Microsoft built an AI-powered iOS app to help you learn Chinese

Language-learning apps are nothing new, with offerings from MIT and Duolingo ready to teach you a new way to communicate right on your phone. Now Microsoft is looking to teach you Chinese with a free new AI-powered iOS app. The idea here is to provide users with a way to practice the Chinese language in the absence of real-life communicative partners. "You think you know Chinese, but if you meet a Chinese person and you want to speak Chinese, there is no way you can do it if you have not practiced," said Microsoft's Yan Xia in a blog post. There's no word on plans to expand to other languages, but it's not hard to see such an app helping you learn to converse in different tongues, too.