Microsoft Has Just Created A New Research Group For Artificial Intelligence

Microsoft has created a new artificial intelligence unit, as the company pushes deeper into the fast-growing field. Almost whole of Silicon Valley is diving into artificial intelligence (AI)and machine learning research, an industry estimated to boom to 70 billion by 2020 from just 8.2 billion in 2013, according to a Bank of America report that cited IDC research. On Wednesday, Microsoft teamed up with four other big technology companies - Amazon Inc, Google, Facebook and IBM - to create a non-profit organization to advance public understanding of AI technologies. The new unit called Microsoft AI and Research Group, will be headed by Harry Shum, a company veteran who has held senior roles at the Microsoft Research and Bing engineering divisions. "Microsoft has been working in artificial intelligence since the beginning of Microsoft Research, and yet we've only begun to scratch the surface of what's possible," Shum said in a statement.