{"id":88283,"date":"2016-04-18T17:18:46","date_gmt":"2016-04-18T21:18:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/?p=88283"},"modified":"2016-04-18T08:19:31","modified_gmt":"2016-04-18T12:19:31","slug":"microsoft-goes-all-in-on-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/2016\/04\/microsoft-goes-all-in-on-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft Goes All In on AI"},"content":{"rendered":"
April 18, 2016<\/div>
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By WallStreetDaily.com<\/u><\/a> \"Microsoft<\/p>\n

Humans have always had a complicated relationship with new \u201ctechnologies.\u201d<\/p>\n

From awe to fear, centuries ago, Plato even worried that writing would adversely affect people\u2019s memories.<\/p>\n

Modernity has had a particular curiosity regarding artificial intelligence (AI). From Terminator-style killer robots to emotive humanoids, the mention of AI brings to mind the many silver screen renderings of some future civilization.<\/p>\n

More likely than any of these, however, is the reality that AI will probably turn out to be another commonplace technology that, while novel at first, will end up integrated into our everyday lives<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tay Gone Wild<\/h2>\n

Despite all the speculations, technology hasn\u2019t been able to deliver on AI just yet.<\/p>

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In March of this year, Microsoft Corp. <\/strong>(MSFT<\/a>) introduced the first chatbot, in an effort to beat its competitors to the punch.<\/p>\n

While they intended to show off the advancements in AI and machine learning, instead, Tay (short for Thinking About You) quickly went off course.<\/p>\n

The Verge described Tay as, essentially a \u201crobot parrot with an internet connection.\u201d Twitter users were able to converse with Tay<\/em> and, effectively, teach it anything they wanted, regardless of fact or opinion. Tay was, therefore, able to evolve, and as it chatted with more people, it would have more material to regurgitate.<\/p>\n

Of course, this simplistic echoing ability was quickly taken advantage of. Within 24 hours of its release, the Twittersphere taught Tay to be an obnoxious, foul-mouthed bigot.<\/p>\n

Microsoft quickly pulled Tay offline for \u201csome adjustments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, the company briefly brought Tay back online. It immediately began tweeting about drug use and harassing police, and then began spamming its Twitter followers with persistent tweets. Again, Tay was pulled offline and has yet to resurface.<\/p>\n

Not yet, at least.<\/p>\n

Microsoft Goes All In on AI<\/h2>\n

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is staking the future of the company on AI, as well as a whole array of chatbots, digital assistants, and intelligent agents.<\/p>\n

The company that missed the mobile computing and smartphone revolution believes it has found the next big thing in tech \u2013 voice-based personal devices. Microsoft is hoping for a win with this new focus, whereas Apple Inc. <\/strong>(AAPL<\/a>) and Alphabet Inc. <\/strong>(GOOG<\/a>) are dominating sales in smartphones and apps.<\/p>\n

At a recent developer conference, Nadella explained that, if Microsoft succeeds in developing AI, in the future, \u201cHuman language is the new UI [user interface], bots are the new apps, digital assistants are like\u2026 the new browsers, and intelligence is infused into all your interactions.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is Nadella\u2019s first new and very bold idea as CEO of Microsoft.<\/p>\n

But he isn\u2019t alone in his belief that the future lies in speech-based digital assistants. Fellow tech titan Alphabet is also moving into AI. As the owners of Google, they\u2019re said to have already begun working on a bot-based app.<\/p>\n

Amazon Echo<\/h2>\n

Amazon.com Inc. <\/strong>(AMZN<\/a>) is also making an attempt at AI.<\/p>\n

The company is placing a renewed emphasis on its artificial intelligence service Alexa by expanding the number of devices than can utilize its interactive abilities. Alexa, launched in late 2014, now boasts over 300 capabilities.<\/p>\n

Unlike Apple\u2019s Siri, Alexa is an open platform, in which developers from outside of Amazon can work with it as a platform in an effort to keep it evolving. In fact, Amazon is enticing such developers to get involved with its $100 million Alexa fund, which awards grants to Alexa-related projects.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s first products to use Alexa were the Fire TV and the Echo. The latter, as discussed by our Senior Technology Analyst, Greg Miller, is a personal assistant<\/a> that recognizes and understands the voice of its user and can control much of your household, depending on the allotted settings.<\/p>\n

Now, Amazon has released two more devices that will also use Alexa \u2013 the Echo Dot (a smaller version of Echo) and the Amazon Tap, a portable speaker and microphone.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s Vice President David Limp echoed (pardon the pun) Microsoft\u2019s sentiment when he told the Financial Times<\/em>, \u201cWe believe the next big platform is voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Limp went on to say that Amazon is trying to, in effect, build a computer inside the cloud that\u2019s completely controlled by voice.<\/p>\n

[If you\u2019re interested in learning more about investment opportunities in these technology developments as they arise, be sure to check out my colleague Louis Basenese\u2019s service, VentureCap Strategist<\/em>. Lou is a renowned tech sector expert with a host of industry connections and a direct line to many top executives. He has his finger firmly on the pulse of the trends that have real potential \u2013 both in terms of impacting society and investors. Click here to learn more.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019re interested in learning more about investment opportunities in these technology developments as they arise, be sure to check out my colleague Louis Basenese\u2019s service, VentureCap Strategist<\/a><\/em>. Lou is a renowned tech sector expert with a host of industry connections and a direct line to many top executives. He has his finger firmly on the pulse of the trends that have real potential \u2013 both in terms of impacting society and investors. Click here<\/a> to learn more.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Brave New World?<\/h2>\n

There are obstacles, of course, to this new world order as envisioned by Microsoft and Amazon.<\/p>\n

It took years for the smartphone to truly permeate society. And smartphone users, like simple, one-function apps, will have to be re-educated into using a do-it-all personal assistant.<\/p>\n

While this shouldn\u2019t be too trying, as such technologies tend to see an over eager public, ready to consume them, having chatbots interfacing with the public may take longer.<\/p>\n

Besides all of the risks associated with AI in television and movies \u2013 i.e., world domination \u2013 the AI will have to be \u201ctaught\u201d to ignore internet \u201ctrolls\u201d and only react and learn from true interactions with well-intentioned users.<\/p>\n

Microsoft\u2019s experience with the Chinese and Japanese versions of Tay \u2013 Xiaoice and Rinnan \u2013 do, however, prove that this isn\u2019t impossible. Users of each utilized the chatbots very differently than U.S. users and the results were extremely positive. In fact, there are still 40 million users of Xiaoice in China.<\/p>\n

Xiaoice and Rinnan didn\u2019t go rogue because they weren\u2019t inundated with rubbish from their interactions with actual humans. Obvious cultural differences between Asia and the U.S. allowed them a certain level of respect that was, clearly, absent in the use of Tay.<\/em><\/p>\n

So, while it may take a bit longer, especially here in the U.S., for chatbots to become as commonplace as smartphones, Microsoft\u2019s vision for AI integration may not be a plotline for the \u201cfuture\u201d much longer.<\/p>\n

Good investing,<\/p>\n

Tim Maverick<\/p>\n

The post Microsoft Goes All In on AI<\/a> appeared first on Wall Street Daily<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By WallStreetDaily.com Humans have always had a complicated relationship with new \u201ctechnologies.\u201d From awe to fear, centuries ago, Plato even worried that writing would adversely affect people\u2019s memories. Modernity has had a particular curiosity regarding artificial intelligence (AI). From Terminator-style killer robots to emotive humanoids, the mention of AI brings to mind the many silver […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","no-post-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88283"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88304,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88283\/revisions\/88304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}