On 11 September 2022, William Tunstall-Pedoe, the inventor of several key technologies used by Amazon.com Inc.’s Alexa service, announced that he had raised $20 million to fund a new startup in the UK. Tunstall-Pedoe, who is based in Cambridge and London, said that the money was needed to start hiring developers of a new type of artificial-intelligence software.
Tunstall-Pedoe is best known for his work on Amazon’s Alexa, the voice-controlled digital assistant. He is credited with creating the natural language processing technology that powers Alexa, as well as the underlying algorithms that enable the device to understand and respond to voice commands.
Tunstall-Pedoe has been working on artificial intelligence since the early 1990s, when he founded a company called 2MB, which developed the first natural language processing system for use in customer service applications. He then went on to co-found Cambridge-based Evi Technologies, which was acquired by Amazon in 2012.
At Unlikely AI, Tunstall-Pedoe is working on a new type of artificial intelligence software that he believes will be more effective than existing AI systems. He believes that his software will be able to better understand natural language and will be able to respond more accurately to voice commands.
Tunstall-Pedoe is also hoping to use the new technology to create more advanced virtual assistants that can understand more complex commands and provide more accurate answers. He believes that this type of AI will be able to help people with tasks such as managing their finances, scheduling appointments, and even providing medical advice.
The $20 million raised by Tunstall-Pedoe will be used to hire developers and other staff to help create the new AI software. It is expected that the software will be ready for use by the end of 2022.
With the new AI software, Tunstall-Pedoe hopes to revolutionize the way people interact with technology. He believes that the software will be able to understand natural language and provide more accurate answers, making it easier for people to get the information they need. It is clear that Tunstall-Pedoe is a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence, and his new startup is sure to make a big impact in the coming years.