Microsoft hopes to counter Apple with AI-driven 'invisible user interfaces' on future devices
Just days after officially announcing Cortana, a Siri-like personal digital assistant for Windows Phone, Microsoft has revealed a substantial and wide-ranging artificial intelligence program it hopes will leapfrog similar offerings from Apple and Google.
Cortana, the virtual character after which Microsoft's Siri competitor is named
"User interface started with the command prompt, moved to graphics, then touch, and then gestures," Microsoft research executive Yoram Yaakobi told the Wall Street Journal. "It's now moving to invisible UI, where there is nothing to operate. The tech around you understands you and what you want to do. We're putting this at the forefront of our efforts."
With the push, dubbed "UI.Next," Microsoft is pursuing a future in which users do not need to tell their device what to do -- by touching or speaking to it, for instance -- and instead passively consume information that the device has already prepared in anticipation of their needs.
Both Apple and Google have nodded in this direction already, though the technology is far from mature. Apple's Passbook, for instance, can dynamically surface information like event tickets based on the user's location, while Google's Google Now will adjust a user's schedule based on traffic conditions.
"We were in an AI winter, and now we're in an AI spring," Microsoft research vice president Jeannette Wing said at a Microsoft event in Tel Aviv, referring to the new industry-wide focus on artificial intelligence. She pointed to Cortana's natural language processing as Microsoft's opening salvo.
"I speak to Cortana, Cortana responds. I speak back to it, and it understands that we're still in the same conversation. It knows from the first sentence I said what I'm referring to," she said. "That seems like such a small thing for human beings, but it's huge."
Similar natural language abilities have been a hallmark of Apple's Siri since the feature's debut, and the company has been seen making moves to bolster the underlying technology as well as expand Siri's capabilities. Reports of a new Boston-based team of speech recognition experts tasked with improving Siri began circulating last summer, while word that Apple had acquired speech recognition firm Novauris Technologies, makers of a system that could allow Siri to process voice input locally rather than in the cloud, surfaced last week.
Cortana, the virtual character after which Microsoft's Siri competitor is named
"User interface started with the command prompt, moved to graphics, then touch, and then gestures," Microsoft research executive Yoram Yaakobi told the Wall Street Journal. "It's now moving to invisible UI, where there is nothing to operate. The tech around you understands you and what you want to do. We're putting this at the forefront of our efforts."
With the push, dubbed "UI.Next," Microsoft is pursuing a future in which users do not need to tell their device what to do -- by touching or speaking to it, for instance -- and instead passively consume information that the device has already prepared in anticipation of their needs.
Both Apple and Google have nodded in this direction already, though the technology is far from mature. Apple's Passbook, for instance, can dynamically surface information like event tickets based on the user's location, while Google's Google Now will adjust a user's schedule based on traffic conditions.
Microsoft is reportedly "investing heavily" in so-called "invisible user interface" tech
"We were in an AI winter, and now we're in an AI spring," Microsoft research vice president Jeannette Wing said at a Microsoft event in Tel Aviv, referring to the new industry-wide focus on artificial intelligence. She pointed to Cortana's natural language processing as Microsoft's opening salvo.
"I speak to Cortana, Cortana responds. I speak back to it, and it understands that we're still in the same conversation. It knows from the first sentence I said what I'm referring to," she said. "That seems like such a small thing for human beings, but it's huge."
Similar natural language abilities have been a hallmark of Apple's Siri since the feature's debut, and the company has been seen making moves to bolster the underlying technology as well as expand Siri's capabilities. Reports of a new Boston-based team of speech recognition experts tasked with improving Siri began circulating last summer, while word that Apple had acquired speech recognition firm Novauris Technologies, makers of a system that could allow Siri to process voice input locally rather than in the cloud, surfaced last week.
Comments
I wonder if they will ever give Siri a face?
The problem with Microsoft tech is that it is the opposite of invisible: it's unruly, tasteless, and demands that you, the user, solve basic problem. As a Windows user, not only do I see "the man behind the curtain" (from The Wizard of Oz), but I have to fix everything that's wrong when the man behind the curtain [I]stops responding[/I]. How many times have I heard "just reboot" or "time to reinstall Windows" or "just edit your registry" or "just google the error code"? Tech is not gonna be "invisible" until it just goddamn works.
I'll believe it when I see it, but if UI.Next is fundamentally built on Microsoft's existing products and tech, then I HAVE SERIOUS DOUBTS about UI.Next being nothing more than smoke and mirrors. Another shiny wallpaper sitting atop a 30 year old legacy of code.
I wonder if they will ever give Siri a face?
I hope not. They will never be able to give me what I have envisioned Siri to look like. One fine black woman in a bikini with huge T&A. LOL
More of a Samsung move, right?
Does Siri understand commands that are said as part of context? E.g. Asking for a list of restaurants and then asking which take reservations and it knowing that your still talking about the list of restaurants. I didn't think it did, article seems to suggest otherwise though.
Gestures has only ever been a UI paradigm in the fantasies of Microsoft executives
Does anyone else here find this vision of the future as utterly revolting as I do?
If Microsoft wants tech that is invisible, they first need to solve two problems: 1) Windows doesn't work like that, and 2) Microsoft's reliance on Windows to extend their hegemony over people.
The problem with Microsoft tech is that it is the opposite of invisible: it's unruly, tasteless, and demands that you, the user, solve basic problem. As a Windows user, not only do I see "the man behind the curtain" (from The Wizard of Oz), but I have to fix everything that's wrong when the man behind the curtain stops responding. How many times have I heard "just reboot" or "time to reinstall Windows" or "just edit your registry" or "just google the error code"? Tech is not gonna be "invisible" until it just goddamn works.
I'll believe it when I see it, but if UI.Next is fundamentally built on Microsoft's existing products and tech, then I HAVE SERIOUS DOUBTS about UI.Next being nothing more than smoke and mirrors. Another shiny wallpaper sitting atop a 30 year old legacy of code.
It really is a joke hearing Microsoft speak in these terms. They haven't fixed any of these basic issues you described (and the real problem is, they don't see them as issues). They can't possibly have any idea how to tackle a user-less UI, as they don't even have an OS that can operate well without an advanced user at the terminal.
When true, MS will be 100 times bigger than Apple.
Just don't forget where these came from MS. It certainly wasn't you.
"I speak to Cortana, Cortana responds. I speak back to it, and it understands that we're still in the same conversation. It knows from the first sentence I said what I'm referring to," she said. "That seems like such a small thing for human beings, but it's huge."
When true, MS will be 100 times bigger than Apple.
Umm...it is true
Incorrect.
Hal did have a face.
In fact, more than one.
Because he was a two-faced, murderous, son-of-a-bitch.