Microsoft just bought the key to making Cortana far smarter

Microsoft has acquired Semantic Machines, an artificial intelligence startup which could help Cortana hold more natural dialog with users. The California company has focused its efforts on so-called "conversational AI," moving beyond the more basic back-and-forth currently supported by the Google Assistant, Apple's Siri, and Amazon's Alexa. Right now, talking with one of those virtual helpers could leave you doubting the "intelligence" part of AI. A big part of that is their difficulty identifying meaning: effectively picking up on the thread of a conversation, and using that to understand different requests and commands. Semantic Machines is taking a different approach.