“We want to bring intelligence to everything, to everywhere, and for everyone,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told developers earlier this year.
Artificial intelligence has been the company’s touchstone technology since Cortana, Microsoft’s virtual personal assistant was added to Windows more than a year ago. Since then Microsoft has released a deluge of AI-bolstered features in its operating system and standalone software.
Skype is augmented with real-time translation. You can talk to bots built on Microsoft software on nearly any messaging platform, and a suite of tools for developers mean the apps you use every day can be configured to call a Microsoft server to identify a face in an image or run speech recognition.
The mission is clear: if there’s success to be had with any kind of AI, Microsoft wants to be there.
And then yesterday, at an intimate press gathering in San Francisco, Microsoft’s AI parade continued! The company announced:
It’s a dizzying amount of announcements, especially since they weren’t revealed at one of Microsoft’s large product events. But the mission is clear: if there’s success to be had with any kind of AI, Microsoft wants to be there, and is just as happy copying an existing product (x.ai, Amazon Echo) or leading the pack (real-time translation).
For you, Microsoft’s precious consumer, this strategy fundamentally changes what it means to use the Windows operating system or any Microsoft software. You can look forward to living a life in constant conversation with your gadgets.
