Microsoft Acquires Semantic Machines For Conversational Artificial Intelligence

Earlier this month at its I/O developer conference, Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)(NASDAQ:GOOGL) subsidiary Google wowed everyone by demonstrating a new conversational artificial intelligence (AI) technology called Google Duplex, a system that will become part of Google Assistant and will allow the virtual assistant to make phone calls on a user's behalf. The demonstration was striking because it sounded uncannily human, which has raised all sorts of ethical questions. The article originally appeared in Motley Fool. Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) virtual assistant Cortana has some catching up to do (in more ways than one), and the software giant has just announced a new acquisition to that end. Microsoft is acquiring Semantic Machines, a small start-up based in Berkeley that specializes in conversational AI.