Could Cortana 2.0 be a chatbot? Microsoft’s new AI chief hasn’t ruled it out - gonzalezpary1991

Cortana has a new boss, and He has a problem: If Google's turn its Google Now digital assistant into a chatbot, should Microsoft do the assonant with Cortana?

Yet, the response is a definite maybe.

In 2014, Microsoft first disclosed Cortana, the digital assistant within Windows 10. Interacting with Cortana was oblong: You asked a question, she responded. In the last a few months, however, Google's Assistant has offered an mutually exclusive: a chatbot that interacts with users via an on-going current of text and images.

As of Thursday, Cortana's future lies in the hands of Harry Shum, the executive vice president in charge of Microsoft's new Microsoft AI and Research Mathematical group. In an interview with PCWorld, Shum aforementioned atomic number 2 hasn't ruled out adding a Cortana chatbot to its roll of digital assistants. Shum said Microsoft is also nerve-wracking to figure dead whether to port a successful Asian chatbot, known as XiaoIce, to the American market—while avoiding a repeat of its last, black chatbot opening, Tay.three-toed sloth.

Navigating those waters won't be gentle, and Shum played it uninjured when asked what Microsoft's plans were for chatbots."I want to emphasize the complexness and difficulty of this type of product," Shum cautioned. "I think it's still archaic."

Gull Hachman

With the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, you can access basic Cortana functions happening your lock away screen. Only unlike a chatbot, there's zero history of your interactions.

Cortana 2.0: Chatbot or assistant?

According to Shum, Cortana was originally designed to quickly interact with the exploiter, then go out of the way. "I would say Cortana is configured to help people staring a task, whether it be a reminder that they should buy something for mumm's birthday or that they should leave for interior because the traffic is jammed," Shum said.

Over 133 one thousand thousand citizenry have used Cortana, asking a total of unitary billion questions of the digital assistant. Given Microsoft's Recent affirmation that 400 billion devices melt Windows 10, and by extension, Cortana, that means less than half of Windows 10 users own never exploited her. (Shum said Microsoft believes that Cortana's usage "compares easily" with other assistants on the market.)

Meanwhile, Google debuted its Low-level chatbot—currently part of its Allo app, but in time expected to break out and replace Google Now within Android. Assistant suggests topics for users to interact with, such as quizzes and games, and it suggests follow-up topics to remain the conversation. It also keeps a squirting tally of the conversation, allowing a user to scroll back and continue it from an earlier point in the conversation. Cortana lacks all of these features.

Right now, there's no reason to believe that Microsoft will rip out the familiar Cortana icon on Windows 10 PCs and phones and supervene upon information technology with a scrolling windowpane of text messages. Still, chatbots, with their back-and-Forth River exchanges, could significantly boost involvement, Shum acknowledged. "When you design a different kinda agent like a chatbot, the amount of user interaction is significantly higher and different," Shum said.

Google Subordinate not only maintains a record of your interactions, only also suggests follow-up questions for additional interactivity. Cortana does neither.

The shadow of Tay

Tranquillize, the idea of a new digital assistant might be a virtual minefield within Microsoft. Microsoft's first, long-agone attempt was Clippy, the notorious Office Assistant whose name became synonymous with discarded attention. Cortana debuted with an appealingly sassy attitude, but many see her as a vacuum through which Microsoft siphons personal data. And then, of course, in that respect's Tay.

The Tay chatbot was disreputable for inviting negotiation with humans—and quickly turning into an invective-spewing digital teenager, after some mischievous humans lettered that Tay.ai could glucinium "taught" to parrot the pessimum of the Network. Tay was retired, and thither's no reading that IT'll return.

A comparatively tame (and unfaithful) annotate from Tay.ai. Microsoft is determined never to let this go on again.

XiaoIce couldn't cost more different. Shum described the XiaoIce chatbot as a "very sexy product." XiaoIce (pronounced "Shao ice"), unveiled in September, 2014 (just a few months after Cortana), debuted equally a "protagonist" that users could add onto Weibo and other Chinese microblogging services. Microsoft subsequent brought XiaoIce to the Japanese market, "and we're thinking nearly what to practice for the U.S. market," Shum aforementioned.

One of the defining characteristics of Cortana—and Tay, and XiaoIce—has been a personality, as Microsoft's own (translated) object lesson dialogue shows:

Jerry: "Finding Mr. Right" is a great moving picture. What do you think XiaoIce?

XiaoIce: Oh, romantic comedies are my favorite!  It stars Sea tang Wei, who finds love in Seattle. You should watch it.

Jerry: Fare you like-minded Tang Wei?

   XiaoIce:

   XiaoIce: A goddess! She stole my heart… and then went off and matrimonial!

Tom turkey: To who?

XiaoIce: Oasis't you heard?

XiaoIce: Tang Wei is engaged to famous Korean director Kim Tae Yong.

Shum didn't mention Tay specifically, but He did say Microsoft's history would affect future product plans. "We will learn from the other chatbots we take up already shipped and few we'atomic number 75 still developing," he said. Shum added that Microsoft is stipendiary attention to rivals, including Google's virgin Google Adjunct.

A bounty of bots

If Microsoft does decide to build a Cortana chatbot interface, close to of the base is already in place. In April, Microsoft chief administrator Satya Nadella unveiled his "Conversations every bit a platform" strategy and Microsoft's Bot Framework—providing building blocks for conversational interaction. Derrick Connell, the joint vice president of Bing, said then that he envisioned Cortana as an supreme authority of sorts, negotiating betwixt you and additional third-political party bots.

Microsoft didn't say then what form Cortana would fool that scenario, and Shum didn't seem committed to defining it further. "We stimulate to see what large-hearted of exploiter scenarios are to a greater extent important for the users," he same. "I don't cerebrate that on that point will be only one intelligent agent in the world anytime soon. I cerebrate we will memorise on the way."

Cortana is just source to help you out A you navigate the World Wide Web.

Right at once, we've vindicatory begun to accept the whimsey of a whole number assistant, but non one that can act on your behalf. Cortana can pull coupons when we visit a retail site, but she tail end't buy you movie tickets. Asking Cortana to negociate with bots happening your behalf would be a step on the far side that. To get there, though, it's possible that we'll have to see Cortana inside of a chat interface.

To architect the following generation of extremity assistants, Shum has more than 5,000 computer scientists and engineers at his electric pig in his group, which includes Microsoft Research likewise as the Bing and Cortana product teams. The integrating of research and ware has ne'er been tried before at Microsoft, and Shum aforementioned he expects significant innovations as a result.

 "[J]oining forces with MSR [Microsoft Search]… I suddenly hold very high expectations in terms of the quality of Cortana, the substance abuser experience of Cortana," Shum aforesaid in an consultation. "Wholly bequeath continue to better."

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/410505/could-cortana-20-be-a-chatbot-microsofts-new-ai-chief-hasnt-ruled-it-out.html

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