Microsoft is working on an advanced
version of its competitor to Apple’s Siri,
using research from an artificial
intelligence project called “Einstein.”
Microsoft has been running its “personal
assistant” Cortana on its Windows phones
for a year, and will put the new version on
the desktop with the arrival of Windows 10
this autumn.
Later, Cortana will be
available as a standalone app, usable on
phones and tablets powered by Apple Inc’s
(AAPL.O) iOS and Google Inc’s (GOOG.O)
Android, people familiar with the project
said.
“This kind of technology, which can read
and understand email, will play a central
role in the next roll out of Cortana, which
we are working on now for the fall time
frame,” said Eric Horvitz, managing
director of Microsoft Research and a part
of the Einstein project, in an interview at
the company’s Redmond, Washington,
headquarters.
The plan to put Cortana on machines
running software from rivals such as Apple
and Google, as well as the Einstein
project, have not been reported. Cortana
is the name of an artificial intelligence
character in the video game series “Halo.”
They represent a new front in CEO Satya
Nadella’s battle to sell Microsoft software
on any device or platform, rather than
trying to force customers to use Windows.
Success on rivals’ platforms could create
new markets and greater relevance for the
company best known for its decades-old
operating system.
The concept of ‘artificial intelligence’ is
broad, and mobile phones and computers
already show dexterity with spoken
language and sifting through emails for
data, for instance.
Still, Microsoft believes its work on speech
recognition, search and machine learning
will let it transform its digital assistant
into the first intelligent ‘agent’ which
anticipates users needs. By comparison,
Siri is advertised mostly as responding to
requests. Google’s mobile app, which
doesn’t have a name like Siri or Cortana,
already offers some limited predictive
information ‘cards’ based on what it
thinks the user wants to know.
Microsoft has tried to create digital
assistants before, without success.
Microsoft Bob, released in 1995, was
supposed to make using a computer easy,
but ended up being the butt of jokes. The
Office Assistant nicknamed ‘Clippy’
suffered a similar fate a few years later.
“We’re defining the competitive
landscape… of who can provide the most
supportive services that make life easier,
keep track of things, that complement
human memory in a way that helps us get
things done,” said Horvitz.
Outside his door stands “The Assistant”, a
monitor showing a woman’s face that can
converse with visitors, has access to
Horvitz’s calendar and can book meetings.
On his desktop, Horvitz runs ‘Lifebrowser’,
a program that stores everything from
appointments to photos and uses machine
learning to identify the important
moments. A keyword search for his
university professor instantly brings up
photos and video from the last time they
met.
Cortana could tell a mobile phone user
when to leave for the airport, days after it
read an email and realized the user was
planning a flight. It would automatically
check flight status, determine where the
phone is located using GPS, and checking
traffic conditions.
None of the individual steps are a
breakthrough, but creating an artificial
intelligence that can stitch together the
processes marks a breakthrough in
usefulness, Microsoft says.
Rivals are on the same track. Google’s
latest mobile app uses the predictive
power generated from billions of searches
to work out what a user is doing, what
they are interested in, and sending relevant
information, such as when a favorite
sports team is playing next.
Apple is also pushing Siri, which uses
Microsoft’s Bing search engine in the
background, into new areas with its
CarPlay and HomeKit platforms, as well as
the recently unveiled Apple Watch.
The key to Cortana’s success will be
knowing where a user is, what time it is,
and what they are trying to do. Albert
Einstein’s work on the relationship
between space and time gave rise to
Microsoft’s secret project name, said
Horvitz.
“Einstein was brilliant about space and
time,” he said. “It’s using brilliance about
space and time generally in our agents.”