From: Ed Lazowska
Dear UW Leaders:
On September 29, we announced the Alexa Prize, an annual $2.5 million university-focused competition to advance conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI). The goal of the inaugural competition is to build a “socialbot” skill on Alexa (using the Alexa Skills Kit) that will converse with people about popular topics and news events. Starting today, teams of university students can submit applications to build a socialbot and compete to win a $500,000 prize. We also are offering an additional $1 million prize for a socialbot that achieves the grand challenge of conversing coherently and engagingly with humans for 20 minutes.
A key aspect is that university students will be able to get feedback on their algorithms from millions of engaged users of a real-world AI technology. More information is on our website here. Up to 10 teams will also receive sponsorship of $100K to build their conversational bots based on the quality of their proposal.
I immediately thought of you all when I heard about this program. I hope many different teams from the University of Washington can participate. Please feel free to publish this widely.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
This is so cool!
Lori
Lori Clithero
AWS Account Executive | US Enterprise Education | E: loricli@amazon.com | M: 206.227.5054 | O: 206.740.4734
1915 Terry Ave.
Seattle, WA 98101