{"632102":{"#nid":"632102","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Jill Watson Team Reaches Semifinals in IBM AI XPrize Competition","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAlgorithms that help answer the stream of questions college students have each semester might be welcome by any instructor who can offload FAQs to such an artificially intelligent teaching assistant (TA).\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EJill Watson \u0026ndash; Georgia Tech\u0026rsquo;s AI designed explicitly for this purpose \u0026ndash; turned four years old this January, with the AI\u0026rsquo;s birthday coinciding with the announcement of the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ai.xprize.org\/prizes\/artificial-intelligence\/teams\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003E10 semifinalists for IBM\u0026rsquo;s AI XPrize competition\u003C\/a\u003E. Georgia Tech\u0026rsquo;s\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ai.xprize.org\/prizes\/artificial-intelligence\/teams\/emprize\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EemPrize team\u003C\/a\u003E, led by Professor of Interactive Computing\u0026nbsp;\u003Cstrong\u003EAshok Goel\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003Eand utilizing Jill Watson as the key technology, was named as one of the semifinalists.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe competition started in 2016, the year of Jill\u0026rsquo;s arrival in a graduate computer science\u0026nbsp;course at Georgia Tech, and has \u0026ldquo;sought to accelerate the adoption of AI technologies and spark creative, innovative, and audacious demonstrations of the technology that are truly scalable to solve societal grand challenges.\u0026rdquo; After nearly four calendar years, XPrize will name a winner in April.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAs part of the GT emPrize team\u0026rsquo;s work, the Jill Watson TA not only answers student questions about course requirements but can answer questions about another AI named\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/vera.cc.gatech.edu\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EVERA\u003C\/a\u003E, or the Virtual Ecological Research Assistant.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EJill helps users learn how to use VERA, a system which enables students in GT\u0026rsquo;s Intro to Biology course (and online science seekers) to create their own ecological models from\u0026nbsp;a\u0026nbsp;web browser. Unlike the Jill Watson TA, which is currently used only by GT students, VERA is open to anyone with an internet connection.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAnother part of emPrize\u0026nbsp;is the Jill Social Agent, whose lead designer,\u0026nbsp;\u003Cstrong\u003EIda Camacho\u003C\/strong\u003E, is a recent\u0026nbsp;alumna of Georgia Tech\u0026rsquo;s Online Master of Science in Computer Science program (OMSCS) and understands the pressures and uncertainties of online learning.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe Jill Social Agent in essence gives students just starting online courses a chance at \u0026ldquo;speed friending\u0026rdquo;. If online students feel they have more peer support and connections from the start, this might\u0026nbsp;translate into success in the course. Hear from Camacho on the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.spreaker.com\/user\/10751784\/tu-ep10-jill-social-ai-online-learninG\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ETech Unbound podcast with GVU Center\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;as she reveals some of her AI\u0026rsquo;s design and the educational experience that informed her work on emPrize.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ELearn more at\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/emprize.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003Ehttp:\/\/emprize.gatech.edu\/\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;or explore a\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/public.tableau.com\/views\/JillWatsonTurns4\/Dashboard?:display_count=y\u0026amp;:origin=viz_share_link:showVizHome=no\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Etimeline of Jill\u0026#39;s evolution\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Georgia Tech\u0027s emPrize team was one of 10 semifinalists for the IBM Watson XPRIZE competition, which carries a prize of $5 million."}],"uid":"33939","created_gmt":"2020-02-04 20:13:55","changed_gmt":"2020-02-04 20:13:55","author":"David Mitchell","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2020-02-04T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2020-02-04T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"631547":{"id":"631547","type":"image","title":"Timeline: Jill Watson AI at 4","body":null,"created":"1579883925","gmt_created":"2020-01-24 16:38:45","changed":"1580406385","gmt_changed":"2020-01-30 17:46:25","alt":"Timeline: Jill Watson AI at 4yo","file":{"fid":"240330","name":"Jill Timeline at 4yo.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Jill%20Timeline%20at%204yo.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Jill%20Timeline%20at%204yo.png","mime":"image\/png","size":743294,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Jill%20Timeline%20at%204yo.png?itok=omFER7Lg"}}},"media_ids":["631547"],"groups":[{"id":"50876","name":"School of Interactive Computing"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"182525","name":"cc-research; ic-hcc; ic-ai-ml"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJosh Preston\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EResearch Communications Manager, GVU Center and College of Computing\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}