Microsoft buys Canadian AI startup Maluuba

SAN FRANCISCO: Microsoft announced on Friday (Jan 13) a deal to buy Maluuba, a Montreal startup focused on making machines able to think the way people do. Bringing on board Maluuba co-founders Kaheer Suleman and Sam Pasupalak, along with their team from the startup, was intended to accelerate Microsoft's "ability to develop software so computers can read, write and converse naturally," the company said. Microsoft did not disclose financial terms of the acquisition. "Maluuba's vision is to advance toward a more general artificial intelligence by creating literate machines that can think, reason and communicate like humans - a vision exactly in line with ours," Microsoft artificial intelligence and research group executive vice president Harry Shum said in a blog post. "I'm incredibly excited about the scenarios that this acquisition could make possible in conversational AI." Tech giants Apple, Samsung, Google and Microsoft are all vying to develop the most sophisticated connected assistant - working to give software the ability to understand what people say and even anticipate desires or needs.