Here's Everything You Need to Know About Microsoft Corporation's Latest AI Acquisition
January 17, 2017, 06:19:00 PM EDT By Chris Neiger, Motley Fool
Image source: Getty Images.
Last week, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) made yet another leap forward in its already   ambitious artificial intelligence (AI) plans when it scooped up   AI start-up Maluuba.
The Montreal-based company is "one of the world's most   impressive deep learning research labs for natural language   understanding", according to Microsoft, and will help the tech   giant pursue a monumental goal in AI, called artificial general   intelligence (AGI).
Thinking, reasoning, and communicating like humans
The idea behind AGI -- and Maluuba's main pursuit -- is to   create "literate machines that can think, reason, and communicate   like humans", Microsoft's executive vice president of   artificial intelligence, Harry Shum, wrote in a blog post .
To do that, Maluuba uses deep learning and reinforcement   learning to teach the AI how to answer questions, and learn what   humans are asking, on its own.
The company is using natural language processing technology   that helps machines understand what people are saying, what   context they're asking it in, and what information they want in a   response -- just as humans communicate.
Shum said in the post: "Imagine a future where, instead   of frantically searching through your organization's directory,   documents, or emails to find the top tax-law experts in your   company, for example, you could communicate with an AI agent that   would leverage Maluuba's machine comprehension capabilities to   immediately respond to your request. The agent would be able to   answer your question in a company security-compliant manner by   having a deeper understanding of the contents of your   organization's documents and emails, instead of simply retrieving   a document by keyword matching, which happens today."
And that's just one of the hundreds of ways Microsoft said it   envisions using the company's AI capabilities.
What this actually means for Microsoft
Microsoft has been developing AI technologies for years and   most recently released a Twitter chatbot that was meant to learn from interactions with other   social media users. That didn't go so well and the bot, called Tay, was taken down not long after it went online.
But Microsoft was undeterred after Tay, announcing a new   feature at the end of 2016 that would allow companies to use   variations of AI chatbots to turn company website FAQs into   conversational bots. It's one of the company's early steps in   connecting bots to company databases, so they can simplify tasks   through conversations.
And in a Bloomberg interview last year, CEO Satya Nadella talked about using natural language   AI to improve interactions with mobile apps, "The complexity   is too much. We need to tame it. We need to be able to make it   much more natural for people to get things done vs. this thing   about let me remember the 20 apps I need to get anything   done."
The ultimate goal for Microsoft's AI pursuits (and nearly   every other AI company) is to get machines to reach the coveted   artificial general intelligence level. Microsoft is now closer   than ever with its purchase of Maluuba -- and the   acquisition comes at the perfect time. Here's how worldwide AI   revenue is expected to grow over the next eight years:
Data sources: Tractica  and Statista .
Tractica expects the global artificial intelligence market to   spike from $644 million this year to $36.8 billion by 2025.
Investors looking to benefit from AI's growth would be wise to consider Microsoft's focus. With its past   research and recent acquisition, the company is proving that it   views the AI opportunity seriously and should continue to lead   efforts in this space in the coming years.
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Teresa Kersten is an employee of LinkedIn and is a member     of The Motley Fool's Board of Directors. LinkedIn is owned by     Microsoft. Chris Neiger has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns     shares of and recommends Twitter. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy .
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.