Search startup True Knowledge, reviewed here, is seeking beta testers for its API service. The UK startup, which recently won Angel funding, has developed an application which (deep breath) represents facts as entities within a broad knowledge-base that computers can understand and process. It answers question through deduction and cross-referencing to produce what looks, to all intents and purposes, like a human response. Ask it if Ben Affleck is married and it will come back with “Yes” rather than lots of web pages which may or may not have the answer.
TK is going to leverage its API in a variety of ways. For instance, over 2.1 million geographical places are registered as entities in True Knowledge’s database, plus time zones. So in theory web and tele-conferencing services could use this to help you place calls at the right time for both parties across the planet. Currently this can be tricky as there is basically no logic to local time changes but, says founder William Tunstall-Pedoe, having TK’s API integrated into the website of a conference service provider could solve this. Check out www.trueknowledge.com/api/
Here’s a video of what True Knowledge is all about. The Jennifer Lopez example is pretty convincing…