Close
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Applications
    • Applications

    Microsoft Acquires Maluuba for AI-Enabled ‘Literate Machines’

    By
    Pedro Hernandez
    -
    January 14, 2017
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin
      Microsoft Acquires Maluuba

      Microsoft today announced it had acquired Maluuba, a Canadian artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing technology firm. Financial terms were not disclosed.

      Citing the company’s progress in speech and image recognition, Microsoft is now setting its sights on “literate machines,” according to Harry Shum, executive vice president of Microsoft’s Artificial Intelligence and Research Group.

      “Maluuba’s expertise in deep learning and reinforcement learning for question-answering and decision-making systems will help us advance our strategy to democratize AI and to make it accessible and valuable to everyone—consumers, businesses and developers,” said Shum in a Jan. 13 announcement.

      Microsoft envisions creating AI-enabled systems that can absorb information and communicate their findings in ways people share information with one another. Maluuba’s language understanding technology, modeled after how humans incorporate memory, reasoning, decision making and common sense into their thought processes, caught the tech titan’s eye, Shum said.

      For Maluuba, being acquired means access to a vastly larger pool of resources.

      “Microsoft provides us the opportunity to deliver our work to the billions of consumer and enterprise users that can benefit from the advent of truly intelligent machines,” wrote co-founders Sam Pasupalak and Kaheer Suleman in a Jan. 13 blog post.

      “In addition, Microsoft’s immense technical resources including back-end infrastructure (i.e. Microsoft’s Azure and GPU infrastructure) and engineering talent will help us accelerate our pace in conducting research and bringing solutions to market.”

      And it’s a market that’s hungry for AI-enabled solutions.

      Seeking to boost efficiency, make smarter business decisions and kick their digital transformation efforts into high gear, CIOs are on the lookout for AI technologies that fit the bill. Whit Andrews, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, told eWEEK that “if you are a very large vendor today, you are in the process of adding expertise around AI as fast as you possibly can.”

      Inquiries from end-user organizations related to AI, machine learning or both surged by over 200 percent between 2015 and 2016 at Gartner, signaling an intense and growing interest from businesses in AI solutions, Andrews revealed.

      IT vendors looking to successfully capitalize on this increasing demand will need to gather the leading minds in the space, Andrews added. “Access to exceptional AI scientists in the absolutely critical,” he said.

      It’s a strategy that Microsoft apparently subscribes to.

      In his announcement, Shum announced that Microsoft had brought Yoshua Bengio on as an advisor. Bengio is a professor at the University of Montreal’s Department of Computer Science and Operations Research and is considered one of deep learning’s “founding fathers” by Maluuba’s founders and who helped guide the firm’s AI efforts.

      As to why Microsoft snapped up Maluuba and is focused on adding a human touch to computing, it all comes down to the way people make sense of the world around them.

      “The way that people interact with everything that transforms human life is through mechanisms that are already familiar to us,” Andrews said, adding that when all is said and done, people prefer “to interact with computers in a natural fashion that is intuitive to us.”

      Microsoft isn’t alone in this pursuit, Andrews noted. Both Google and Facebook are betting big on AI, Andrews noted.

      Pedro Hernandez
      Pedro Hernandez is a contributor to eWEEK and the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals. Previously, he served as a managing editor for the Internet.com network of IT-related websites and as the Green IT curator for GigaOM Pro.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Big Data and Analytics

      Alteryx’s Suresh Vittal on the Democratization of...

      James Maguire - May 31, 2022 0
      I spoke with Suresh Vittal, Chief Product Officer at Alteryx, about the industry mega-shift toward making data analytics tools accessible to a company’s complete...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      Visa’s Michael Jabbara on Cybersecurity and Digital...

      James Maguire - May 17, 2022 0
      I spoke with Michael Jabbara, VP and Global Head of Fraud Services at Visa, about the cybersecurity technology used to ensure the safe transfer...
      Read more
      Cloud

      IGEL CEO Jed Ayres on Edge and...

      James Maguire - June 14, 2022 0
      I spoke with Jed Ayres, CEO of IGEL, about the endpoint sector, and an open source OS for the cloud; we also spoke about...
      Read more
      Applications

      Cisco’s Thimaya Subaiya on Customer Experience in...

      James Maguire - May 10, 2022 0
      I spoke with Thimaya Subaiya, SVP and GM of Global Customer Experience at Cisco, about the factors that create good customer experience – and...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      GoodData CEO Roman Stanek on Business Intelligence...

      James Maguire - May 4, 2022 0
      I spoke with Roman Stanek, CEO of GoodData, about business intelligence, data as a service, and the frustration that many executives have with data...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2022 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×