Microsoft buys a start-up that wants A.I. to make conversation with humans

Microsoft has bought Semantic Machines, an artificial intelligence start-up, as it looks to boost its efforts in developing conversational AI. Berkeley, California-based Semantic's approach to AI is using machine learning to add context to conversations with chatbots. This means taking information received by AI and applying it to future dialogue. The firm's speech recognition team previously led automatic speech recognition development for Apple's personal assistant Siri. In its announcement Monday, Microsoft did not disclose any financial details of the acquisition.