扎拉·馬爾羅伊

Gadget-obsessed Annabelle Gates decided against “mamma” or “dada” for her first word.

Lurking in thousands of households all over the UK is an extra， invisible family member.

She’s there first thing in the morning and she’s on hand last thing at night.

In very little time she’s got to know your taste in music， films， how you like your lighting and she’ll even tell you what the weather’s like， should you ask.

We are， of course， talking about Alexa1—Amazon Echo’s2 “personal assistant”.

Alexa has become a pretty big deal and presence in many homes and in case you need further evidence of this， just ask mum-of-two， Catherine Gates.

Catherine， 26， from Blandford Forum， Dorset， was recently completely taken aback when she heard 11-month-old daughter， Annabelle， utter her first word.

Instead of “mama” or the slightly easier to say “dada”， Annabelle tapped the Amazon Echo and repeatedly blurted out “Alexa”.

Annabelle had been watching her brother Lucas， three， playing with the voice-activated gadget for months.

So when it came to the tot’s milestone moment—which Catherine got husband Liam in to witness too—she knew exactly what to say.

Since uttering her first word on Monday， Liam said Annabelle has repeated it a dozen times—even when she was getting baptised later that day.

The police officer said： “We’ve been battling for her to say ‘mummy’ or ‘daddy’ but she just went in a completely different direction.

“She’s the definition of a modern-day baby.

“We were just in shock.

“We use it with the kids to play nursery rhymes and Baby Shark3.

“She can’t activate the device but the fact it’s her first word is pretty something.

“We’re hoping she’ll learn another word soon as she just keeps blurting it out.

“She’s become completely obsessed with the word.

“It’s got to the point now that when she wakes up from a sleep or a nap she’ll start shouting ‘Alexa’ from her cot.”

The couple were gifted the virtual assistant Amazon Alexa in Christmas 2017 by a family member and use the device daily to play nursery rhymes.

Annabelle had just been taken out of her high-chair when she wandered over to the voice-activated Amazon device and blurted out its name.

The Amazon Alexa connects users to Alexa—a cloud-based voice service—to play music， control your smart home， get information， news and weather updates.

癡迷于電子娛樂設備的安娜貝爾·蓋茨出生后，說出的第一個詞既不是“媽媽”，也不是“爹爹”。

一位隱形的編外家庭成員正悄悄地融入成千上萬的英國家庭中。

從清晨到深夜，她都靜靜地待在你的左右。

她可以在很短的時間內(nèi)弄清楚你的音樂和電影品味以及你喜歡什么樣的照明程度，而且只要你問，她甚至能告訴你當前的天氣狀況。

這里的“她”當然是指“亞歷克莎”——亞馬遜厄科智能音箱的“個人助手”。

亞歷克莎已經(jīng)成為一種重要的電子設備，許多家庭都有。如果你需要進一步證明，可以去問問兩個孩子的母親——凱瑟琳·蓋茨。

現(xiàn)年26歲的凱瑟琳來自多塞特郡的布蘭德福特福魯姆。最近，當她11個月大的女兒安娜貝爾說出第一個詞時，這位母親驚訝不已。

安娜貝爾說出的第一個詞既不是“媽媽”，也不是發(fā)音稍容易些的“爹爹”。她拍打著亞馬遜厄科智能音箱，一遍又一遍地喊著“亞歷克莎”。

幾個月來，安娜貝爾常常看自己3歲的哥哥盧卡斯玩這款語音啟動的設備。

所以，在這意義非凡的時刻，小寶寶非常清楚該說什么。凱瑟琳叫來了丈夫利亞姆，共同見證了這一刻。

據(jù)父親利亞姆稱，自從周一第一次說出這個詞后，安娜貝爾又十幾次重復說過，甚至在當天晚些時候的受洗禮儀式上也說了。

這位警察父親說道：“我們一直努力教她說‘媽咪’和‘爹地’，但她卻完全走偏了。

“她就是現(xiàn)代潮童的代名詞。

“我們都目瞪口呆。

“我們用這款智能音箱為孩子播放傳統(tǒng)兒歌和《鯊魚寶寶》。

“她還不會啟動這款音箱，但她說的第一個詞竟然是‘亞歷克莎’，實在是不可思議。

“寶寶不停地說‘亞歷克莎’，我們希望她能很快學會別的詞。

“她對這個詞完全著迷了。

“一覺醒來，或是打個盹兒后，她就又開始在嬰兒床里喊‘亞歷克莎’了?！?/p>

夫妻倆于2017年圣誕節(jié)從一位親戚那里獲贈亞馬遜亞歷克莎虛擬助手，并每天用此設備播放兒歌。

安娜貝爾剛被人從高腳椅上抱下來，便不經(jīng)意地走向語音啟動的亞馬遜助手，并脫口喊出亞歷克莎的名字。

亞馬遜亞歷克莎助手能將用戶與亞歷克莎（一項基于云的語音服務）進行連接，來播放音樂、控制智能家居、獲取信息、新聞和最新天氣預報。

（譯者單位：華中科技大學）