Microsoft is teaching systems to read, answer and even ask questions - Next at Microsoft

Microsoft researchers have already created technology that can do two difficult tasks about as well as a person: identify images and recognize words in a conversation. Now, the company's leading AI experts are working on systems that can do something even more complex: Read passages of text and answer questions about them. "We're trying to develop what we call a literate machine: A machine that can read text, understand text and then learn how to communicate, whether it's written or orally," said Kaheer Suleman, the co-founder of Maluuba, a Quebec-based deep learning startup that Microsoft acquired earlier this year. Machine reading systems also could help doctors, lawyers and other experts more quickly get through the drudgery of things like reading through documents for specific medical findings or rarified legal precedent. That would leave experts more time to focus on treating patients or formulating legal defenses.