Perhaps few know William Tunstall-Pedoe by his first name. But he is one of the most outstanding thinkers in the world of Artificial Intelligence. Creator of the bases for Amazon’s Alexa, his algorithm has gone through the world of literature and even crossword puzzles. Now, Tunstall has raised $20 million to create the next step in AI.
Tunstall-Pedoe’s goal is to take a different path than the rest of the creators of Artificial Intelligence machines. If the world is basing all systems on neural networks – the same ones that Dall-e could use to create content – the researcher is willing to take another path. From his point of view, neural networks will not make machines smarter.
Under the London-based name Unlikely AI, Tunstall has given little hint of what it has in mind for its new era of Artificial Intelligence. Although he has anticipated that there will be a relationship with your system for solving crossword puzzles. However, it already has the confidence of the big investors in the sector. Capital Partners, Octopus Ventures and Patrick Pichette, former CFO of Google and current board member of Twitter Inc.
Behind the empire of Alexa on Amazon
Tunstall-Pedoe began creating Artificial Intelligence algorithms in 2005. Creator of a natural language detection system for creating autoresponders, the UK-based startup soon caught the eye of Amazon. Evi, as Pedoe’s company was known, became the foundation stone for Bezos’ company’s Alexa empire.
It was not until 2012 that a first version of Artificial Intelligence came out and it soon became an immediate success in the Android and Apple app stores. It was at this time that Amazon acquired Evi’s technology.. They were the first steps in the war of virtual assistants with Artificial Intelligence from different companies.
Bezos’s company followed in the footsteps of Apple by taking positions with the purchase of an already established system to power its incipient Amazon Echo. Giving support, at that time to Alexa. If Apple took over the technology of a startup to create Siri, which came to light in 2011 with the iPhone 4s, Amazon did the same a year later.
Until 2016, Tunstall remained at Amazon developing the technology that fueled the Alexa universe.
Artificial intelligence to solve crossword puzzles
In addition to commercial use cases –in the interest of Amazon–, the Artificial Intelligence entrepreneur has focused his activity on the world of training. Among them, he has the honor of having found the most boring day in history. Analyzing the historical facts and news of each day of recent history, the algorithm established that April 11, 1954 was the most tedious day. According to the investigator, nothing relevant happened. At least that is known.
Tunstall-Pedoe may be known as the creator of Artificial Intelligence, but the reality is that his history as a creator goes much further. So much so that he has the honor of having created the first programming to solve cryptic crossword puzzles. The common ones that appear in the newspapers and weekly publications. Or put another way: those who New York Times has popularized in its entertainment section.
His greatest success in this field, in addition to solving the clues of the crossword puzzles, his ability was that he could explain the answers in simple and understandable language.
After Crossword Geniusis an Artificial Intelligence to solve crossword puzzles, but also to learn to play with them.
Behind the da Vinci Code
The creator of Alexa’s Artificial Intelligence is also featured in the more than 80 million copies sold of Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code. Later they were also used for the movie with the same name. A system that back in 2003 revolutionized the Artificial Intelligence sector and the publishing world.
Specifically, Tunstall-Pedoe created anagrams unique to the author through software programmed by the researcher himself. With his Anagram Genius program, Dan Brown was able to easily and quickly create a whole series of personalized anagrams depending on the topic and the words that are needed at that moment.
Visible in advertising and other publications, Tunstall-Pedoe’s anagram software features million downloads.
P