from Hacker News

Amazon Lex – Conversational interfaces for your applications

by osmode on 12/5/16, 9:25 PM with 17 comments

  • by sctb on 12/6/16, 12:30 AM

  • by daveguy on 12/5/16, 10:20 PM

    I'm not sure what the benefit of this is over the alexa voice service api:

    https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/alexa/alexa-vo...

    Does anyone know how this differs from alexa voice services? Does this allow you to get away from the stilted "example phrases" of the alexa api and just get a transcript? Judging from the inclusion of "intents" on the faq, it looks like the "example phrase" interface will still be required:

    https://aws.amazon.com/lex/faqs/

  • by voltagex_ on 12/5/16, 10:21 PM

    Pricing: https://aws.amazon.com/lex/pricing/

    >$0.004 per voice request, and $.00075 per text request.

    I don't know what else to compare this to.

  • by pedalpete on 12/5/16, 10:15 PM

    I see how they went from Alexa to Lex, but does anybody else think the only time they've ever heard of Lex is Lex Luther? Is it a great idea to name a product aimed at developers which is boardering in the AI space after Superman's nemesis?

    I'm not going to forget it as a name. Thoughts?

  • by pmontra on 12/5/16, 11:02 PM

    Does it handle only English?

  • by rrggrr on 12/5/16, 11:07 PM

    I won't participate and here is why... I want to delay my disintermediation and assimilation a little longer. At some point, soon, Amazon will displace commerce and the merchant class as we know it and I am not ready to let go yet.