Microsoft has acquired Semantic Machines, a conversational AI company. The natural language processing technology developed by Semantic can not just follow commands, but also hold conversations. Microsoft’s Cortana and the Azure Bot Service are expected to be integrated with the technology.

United States: The Corporate Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of AI & Research, has recently announced the acquisition of Semantic Machines, a conversational AI company.  Microsoft’s Cortana and the Azure Bot Service will be integrated with the technology developed by Semantic Machines which can process natural language.

According to Semantic Machines, the existing natural language systems like Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana and Google Now, understand commands, but not conversations. The technology developed by the company understands conversations along with commands. Some of the most typical commands that digital assistants can handle today include weather reports, music controls, setting up timers and creating reminder, but for effective communication, intelligent assistants should have a natural dialogue instead of just responding to commands.

Semantics uses the machine learning to allow users to access and interact with information and services in a much more natural way with lesser effort.

With the acquisition of Semantic Machines, Microsoft aims to establish a conversational AI center of excellence in Berkeley California, to experiment and integrate 'natural language processing (NLP) technology' in its products like Cortana.

Microsoft has been aiming to utilize the potential of computers to create a world where computers could see, hear talk and understand as humans. In 2016, the tech giant took a huge step towards conversational computing by introducing the framework for developing bots and the releasing pre-built Cognitive Services for infusing speech recognition and natural language understanding into intelligent assistants. At present, there are more than 1 million developers using Microsoft Cognitive Services and more than 300,000 developers using Azure Bot Service.

Microsoft has recently become the first to add full-duplex voice sense to a conversational AI system for users to carry on a conversation naturally with its chatbot XiaoIce and AI-powered assistant Cortana. Full-duplex is a technique to communicate dynamically, like a telephone call with AI-based technology conversing on one side.

The conversation engine, a Semantic Machines core product, extracts responses from natural voice or text input and then generates a self-updating learning framework for managing dialog context and user goals.

Earlier this month, the CEO of Google, introduced "Duplex" at Google I/O and showed how AI system was able to book an appointment at a salon and a table at a restaurant where the Google Assistant sounded like a human. It used Google DeepMind's new "WaveNet" audio-generation technique and other advances in Natural Language Processing (NLP) to replicate human speech patterns.

According to TechSci Research, the acquisition of Semantic Mechanics will enable Microsoft to innovate its existing Artificial Intelligence technology by integrating natural language processing (NLP) technology in its products like Cortana and other Chat Bots. NPL technology will enable Cortana and other bots to hold proper conversations rather than merely following commands. This move is anticipated to drive the Artificial Intelligence Market globally, as well as in the United States. Factors like increasing venture capital investments, growing technological advancements and booming autonomous vehicle market is expected to drive the global artificial intelligence market in the coming years. Artificial Intelligent finds it uses in multiple industries like automobile, finance, healthcare, consumer electronics, etc. Moreover, rising acquisitions of start-ups by leading players such as Google, IBM, Microsoft and others is driving the global artificial intelligence market. Furthermore, increasing research & development activities are also expected to aid the penetration of artificial intelligence into newer applications in next five years.

According to the recently published report by TechSci Research, “Global Artificial Intelligence Market By Application (Image Recognition, Natural Language Processing, Speech Recognition, etc.), By End User (Consumer Electronics, BFSI, etc.), By Region, Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2012 – 2022”, the global market of artificial intelligence is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of over 60% during 2017 – 2022. On the basis of application, global artificial intelligence market has been broadly segmented into image recognition, natural language processing, speech recognition, gesture control & others. Among these categories, image recognition dominated global artificial intelligence market in 2016, and the segment is expected to maintain its dominance over the next five years as well.

According to the recently published report by TechSci Research, “United States Artificial IntelligenceMarket, By Application (Speech Recognition, Image Recognition, etc.), By Region, and By End User (Consumer Electronics, Security & Access Control, etc.) Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2011-2021”, the market for artificial intelligence in the US is projected to grow at a CAGR of around 75% during 2016 - 2021. Growing trend of integration of video surveillance with artificial intelligence for video analysis, coupled with rising government spending on cyber security solutions integrated with real time analytics and artificial intelligence is expected to boost artificial intelligence market in the United States over the next five years. In 2015, the US artificial intelligence market was highly fragmented, with presence of a huge number of start-ups in the country. However, the market is expected to undergo consolidation in the coming years, with tech giants such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, Intel, Amazon, IBM, etc., thrusting on inorganic expansion in the country’s artificial intelligence market. Research and developmental activities on integration of 3D printing, artificial intelligence and neurotechnology are expected to augment artificial intelligence adoption in the US healthcare market. Furthermore, growing application of speech recognition, image recognition and natural language processing in consumer electronics is gaining momentum in the country, with the trend expected to continue through 2021.

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