Amazon named there ai assistant name Rufus

Who is Rufus?

More than 10,000 dogs now accompany Amazon employees to work, but there was only one in 1996: Rufus, a Welsh corgi who roamed the first warehouse and enjoyed meetings. His long-term impact on the organization far exceeds what his parents, Susan and Eric Benson, could have predicted. When the couple joined Amazon—Eric as one of the company's original software engineers and Susan as the first managing editor—they were among fewer than 20 workers working from a disused janitorial supplies warehouse. They asked Jeff Bezos whether they could bring Rufus to work since they were preparing for the first several hours. Eric recalls his response as, "Is he a good dog?".Rufus was an excellent dog, and Amazon owes its extraordinary dog-friendly culture to him. Though he died in 2009, his presence may still be felt at the Seattle headquarters, where a building bearing his name and images commemorates his memory. Rufus is even the name of Amazon's new generative AI-powered shopping assistant.

In Ancient Rome, it was a sobriquet for people having red hair. Wiliam II of England, William the Conqueror's third son, was also given the same moniker due to his rosy skin. In the United Kingdom, the forename "Rufus" has taken on a blue-blooded aspect. However, because of its pleasant onomatopoeic similarity to barking, dog walkers out for a walk with their furry pals may be more likely to hear it.
So it may raise some eyebrows to learn that online retail behemoth Amazon has chosen to name its latest AI assistant the same thing. Alexa, Amazon's first voice-activated smart assistant, will turn ten years old in November 2024. The name appears to be an homage to Egypt's ancient Library of Alexandria. But the origins of the company's next assistant's moniker are probably considerably cuddlier: Rufus is named after Amazon's first "office dog".

Rufus now joins a growing array of AI assistants offered by major tech companies under cryptic identities. Google's Gemini was previously known as "Titan" before being renamed by the DeepMind team. Gemini is Latin meaning twins, referring to both the partnership between the DeepMind and Google Research teams on the project and the dual personalities associated with the Gemini zodiac sign. It was 1996, amid the dot-com boom, and Susan and Eric Benson had recently joined the two-year-old startup. At the time, Amazon had less than 20 workers, and Eric was the fifth engineer they hired. Susan, a journalist, would become the pioneering internet store's editorial voice. Working long hours as the company prepared to go public, the couple started bringing their two-year-old puppy to work. The canine quickly integrated into the working day, chasing tennis balls in hallways, begging for food from coworkers, sleeping through meetings under tables, and launching website features with his paw (with a little human assistance).