Amazon.com, Inc’s efforts in artificial intelligence research are about to be given a boost by the incredibly sharp mind of one Ashwin Ram, an ex-Palo Alto Research Center Inc. (better known as “Xerox PARC”) employee and a researcher in cognitive science, who’s just joined its AI R&D team.

Amazon hasn’t said anything official about the hire, but Ram himself tweeted that he’s “excited to join Amazon”, which is confirmation enough for us.

A spokesperson for Amazon later confirmed the hire to The Register, but refused to provide any further details. However, Ram has apparently been appointed as Alexa AI senior manager, according to his updated profile on LinkedIn.

During his tenure at Xerox PARC, Ram served as the company’s Chief Innovation Officer. He’s also something of an entrepreneur, having founded no less than three companies, including one called Enkia Inc. that created AI software for data analysis and was later acquired by Sentiment360. Ram also pens a popular research blog on cognitive computing, though that’s gone a little quiet in recent months. On LinkedIn, he lists his “core strengths” as artificial intelligence, cognitive science, machine learning, human-centered design, and social/mobile computing

Xerox PARC is a well known R&D powerhouse at Silicon Valley that’s responsible for innovations computer mouse, the GUI, Ethernet, ubiquitous computing, the WYSIWYG editor, laser printing and other revolutionary technologies that are now taken for granted. Xerox PARC, besides being famous for nurturing talent, is also notable for failing to hold onto the talent, The Register says, with visionaries leaving a common happenstance for the company .

In his new role at Amazon, Ram will be tasked with helping to bolster the company’s Alexa voice-powered digital assistant that’s housed inside its Echo wireless speakers. Amazon wants Alexa to evolve beyond just answering questions and reading audiobooks to become a “virtual robot” that can even help out with household tasks. The company is already making progress in that direction – most recently, Alexa was hooked up to Securfi’s new Almond 3 router that can act as a kind of hub for smart devices all over the home. It interfaces with Alexa so that homeowners can use it to turn on and off lights, open and close locks, and so on.

Amazon’s AI efforts go beyond Alexa too. The company is keen to incorporate the technology into its other services, such as the search function on its retail website.

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