[7] A virtual assistant capable of understanding both visual and auditory queries, Lucida was intended by Mars and his colleagues as a sandbox that would help programmers explore the complexities of speech recognition.

Mars received the Vanguard Award from the Institute of Caribbean Studies for his technological impact and "contributions to America and the world.

"[1] Other winners include Pfizer Principal Scientist for Viral Vaccines Vidia Roopchand and Grammy-winning songwriter Gordon Chambers.

His brother, Pairadeau Mars Jr., on the other hand, was frequently viewed as a genius, receiving an above-average score on the SAT in eighth grade.

A quiet loner, Mars found himself frustrated at both the school's discouragement of higher learning and his own disinterest in his studies.

[12] During his sophomore year, Mars met Professor Mary Lou Soffa, who invited him to join her research group.

[13] While pursuing his PhD, Mars also worked as a graduate research intern at Google's Mountain View location.

[24] According to Mars, Clinc's core mission involves the application of AI science to solving meaningful, substantial problems in people's daily lives.

An intelligent personal finance assistant composed of five separate purpose-built AI engines, Finie was marketed as "a Siri for your bank account.

[27][28] Additionally, in 2017, Mars was nominated as the second most innovative CEO in banking, alongside notable names that included PayPal’s Dan Schulman, Clarity Money’s Adam Dell, JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon, and more.

[33] Drawing on the five years he spent at Clinc, Mars concluded that existing computational and programming models were "ill-suited for the emerging set of problems in the AI sphere.

[35] Based on this technology Mars has created a number of products and companies including ZeroShotBot, TrueSelph, and Myca.

Over the course of the keynote, he gave his insights on the current state of artificial intelligence, and detailed what he feels are the reasons behind the popularity of conversational AI.