Last November, Amazon challenged 15 teams of some of the world’s best computer science graduate students to build “a socialbot that can converse coherently and engagingly with humans on popular topics for 20 minutes.” If a team is successful, the member will not only get academic glory and the promise of brilliant future careers, they will also walk away with a $1 million purse, which Amazon has called the Alexa Prize. Amazon has more than 5,000 people working on the Alexa platform, and since 2015, they have sold more than 20 million Echoes. According to Wired, Amazon believes that one day, AIs will do more than control the lights or play you some music. The company firmly believes that AI will drive cars, diagnose diseases, and be a part of our every aspect of our life. But today, Alexa fails to comprehend the obvious. Alexa can set alarms and fulfill some commands, but taking part in human conversation is widely recognized as one of the hardest problems in AI. Amazon is facing that challenge head-on.
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