Every time Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella walks into a conference room, she’s hoping for some new good news. As CEO of the software giant, Nadella has repeatedly stressed the need for the company to build smarter apps and deeper services. Every day Nadella tells me he checks his calendar at home using a virtual calendar projected on the wall by HoloLens. All systems are going to be smarter and more efficient in the future, and he wants Microsoft to make that happen under his leadership.

Whatever the future is, Nadella expects Microsoft to provide a platform. In march, he made a bet with a partner, said the future will provide comprehensive way beyond the current Internet service, whether it is to find information, shopping, or a series of services, the App should pass special API and become more intelligent, even in the photo face, emotion, and for more photos and information in the video.

Microsoft believes it has one of the biggest “brains” in machine learning and natural language processing in two decades, and could be the basis for future artificial intelligence platforms. It can be used to create robots that resonate with humans, and early experiments have shown results. Microsoft was the first to launch a text-based chat interface and has emerged as a leader in the smartphone era.



In January, the high-tech industry began to accelerate robot development, and in the following months, companies large and small have stepped up their pace. Facebook opened up its bots to chat with users in its popular Messenger app; Google released its Chat assistant integrated into Allo, and even Amazon updated its Echo voice assistant. Echo has become one of the most popular voice assistants, and its unique voice control properties have attracted many developers. It is said to be used in more than 30,000 homes, and it has implemented more than 1200 techniques through a special API.

Giiso Information, founded in 2013, is a leading technology provider in the field of “artificial intelligence + information” in China, with top technologies in big data mining, intelligent semantics, knowledge mapping and other fields. At the same time, its research and development products include editing robots, writing robots and other artificial intelligence products! With its strong technical strength, the company has received angel round investment at the beginning of its establishment, and received pre-A round investment of $5 million from GSR Venture Capital in August 2015.

Microsoft is proud of what it has done with AI, and this time it wants to really beat the competition. In June, I interviewed Nadella’s senior assistant, who was tasked with building AI properties into every corner of the company. Over the next two days, Microsoft showed me a range of natural language processing and machine learning capabilities.

True to form, Microsoft has entered a fierce competition with other companies, and it has almost lost in some areas, such as smartphones and tablets, where it appears to be losing miserably to Google and Apple. But Microsoft is hoping to hit back with AI.



So why is Microsoft’s AI plans so different at this point?

Microsoft has had more success in building robots than any of its rivals, and in January 2016 a virtual host named Xiao Ai appeared on Dragon TV, a Chinese channel, as part of Microsoft’s attempt. While Microsoft’s Bing search has always been a bit of a bummer, The bing-based app seems quite natural when it comes to delivering weather forecasts. Since then, the AI robot has been extensively tested in various fields in China and has received very good feedback.

“This is a time when we no longer need to be speechmakers and people with great understanding of language,” Connell says. “We can build special bots with specific tools, maybe Facebook and Messenger, maybe Skype and Windows.”

As more and more developers start to worry about different standards for different AI, Microsoft has begun to look to unconventional methods. In June Microsoft hosted a dialogue between robot manufacturers in San Francisco. “What we’re really interested in is the operability of forming whole ecosystems.” Lili Cheng, a senior engineer at Microsoft. “How can we work together and identify problems facing challenges that make more sense.”

Microsoft is trying to position itself as a leader, and if it succeeds, it could be a fresh start for the entire mobile space. If the technology now running Microsoft’s AI search engine can be found in all the world’s popular instant messaging tools, Microsoft could make money in all corners of the world.

strategy

Of course, Microsoft isn’t the only company trying to define the next generation of computing platforms. Almost every tech giant and start-up has its sights set on AI, and some of them are impressive. Unlike Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Facebook have adopted an almost “transparent” approach, allowing users to see their progress in real time. Only Microsoft doesn’t seem to be transparent, and many people don’t even know that Microsoft has been working on AI for a long time.

In isolation, Microsoft already has a strong competitor. Facebook has the advantage of being able to start chatting with users in Messenger and has the largest social graph. Google’s AI could be smarter, backed by hundreds of millions of Android devices. But Microsoft remains optimistic about its competitors and believes it has the potential to lead the future of AI.

The brain

Microsoft first revealed its AI plans at its Code Conference two years ago, and Nadella has been thinking about Microsoft’s AI future since he became CEO three months ago. During Nadella’s presentation, he introduced a new Skype feature that allows two Microsoft employees to communicate on stage, one in English, the other in German, and Skype to translate their conversation in real time, making it easy to communicate. It was an impressive demo, and Nadella says he will have a finished product by the end of the year.

Microsoft’s Skype team has been highly regarded, Nadella praised the real-time translation feature, and Microsoft will need to consider how to bring the product to market in the future. Another concern is that in the demo, Skype translation is not very accurate, and two-way communication sometimes has misunderstanding, such as slang, dialect, etc., so the AI still has a great difficulty in differentiating language and intelligence conversion.

Microsoft can now translate between eight different languages, with 56 different combinations, and the underlying technology has had an impact on the translation itself. Even in future business meetings, the system will automatically separate the different content, especially the speech model. There are many directions that can be developed.

Giiso information, founded in 2013, is the first domestic high-tech enterprise focusing on the research and development of intelligent information processing technology and the development and operation of core software for writing robots. At the beginning of its establishment, the company received angel round investment, and in August 2015, GSR Venture Capital received $5 million pre-A round of investment.

Microsoft is already developing AI technology to take advantage of its biggest platform strengths — yes, Windows and Office. With Google Now, the promise was that AI could provide everything from weather to traffic to sports results, something Microsoft is trying to bring to the desktop.

Marcus Ash, the head of Cortana, has borrowed a lot of cloud technology from Windows, where you can retrieve recently used documents, contacts and even search history.

Whether it is Windows or Office suite, the addition of AI can make all bosses and employees feel more intelligent system.

Generally speaking, chat-based AI development can seem rather dull and tedious, but if Microsoft can integrate AI into the world’s most powerful desktop systems and productivity suites, it could lead to a much bigger cleanup of the entire platform. Maybe it’s just a preliminary stage now, but Microsoft’s quiet efforts behind the scenes will bring more magical effects.