The Samuel L. Jackon-voiced version of Amazon’s Alexa assistant is now available for purchase and download – and, yes, it has an explicit version.
The Hollywood legend’s dulcet and often harsh tones can be nabbed simply by saying “Alexa, introduce me to Samuel L. Jackson” and then choosing whether you’d like to enable the explicit language or not. The Skill can be manually downloaded here.
The 99¢ download (it’ll be $4.99 following an introductory period) enables owners of Alexa-enabled devices to ask Jackson for music, the weather and questions like:
“Alexa, ask Samuel L. Jackson where he is from.”
“Alexa, ask Sam to wake me up at 7am.”
“Alexa, ask Sam Jackson to sing happy birthday.”
Amazon says the Pulp Fiction and Star Wars actor can help with setting timers, telling jokes and will even sing to you. You can also ask him about his interests and career. However, he can’t do your shopping lists, set reminders or help you download Skills.
Related: Which is the best Amazon Echo speaker to buy?
In fact, if you ask Sam to remind you of something, he’ll respond with “I ain’t reminding you of s**t!” according to the video Amazon has published alongside the app.
While the actor has conducted a pretty hefty recording session with the Echo-maker, the new voice also relies on Amazon’s neural text-to-speech model, which effectively does an impression of Jackson’s voice in order to fill in some of the gaps.
As for the sweary mode, it probably isn’t going to be suitable for all occasions, especially if the family is popping over this festive season. You can easily toggle between clean and explicit mode in the Alexa app, motherf*****s!
The actor’s voice arrives on Alexa-enabled devices after the Google Assistant brought John Legend on board earlier this year. Back in October, the company added the actor and comedian Issa Rae to the mix.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
