In the demo, a young boy asks “Alexa, can grandma finish reading me the Wizard of Oz?” to which, in his grandma’s voice, comes the reply “Ok” and then a short passage from the book.

This is achieved using less than 60 seconds of recorded audio of the person speaking, and is able to turn it into a high-quality AI voice that Alexa can use to say anything, not only reading books.

Prasad said nothing else about the feature, so there’s no word on when (or even if) it will be make available for consumers to use.

Depending upon how you feel about it, hearing the voice of a departed family member could be a way to “make their memories last”, as Prasad put it, acknowledging that it certainly can’t eliminate the pain of that loss.

He didn’t, naturally, mention the downsides to the technology which could be open to abuse. It would be simple, for example, to get Alexa to simulate anyone’s voice, which could be used for fraud or a number of other malicious activities.

Jim has been testing and reviewing products for over 20 years. His main beats include VPN services and antivirus. He also covers smart home tech, mesh Wi-Fi and electric bikes.