New Cortana and Bing-powered Alexa competitor announced at CES 2017

Mattel unveiled a new device at CES today that’s kind of a combination of a baby monitor and an Alexa-type personal assistant. It’s called, Aristotle, and is made up of two devices; a small video camera and speaker/microphone/light tower.

Aristotle is designed for adults and children and can do a range of activities ranging from singing songs to crying babies, teaching languages, changing room lighting, automatically order items such as diapers from select stores, and conduct web searches for information. Interestingly, the web searches will be powered my Microsoft’s Bing platform and the processing will be performed by Microsoft Cognitive Services and Cortana Intelligence.

The voice spoken by Aristotle isn’t Cortana however despite being powered by her. All of the data processing is being wrapped up in a digital personae unique to this device and there will apparently be several different voice options to choose from.

“Unlike other voice activated, AI-driven connected home platforms, Aristotle is designed with a specific purpose and mission: to aid parents and use the most advanced AI-driven technology to make it easier for them to protect, develop, and nurture the most important asset in their home—their children,” Mattel said in a press release.

Are you curious about Aristotle? Let us know in the comments below.

Further reading: Bing, Cortana, Microsoft, Windows 10