Microsoft researchers make major breakthroughs in machine learning

Machine learning has quickly become an indispensable tool for developing technology that consumers and businesses want, need and love. It's the basis for technology that can translate speech in real time, help doctors read radiology scans and even recognise emotions on people's faces. "It's been really something to see this field develop, and to see things that seemed impossible become possible in my lifetime," said Robert Schapire, a principal researcher in Microsoft's New York City research lab, in a new Microsoft blog post by Allison Linn. It's a far cry from Schapire's early days in the field, when he said some of the hard problems were things like getting a computer to accurately read handwritten digits. "Bit by bit, we've really been building this field from the bottom up, starting with basic problems," Schapire said.