Microsoft forms its fourth group specializing in Artificial Intelligence. (Photo : GettyImages/David Ramos)
Tech-giant Microsoft is reportedly putting up its 4th research group by merging its current research division with Bing and Cortana products. Dubbed as the AI and Research Group, the organization will be built with a 5,000 labor workforce of computer scientists and engineers whose main goal is to bring AI to systems that everyone uses.
Leading the new group is Microsoft veteran Harry Shum who was previously the Executive Vice President of Technology and Research, according to a blog posted in Microsoft. "We are creating tools to make it easier for busy professionals to remember their commitments, family members from other countries to talk to each other in spite of language barriers, and multitasking smartphone users to send texts more quickly," according to Shum who authored the said post.
Shum further elaborated that their recent move will speed up innovation in AI and will enable Microsoft to create "intelligent" systems and products for consumers. He also recalled in the post that when Bill Gates created Microsoft Research, the group's first work focused much on AI which included speech, natural language and computer vision.
Since then, the group has done extensive research to improve their thrust on the use of AI in different systems and products. Several products of this goal included tools like Skype Translator, Xiaolce chatbot and the Cortana virtual assistant. Some of its recent developments include Microsoft Graph, an initiative which was a resultant of partnerships created between researchers and engineers that also benefited the Bing search engine.
Previously, the tech company also expressed their goal to "democratize" AI and they plan to pursue their ambition in a four-branched approach. According to an extensive news about the company's approach to AI, they will be doing the democratization through harnessing AI to change the way people interacts with the "ambient computing." To achieve their goal, the company also plans to incorporate intelligence on every app available in the market and make the same intelligent capabilities that are available in Microsoft's own apps.
Lastly, in order to have their thrust going full circle, the company plans to build their own AI supercomputer and make it available to anyone through the cloud. For other news about Microsoft's AI watch the video of Satya Nadella discusiing how AI can be used in consumers everyday lives.
