Microsoft buys AI company to improve Cortana's conversational skills

Microsoft has acquired a natural language AI firm called Semantic Machines to help Cortana and other bots carry on natural conversations, it announced. The tech "uses the power of machine learning to enable users to discover, access and interact with information and services in a much more natural way, and with significantly less effort," wrote Microsoft AI & Research CTO David Ku. What's more, Microsoft will establish a "conversational AI center" in Berkeley to amp up its language tech and "take conversational computing to a new level." Microsoft pointed out that while Siri, Cortana, Google Assistant and Alexa can execute commands, they can't carry on a conversation in any meaningful way (Google's much-debated Duplex conversation aside). Semantic Machines, however, has developed tech that can understand entire chats, not just orders to do this or that. "For rich and effective communication, intelligent assistants need to be able to have a natural dialogue instead of just responding to commands," said Ku. Semantic Machines should be able to help Microsoft with all that via its primary product, the Conversation Engine.