Microsoft's New Venture Fund Deepens the Company's Commitment to AI

Artificial intelligence will be key to optimizing big data, mobile, social media and the Internet of Things. Machine learning is being implemented in everything from warehouse management systems to cybersecurity platforms, accelerating the speed of innovation in IT. And Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft are in a race to monetize AI. Microsoft announced this week that its venture arm has founded a fund that focuses solely on AI, and that its first investment will be in a startup called Element AI. Yoshua Bengio, a long-time pioneer in deep learning, started the Montreal-based lab and will receive an undisclosed sum from Microsoft Ventures.