Microsoft wants to teach Cortana to 'do' (not just 'know') more

The Cortana Intelligence Institute is a collaboration between Microsoft Research, Cortana Enquiry and RMIT University in Australia, focused on developing Cortana's next-generation capabilities.

Microsoft'due south approach with Cortana has e'er been dissimilar than what Google and Apple are doing with their digital administration, Assistant (previously Google Now) and Siri, respectively. Cortana was intentionally patterned later on real-world personal assistants, notebook and all.

The premise is that Cortana would, like real assistants, go to know a user meliorate over time and subsequently exist able to proactively serve that user. She also provides fourth dimension-, and people-based reminders. For example, if a user needed to exist reminded of something in relation to another individual, an interaction such as a phone call or email from that person would trigger the reminder. . Location-based reminders are another case of this type of personal support.

Cortana'south (and other assistant's) power to tie into a device'due south GPS and recognize interactions with specific people are examples of context-enlightened features the Cortana Intelligence Found will build upon for next-generation capabilities.

Related:

• Cortana is far from expressionless every bit Microsoft plans to make an 'Intelligent OS' with Windows 10
• Why Microsoft needs to unify the many faces of Cortana

Assistant and Siri tell what they know

This electric current generation of digital assistants, with all its promise, is in the embryonic stage of AI and ambience computing. As such, Alexa, Siri and fifty-fifty Banana are glorified voice assistants with a mere affect of AI. Their electric current force is providing information.

Google touts Banana as a user'southward personal Google, and the company'south mission is to "organize the world'due south information and to make information technology universally accessible and useful." As the world's leading search engine, upon which Assistant is based, information provision is Banana's forte. Alexa's position via Amazon Echo is similar. It does, however, wade a footling deeper into "doing" with its ties into Amazon's shopping experience and the latitude of Alexa Skills extending its abilities via tertiary-party developers.

Ties into smart abode appliances also make these assistants useful at performing certain tasks on command. Still, their abilities to perceive and directly back up a user'due south specific activities is something that remains in the realm of science fiction. Microsoft'due south goal is that the Cortana Intelligence Establish'south work will make that vision a reality.

Cortana will do more

"Bing and practise," was Microsoft's tagline for its search engine during the product'due south early days. It was positioned intentionally as a determination engine rather than a search engine emphasizing the product'south goal to assist users "practice" things rather than just provide information. This positioning could have been, in part, Microsoft's marketing strategy to avert head-to-caput comparisons with Google due to its much weaker search prowess.

It could also have been a reflection of the company'southward fundamental mission through its products and services to aid individuals and businesses "exercise more than." Information technology is this foundation that coincides with the Cortana Intelligence Institute's goal to expand Cortana's context awareness and enable her to directly aid users with completing tasks rather than simply providing information. From Microsoft:

In the future, Cortana may help with chores from cooking to agenda management, which involve multiple steps, contextual sensation and a rich dialogue with users. …Their focus is largely effectually using context to meliorate understand the tasks that people.

This goal to help users "exercise" differs profoundly from Google's vision to help users "know."

Microsoft's digital "practise more" assistant vision

Microsoft'due south AI vision is a cloud-based intelligent cross-platform agent that knows a user across work and life. Her integration with Office 365, Microsoft Graph, Windows and her presence on iOS and Android give the personal digital assistant the ability to know users quite well. Microsoft's goal is to brand this seamless banana capable of perceiving and supporting a user's needs no affair what device he is using. If Microsoft can ultimately realize its personal digital banana goals with an assistant that tin assistance users exercise more from whatsoever device it may have an edge over competitors.

Microsoft's great at research merely weak with doing.

Of grade, Cortana is backside its competitors in both mindshare and market presence. The lack of a smartphone platform and a weak smart speaker presence in comparison to Alexa, Assistant and Siri brand Cortana, even with her Windows 10 presence, a virtual unknown in the consumer space.

Microsoft is excellent with cutting-edge research and development. The implementation of those ideas into a marketable product, however, has proven to be its shortcoming over the years.

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-cortana-intelligence-institute-skills

Posted by: fredericksbarpries.blogspot.com

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