Talk by William Tunstall-Pedoe, founder and inventor of Evi

We are very excited to announce this talk and networking event. Our speaker, William Tunstall-Pedoe, will talk about the technology that goes into automatic answering of questions on any subject using your voice.

Please note that all participants must RSVP with their real name 48 hours prior to the event.

PLEASE READ: If you have RSVP:ed, but not used your full name or used an alias, you will be denied entry. Please send me (nikko@amazon.com) a note with your full name so I can add you to the list!

Also, feel free to contact one of the Organizers if you have further questions (Michael Tjalve, Brian Lysak, Gina-Anne Levow, Nikko Strom, Sabrina Burleigh).

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Location: Building #21 on this map

http://photos3.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/3/0/4/a/600_332352362.jpeg

Van Vorst living room at Amazon. 426 Terry Ave, Seattle.

Parking:

There is street-parking that tend to open up more at night after business hours. Some parking garages may close at night so be sure to read all signs.

Title:

Answering any question, in any language, in one second or less

Synopsis:

Evi (formerly True Knowledge) is a Cambridge, England based business specializing in the automatic answering of questions on any subject. Amazon acquired the business in October 2012 and thus now has a team with this expertise (and a Cambridge-based development center). The Evi smartphone application (iPhone and Android) can already answer unlimited numbers of open-domain questions asked by customers using voice. This talk will explain the deep technology behind the application, the problems and challenges the team have had and what is needed to scale to a world where everyone has instant access to all available information simply by asking for it.

Bio:

The speaker, William Tunstall-Pedoe was the founder of Evi, the inventor of its technology and the CEO of the business for most of its history prior to acquisition. William is a Cambridge University computer science graduate but his career has been in business, developing AI applications and marketing them through businesses he has founded. Previous products include a commercial chess-playing program, the first and only program which can solve and explain cryptic crossword clues and the AI anagram-generating software which was used by Dan Brown to create the anagrams that appeared in the Da Vinci Code book and movie.