What happens when you ask British Alexa to calculate 10 to the power of 308

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Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/05/02/what-happens-when-you-ask-brit.html

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You need to change your headline

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10^308 is an integer, a subset of the rational numbers.

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Looks like Siri knows how to speak wolfram alpha.

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Sounds like a washing machine.

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Love the way the US one gets tired of zero and reverts to ‘oh’ after a while. And the musicality of both, especially the US one around 50-60 seconds in.

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Alexa, was it good for you?

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Yes. I was amazed at how it varies the tone and speed to make it sound human. They should add some pauses to take a breath.

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Does British Alexa really have the little flag on it to differentiate it from other Alexas?

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Like, just to clarify “I will say Zed and not threaten my allies with trade sanctions?”

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Google Assistant is positively lazy in comparison:

Google Photos

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Ask Alexa to read the lyrics for “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”. The results are fun.

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I just tried factorials. I’m pleased with the results. And that Alexa can be interrupted.

I had to try factorials because I used to have a Commodore calculator from the early 80’s (likely the SR-9190R); I bought it 'cause it had damn near every function I new about, and then some.

The factorial function was very slow. I think it maxed out at 59!, and would take almost 2 minutes to display the answer. And noticable warm up the 9-volt battery and reduce it’s life).

Sigh…

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I kept waiting for the beat to drop.

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Want to make it sound more human? Then your answer should be “That’s a one with 308 zeroes” in normal circumstances no human will read this all out.

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That’s a great answer.

If you imagine Alexa as an exasperated parent of a small child, just trying to make her answer take as long as possible to delay the next question, it makes a lot of sense.

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but did she get it right?

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Right about now…

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‘Entirely different experience’? I don’t think so. An entirely different experience would be the Amerikan version replying with, ‘Aw fuck off!’ or “I’m too stupid to answer that.” On another note, the British woman asking Alexa sounded almost exactly like Alexa. I had to play that part again do differentiate their voices.

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That’s weird, it sounds like a different language, like Swahili or something.