Amazon today announced the unholy union of Alexa and Big Mouth Billy Bass. This means the singing fish toy that no one will admit to unironically liking will soon be squirming all over your wall, lip-syncing to your music.
What we've all been waiting for. Alexa Gadgets API enables Billy Bass pic.twitter.com/pUjmJW2dm7
— Geoff Blaber (@geoffblaber) September 27, 2017
For the moment, music seems to be Billy and Alexa’s only point of overlap. According to Business Insider, the first Alexa-compatible Billy swims out later this year.
Last year, when an artist stuffed Alexa’s voice inside of Billy like some kind of bizarre Horcrux, we laughed — in a terrified manner, because it was a disturbing Lovecraftian gadget, but we laughed regardless! But Amazon must have seen that hellish roe and said, “Challenge accepted,” because now we have the official version.
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Look, I’m all for Bluetooth, AI, and the ability play show tunes in every room in my house, but … not like this. This is not the future I wanted.
Update (4:30pm CST): An Amazon spokesperson clarified a few details about Billy to us. They said, “Big Mouth Billy Bass is not Alexa-powered or an AVS device. It is an Alexa Gadget, a new category for us, that connects to Echo devices via Bluetooth and responds to Alexa actions. For example, when Alexa plays music, the Bass will lip sync and move to the beat.”
h/t Business Insider
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