亚马逊和谷歌称霸的智能语音领域迎来新对手-阿里巴巴

　　There’s a big new player in the competition to infiltrate homes with smart speakers: Chinese online sales giant Alibaba.

　　近日又有一家来自中国的电商巨头宣布进军家庭智能语音技术领域，加入该领域的竞争。

　　The e-commerce company unveiled its Tmall Genie speaker Wednesday in Beijing. Like Amazon’s Echo, the speaker has an AI personal assistant and answers voice commands. A trial sale of the speakers begins today with the first 1,000 shoppers able to get one for $73. The speakers will be available to the general public on August 8. For now, Alibaba’s Tmall Genie speaks Mandarin and will only be available only in China.

　　上周三，这家电子商务公司在北京发布了天猫精灵语音助手，如亚马逊的Echo一样，天猫精灵是一个人工智能机器人，可以执行语音命令。在今天预售活动中，1000位幸运买家可以以73美元的价格购买淘宝精灵，并且该产品的正式发售日期定为8月8号。目前淘宝精灵仅支持普通话版本，所以只在中国市场销售。

　　In a demonstration Wednesday, Alibaba engineers used the Genie to order Coca Cola, play music, add credit to a phone and activate a smart humidifier and TV, according to Reuters. For a video, visit Tmall on the social media network Weibo.

　　根据路透视报道，在上周三发布会上的演示环节，阿里巴巴的研发人员通过淘宝精灵购买可口可可，播放音乐，充话费和控制加湿器、电视等智能家电，还有一段在社交应用微博上访问天猫的视频记录。

　　Alibaba is just the latest player to enter the smart speaker competition and it may be doing so as a defensive move. Just a month ago, Apple introduced its own HomePod speaker ($349, due in December), powered by Siri and understanding six languages. Google’s Home speaker hit the market last year.

　　阿里巴巴作为进入智能语音领域的新玩家，此举很有可能是回应竞争对手的防御性举动，因为就在去年十二月，苹果发布了旗下的以Siri为内核的HomePod产品，可以支持六种语言，而谷歌也在去年发布自己的智能语音产品。

　　And Amazon, which has begun venturing into China, although primarily to connect Chinese producers with U.S. consumers, has been selling Echo speakers for three years. Its new Echo Show speaker, released just more than a week ago, has a screen for watching videos and making phone calls.

　　还有亚马逊已经进入中国市场，虽然目前主要停留在与产品销往美国的中国制造商合作，但该种合作已经持续了三年之久。另外，亚马逊就在上周发布全新的Echo,配备有屏幕和拨打电话的功能。

　　Research firm eMarketer expects 35.6 million Americans will use a voice-activated assistant device at least once a month. Amazon owns more than 70% of the market, it says.

　　据统计公司eMarketer发布的数据显示，在美国约有3560万的用户至少每月使用一次智能语音助手，而亚马逊目前已经占据的70%的市场份额。

　　Alibaba has its own competition already in China, where social media and online game company Tencent is working on its own digital speaker and search giant Baidu has developed its own personal assistant DuerOS.

　　同时，阿里巴巴还要面对来自国内厂商的竞争，社交应用和在线游戏巨头腾讯公司正在研发自己的智能语音助手，搜索巨头百度已经发布独立研发的DuerOS语音助手产品。

　　While Alibaba may look to undercut competition with the lowest price, it could benefit from teaming up with Baidu, says Richard Windsor, an analyst at Edison Investment Research. Alibaba has already gotten customers to shop with their mobile devices -- users already make more than 80% that way -- so the AI aspect is very important.

　　据一位来自爱迪生投资公司的分析员Richard Windson称，面对如此多的竞争对手，阿里巴巴可以利用价格优势进行竞争，另外也可以谋求与百度合作的方式。另外阿里巴巴已经实现了让超过80%的购物者通过手机购物，所以AI技术对于阿里巴巴是十分重要的。

　　"If the shopping experience is not much enhanced by having a speaker, it will need to be very good at other functions in order to be appealing," he said in a research note Tuesday. "Typically, these have included the ability to play music, answer general inquiries and control smart devices around the home. Offering a decent user experience in these areas is a much more general AI problem and one with which Baidu is far more advanced."

　　他在上周二的一份调查分析中称："如果没有语音助手来丰富购物体验，就需要阿里巴巴在其它方面做得有吸引力。目前，典型的语音助手已经具备了播放音乐，解决日常问题和控制智能家电的功能，要为消费者提供良好的用户体验更属于人工智能的技术领域，显然在这一方面百度已经遥遥领先了。"