Amazon recently unveiled a host of new devices and AI services, including the ability for Alexa customers to directly teach Alexa. Among other things, this service helps Alexa "learn new concepts on the fly" by having her ask questions to fill gaps in her understanding—similar to what we do as humans.
On October 1, Jeff Blankenburg and Gokhan Tur met for a live interview to discuss Tur’s experience from his early days working on DARPA programs, how he’s seen the field of conversational AI evolve, and more about the machine learning technologies that provide teachable moments for Alexa.
Tur has spent the past 20 years within the industry exploring the field of human/machine conversational language understanding systems. He has helped research and develop some of today’s leading voice technology systems across a diverse set of companies, and today leads research efforts related to helping Alexa become more conversational, natural, context-aware, knowledgeable, and self-learning.