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Amazon's Alexa and Microsoft's Cortana Are A.I. BFFs

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The world of artificial intelligence now has a new duo of AI besties: Microsoft's Cortana and Amazon's Alexa are now compatible and will be able to communicate across both platforms. 

According to TechNewsWorld, Microsoft users will be able to access Alexa by saying "Cortana, open Alexa" on any Cortana-supported devices such as Windows PCs, tablets, and later on, Android and iOS devices, noted Andrew Shuman, corporate vice president, Cortana Engineering.

Alexa is integrated with various home devices such as lights, security systems, window blinds, and more, so this new "friendship" with Cortana users would allow them to access the same control over home technology. And likewise, the new relationship will also allow Alexa users to access appointments, reminders, email and other functionality by saying "Alexa, open Cortana."

"There are going to be multiple, successful, intelligent agents, each with access to different sets of data and with different specialized skill areas," said Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

The collaboration puts Amazon and Microsoft as competitors with Google and Apple in the mobile space, says Mark Beccue, principal analyst atTractica. He told TechNewsWorld, "[Microsoft and Amazon] virtual assistants are not very multimodal yet. Maybe they feel stronger together."

The world of smart speakers/virtual assistants is growing. As of spring 2017, Amazon boasted 11 million Alexa users on their Amazon Echo and Dot devices. Cortana is available on 145 million devices, including computers and mobile devices, according to Microsoft.

This fall, Microsoft plans on launching its own smart speaker called Invoke, much like the independent Alexa devices. The project is a partnership with Harman Kardon. Apple is also prepping the release of their HomePod, which is scheduled to launch in December just in time for Christmas.