AP Licenses Elections Results For Smart Devices

Axios reports:

Many of the world’s biggest tech and telecom companies, like Google, Amazon, Microsoft and AT&T, are licensing the Associated Press’ election results to power their voice, video and search products, executives tell Axios.

How it works: Because tech firms need to answer millions of unique voice commands and search queries in real time, the results will be coded through an API — an interface that a computer program can read — designed to handle “not enough results in yet” and “too close to call” cases.

Many election outcomes are expected to be delayed for at least a week. Given the enormous growth of smart home devices and voice assistants during the pandemic, users are going to expect accurate, real-time updates via those platforms.