Almond - Crowdsourcing an Open, Programmable Virtual Assistant

Explore the development of Almond, an open-source, crowdsourced, and privacy-preserving virtual assistant in this conference talk. Learn about the Thingpedia skill library, which contains over 100 services and is open to all virtual assistants. Discover how Almond supports event-driven commands connecting multiple skills and its federated structure that allows users to share data with fine granularity. Gain insights into Genie, an open-source tool for bootstrapping deep-learning natural language parsers, and its significant improvements over previous technologies. Understand Almond's various deployment options, including cloud service, GNOME/Gtk app, and command-line tool. Explore key concepts such as the Linguistic Web, Thing Talk programming language, and natural language programming. Delve into the Genie pipeline, case studies, and the process of crowdsourcing Thingpedia. Learn about ThingTalk policies, fine-grain control for users, and the current status of the project. Find out how you can contribute to this innovative virtual assistant technology.

Intro
The Linguistic Web Opportunity
The Linguistic Web Reality
Our Vision: A Better Virtual Assistant
Autonomy with Cross-Domain Interoperability
Key Concepts
Thingpedia: An Encyclopedia of Things
The Thing Talk Programming language
Natural Language Programming
Real Natural Language Input
How to Translate All Tasks from NL?
Training Without Real Data
Primitive Templates
Combining Primitives into Constructs
The Genie Pipeline
Case Studies
Crowdsourcing Thingpedia
Building The Super-Skill Repository
Sharing Through Virtual Assistants
ThingTalk Policies
People Need Fine-grain Control
An Expressive, Understandable Abstraction
Our Current Status
Where You Can Help
How You Can Help