By using the latest advances in AI, the new Microsoft lab will look to better understand the nitty-gritty details of molecular properties and behaviours. Microsoft Research is opening a lab in Amsterdam focused on advancing molecular simulation by using machine learning, quantum chemistry and quantum computing. The lab will be led by Dr Max Welling, who specialises in computer science and machine learning. Welling is currently based at the University of Amsterdam and will be joining Microsoft Research in September. He was hosted on the Microsoft Research podcast this week by Chris Bishop, a lab director of Microsoft Research in Europe, where the announcement was made.

Digital mental health company SilverCloud Health has partnered with Microsoft Labs in Cambridge to explore how machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) could be used to personalise mental healthcare. Together, the companies are researching how digital therapeutics could be tailored to respond to each individual's unique care needs. This includes providing early interventions that ensure patients have access to the right support at the right time, and in the right context. By applying machine learning and AI, Microsoft and SilverCloud hope to identify patterns of successful therapy that can be used to improve the effectiveness of digital therapeutics. Christopher Bishop, lab director for Microsoft Research in Cambridge, said: "SilverCloud Health is one of the very few digital mental health platforms that has been deployed at scale in routine clinical care, and currently has the largest real-world patient user base of its kind. "The aim of this project is very much aligned to our ambition to empower healthcare workers and patients through access to effective, intelligent technologies." SilverCloud Health offers more than 30 digital therapeutics programs. Its digital mental health platform is used across 75% of NHS mental health services in IAPT (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies), and 250 organisations globally. The platform is designed to remove the barriers that prevent patients from accessing mental health services. These can include cost and clinical resources. The company has been working with Microsoft Labs in Cambridge over the past 18 months as part of research that combines Microsoft's machine learning and AI technologies with SilverCloud's expertise in digital therapeutics. The project will use data from more than one million hours of therapy delivered by SilverCloud since 2012, which it hopes will "change how online therapy is delivered for the NHS." Ken Cahill, CEO of SilverCloud Health, said: "Through this exciting research collaboration with Microsoft, SilverCloud Health will be able to leverage the latest in artificial intelligence and machine learning to further enhance our digital mental health platform.

The second day of Microsoft's annual Future Decoded conference in London kicked off with a keynote presentation discussing how data growth is becoming the new Moore's Law. Through Moore's Law, the technology industry has seen exponential growth in computing power, with processor performance doubling every 18 months to two years. But now, according to Microsoft, data is driving a new approach to software development, where data is doubling every two years and advances in artificial intelligence (AI) will be used to exploit this data. Chris Bishop, technical lead at Microsoft Labs in Cambridge, said: "Moore's Law has driven the digital revolution. I believe there is a revolution in the way we create software. In the last decade, we have handcrafted software to achieve the desired outcome. With AI, there is a radically different approach – we tell the computer how to learn."

However, that's exactly what engineers like Microsoft's Sean Kelly think about. Sure, he enjoys being able to use ever more connected devices, but what he enjoys more is making them, and helping others to bring their ideas to fruition. "I'm in a room with every conceivable machine I could ever want to use, surrounded by a team of experts in everything I don't know well," he says. In security-laden locations around the world, Microsoft's IoT & AI Insider labs are on the bleeding edge of device creation and its engineers are researching and developing the next generation of intelligent and connected devices and software. Unlike traditional programming, machine learning is a model of programming that acts more like the human neural network. It combines previous inputs and their subsequent results in order to provide a more efficient and accurate solution to problems.

However, that's exactly what engineers like Microsoft's Sean Kelly think about. Sure, he enjoys being able to use ever more connected devices, but what he enjoys more is making them, and helping others to bring their ideas to fruition. "I'm in a room with every conceivable machine I could ever want to use, surrounded by a team of experts in everything I don't know well," he says. In security-laden locations around the world, Microsoft's IoT & AI Insider labs are on the bleeding edge of device creation and its engineers are researching and developing the next generation of intelligent and connected devices and software. Unlike traditional programming, machine learning is a model of programming that acts more like the human neural network.