AI Today Podcast #023: Hot Topics – Sophia Robot and Andrew Ng’s new $175M AI Fund

In today's podcast, we'll address some interesting hot topics that have recently been making news in the AI industry. In particular, Cognilytica senior analysts Kathleen Walch and Ronald Schmelzer talk about Hanson Robotics' Sophia Robot that's been making significant waves in popular media and press. We talk about whether Sophia is really advanced, how it's helping ... or not... the field of AI, and if it's making advances in the field of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

Also recently, Andrew Ng announced the launch of a new $175 Million fund for AI. However, there's more to the fund than would seem at an initial read. First, it's not setup as a usual VC fund making investments in third-party startups. Rather, it's a fund for internally developed projects. And second, there's a sub-story here about how it's easier to raise money for AI-related efforts than it is to hire people to work in those efforts. Money might be easier to get these days than talent.