Episode 47 - Talking Machines

The Alexa Prize Socialbot Grand Challenge is a competition for university students to create a social bot that can converse coherently and engagingly with humans.  This year's prize goes to the team from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. I speak with Prem Natarajan, vice president of natural understanding in the Alexa AI organization, about the prize, the evolution of conversational AI, its current challenges and its future promise