Microsoft buys deep-learning startup Maluuba ZDNet

In its first aquisition of calendar 2017, Microsoft announced plans to buy Montreal-based deep-learning startup Maluuba for an undisclosed amount. Maluuba has done work in natural-language understanding and reinforcement learning. Harry Shum, Microsoft executive vice president of the company's Artificial Intelligence and Research Group, explained a potential scenario where Maluuba's technology could help this way: While privacy and regulation will slow the pace of adoption, AI will bring some profound changes to healthcare. Yoshua Bengio, an advisor to Maluuba and head of the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms, also will be advising Microsoft and interacting directly with Shum as part of the deal. Microsoft created the combined Artificial Intelligence and Research Group last September concurrently with the departure of executive vice president Qi Lu, who previously led the combined Office and Bing organizations.