Microsoft can filter out the sound of you eating potato chips on a conference call

Just in time for us all to be working from home because of the pandemic coronavirus, Microsoft's built new technology for its Teams software that can identify your voice and filter out any other sounds. That could be a leaf blower, a dog barking or even, yes, you rustling through a bag of potato chips. Microsoft demonstrated the technology to journalists earlier this week by having Robert Aichner, a principal program manager on Microsoft's communications division, move his hand around in a bag of chips with the tool turned on. As promised, the technology removed noise of the bag while he still spoke. "With the power of AI, Teams can remove that background noise and you can understand me very clearly," he said.