Alexa Answers: Amazon launches crowdsourcing platform

Amazon wants you (and basically anyone) to answer queries for their virtual voice assistant, Alexa. The company wants Alexa to learn from your answers through a crowdsourcing platform.

The tech giant made ‘Alexa Answers’ available to the public so you can answer the questions that other people ask Amazon’s digital assistant. In the platform, users will get to search for questions that Alexa has no answer to and then, answer these themselves.

According to Amazon, crowdsourcing helps the virtual assistant come up with an answer to even the most complicated queries. It also creates a community amongst those who own Alexa-enabled devices to help other users.

In order to access questions on the website, users have to sign in with their Amazon accounts. CNET reports that questions are filtered by Amazon by categories such as most frequently asked, latest and niche-specific areas.

When Alexa gives its answers from the platform, it will let you know that the information it is serving is “according to an Amazon customer.”

Alexa Answers actually made its debut last year, but only through invites as per CNET. According to the company, over thousands of answers from the platform’s contributors were shared by Alexa users.

But letting just anyone answer queries can be a tough call. With that being said, Amazon says it filters answers to prevent offensive language, profanities, and topics. Members can also use the flag feature to bring attention to inappropriate answers. Upvoting or downvoting can also be done for specific answers.

“High-quality answers are important to us, and this is something we take seriously,” a company spokesperson said.

Christian Woods
Christian Woods
Christian is a morning reporter and technology columnist for Best in Australia. Christian has worked in the media since 2000, in a range of locations. He joined Best in Australia in 2018, and began working in Melbourne in 2019.
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