Microsoft drives open AI, ups Azure cloud layers & is hot for bots - Open Source Insider

On the very eve itself of Microsoft's third major developer event this year -- Connect() 2016 in New York -- the firm has taken another directly open stride in its Artificial Intelligence (AI) efforts. Microsoft has announced a new partnership with OpenAI, the nonprofit research organisation co-founded by Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever. In line with this news, Microsoft also introduced a selection of Azure cloud releases designed to drive what it hopes will be advances in AI. But why did the firm do any of this? "We want to democratize AI," asserts the usually fairly gutsy non-marketing official Microsoft blog channel. Microsoft's says its partnership with OpenAI will be focused on making'significant contributions' to advancing the field of AI.