for a Big Kahuna burger’. Dreamy.
Amazon revealed the exciting news earlier this year at its Amazon Devices event in Seattle in September. Company execs explained how, thanks to new Neural Text-to-Speech technology, the software will be able to replicate speech inflections of real people.
In simple terms, this means Jackson hasn’t pre-recorded any phrases, but the device will actually synthesise his speech inflections in real time. Pretty impressive, right?
As well as the celebrity voice pack, Amazon announced it will be rolling out a multilingual mode for households who speak more than one language.
The company also has plans to extend into transport, with General Motors expected to integrate Alexa into its vehicles from next year – joining the likes of Toyota, BMW and Ford who have already signed up to do the same.
You can purchase and enable the Samuel L. Jackson voice for your Alexa right here.
Don’t say I never give you anything!
If you have a story you want to tell, send it to UNILAD via story@unilad.com
A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).