Microsoft acquires Semantic Machines

Microsoft is betting big on Artificial Intelligence. The Redmond, Washington based technology giant announced the acquisition of Semantic Machines, a company focused on building conversational AI. The move could help give Cortana the leg up it needs on competitors like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.

Semantic has previously worked with major tech firms, leading automatic speech recognition development for Apple’s Siri. In essence, Semantic employs machine learning in order to provide context to chatbot conversations, making dialogue seem a bit more natural and better-flowing.

Microsoft is by no means the only company trying to make strides when it comes to artificial intelligence and its smart assistants. Amazon, for example, is trying to give Alexa a better memory, while Google is making bots so human-esque that they’re practically indistinguishable from humans during phone conversations with its new Duplex offering.

Microsoft buys AI Startup Genee

Microsoft Corp. is betting big on Artificial Intelligence (AI) to make the software and services smarter. The company has announced the acquisition of AI powered scheduling tool Genee, and will be integrating these capabilities in future versions of the Office 365 cloud based productivity suite.

Before Microsoft swooped in, Genee offered virtual personal assistant services in two ways, first through email and second as messaging chatbots on SMS, Facebook, Twitter and Skype. For example, if you may want to meet a friend for lunch sometime in the next few days, all you need to do is mark Genee in “cc” in the mail you send to the friend. Genee will detect that you need to find the time for the meeting, will scan your calendar, and directly mail your friend with multiple time options. If there are any updates to the calendar leading up to meeting time, Genee will update all parties involved, automatically.

Genee uses natural language processing algorithms to understand the contents of a conversation. And this could come in very handy for Microsoft as it looks to enhance its virtual assistant Cortana, which rivals Google’s Now and Apple’s Siri. Also, Microsoft would do well to add the AI capabilities on to the Office 365 suite and make the Outlook mail service smarter.

This ties in well with Microsoft’s recent acquisition of the Sunrise Calendar app, a more powerful and feature rich calendar app, with automatic scheduling features, which gives Office 365 a big advantage. Enterprise and productivity apps as well as services are critical for Microsoft as the company wants to create a niche for itself in a smartphone market which is now undoubtedly dominated by Google Android and Apple iOS platform. 

Microsoft acquires Double Labs

Microsoft has added to its stable of Android Apps with the acquisition of Double Labs, the makers of Echo Notification Lockscreen, a popular app on Google’s mobile platform that helps user control the notifications they see. Echo replaces the default Android Lock screen with a new interface for handling push notifications.

The app’s marquee feature is its ability to categorize and sort user’s incoming notifications and only wake their phone for high priority messages. In addition, users can tell the lock screen to remind them of notifications at a later time or in a different place, so they can postpone seeing notifications about personal emails until they get home. It’s not the company’s first foray into Android Lock screens.

Microsoft’s garage division put out the Next Lock Screen app last year, which is another take on replacing the default experience for users of Google’s mobile platform. The acquisition, which took place in August, gives Microsoft another beachhead on Android, but it is also aimed at getting Microsoft access to the personalization technology that powers the lock screen’s features. The work with Next and Echo will translate the information the company will use to improve products like Office and Windows 10.

By acquiring Echo, Microsoft is picking up more information that it can use to power products like its Cortana virtual assistant, which is currently available in public beta for Android users. Microsoft has a variety of other Android utilities available including an app launcher currently in private beta, a voice search tool for Bing and an app that provides information about air quality to users in China.