The History of Microsoft and AI & Virtual Assistants
Microsoft has been at the forefront of artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual assistants since its early days.
In the early 2000s, Microsoft began experimenting with virtual assistants, starting with the development of a personal assistant for Windows Mobile called Clippy. Although Clippy was not well received by users, it paved the way for the development of more sophisticated virtual assistants, such as Cortana.
Cortana was introduced in 2014 as a virtual assistant for Windows 10, and quickly gained popularity due to its ability to understand natural language and perform a wide range of tasks, such as setting reminders and answering questions.
In recent years, Microsoft has continued to invest heavily in AI and virtual assistants, with the launch of its AI platform, Azure Cognitive Services, in 2016, which allows developers to easily integrate AI capabilities into their applications. Additionally, Microsoft has been working on AI-based chatbots and virtual assistants for enterprise use cases, such as customer service and support, and also working on developing AI-based products such as Dynamics 365, Power platform and LinkedIn.
Today, Microsoft is considered one of the leaders in the field of AI and virtual assistants, and the company continues to push the boundaries of what is possible with this technology. With its deep expertise in AI research and development, Microsoft is well positioned to shape the future of AI and virtual assistants for years to come.
So here is a more in-depth history of some of their Virtual Assistants
Rover the dog
Microsoft BOB
Microsoft Bob was a home computing software launched by Bill Gates in 1995, designed to make the software more friendly for first-time users. It transformed the desktop into a virtual home, with users navigating through different applications by clicking on familiar household objects. The program was based on research by Stanford professors, who found that people unconsciously respond to computers as if they are human and that evaluations of a computer’s performance are more positive when people complete them on the machine running the program. To capitalize on these findings, Microsoft Bob’s developers added anthropomorphic “assistants” to guide users through the program. However, the program received negative reviews and was discontinued by 1996. The assistants, or “Friends of Bob,” later formed the basis of the assistants in the Windows 97 version of Microsoft Office, including Clippy the paper clip.
Cortana
Cortana
Cortana is Microsoft’s first major entry into the field of consumer-facing Artificial Intelligence (AI). It was first demonstrated at Microsoft’s Build 2014 developer conference and has since been integrated into Windows phone devices, Windows 10 PCs, Xbox One, iOS, and Android. The name “Cortana” was originally just a codename for the service, but due to an outpouring of fan interest, Microsoft decided to retain the name.
Cortana was launched in the US for Windows Phone 8.1 in 2014 and later expanded to other platforms. The assistant’s features vary by operating system, but it is most powerful on Windows 10 PCs in the US, where it can track flights, set reminders, provide breaking news stories, and much more.
The development of Cortana began in 2009 under Zig Serafin and Larry Heck, engineers working with Microsoft Research and the Microsoft Speech team. They aimed to create a digital assistant that would not only assist with day-to-day tasks but also learn a user’s habits and respond in an anticipatory way.
The name Cortana was inspired by the AI of the same name from the popular Halo game franchise. Microsoft even enlisted Cortana’s official voice actress, Jen Taylor, to provide ongoing voice work for the assistant’s U.S. version. The assistant’s in-game personality also affected the delivery of its Microsoft assistant version, with Cortana being sassy and having an array of fun jokes and Easter eggs to uncover.
One of the main criticisms of Cortana in Windows Phone 8.1 was its limited functionality compared to other virtual assistants on the market. Many users felt that the assistant was not as advanced as Apple’s Siri or Google’s Google Now, and that it did not have as many features or integrations. Additionally, Cortana was only available in a limited number of markets and languages, which further limited its appeal.
Despite these criticisms, many users found Cortana to be a useful addition to the Windows Phone 8.1 experience. The assistant’s natural language processing capabilities made it easy to interact with, and its ability to set reminders and perform other tasks without having to open other apps was a major advantage. Additionally, the integration of Cortana with the Bing search engine provided users with quick access to relevant information and search results.
When Windows 10 was released in 2015, Cortana was also included in the operating system. The reception of the assistant in Windows 10 was more positive than it had been in Windows Phone 8.1. Microsoft had added more features and integrations to the assistant, and it was now available in more markets and languages. Additionally, the integration of Cortana with the Windows 10 operating system allowed for more seamless and efficient use of the assistant.
One of the key improvements in Cortana on Windows 10 was its ability to interact with other apps and services. The assistant could now be used to control music playback on Spotify or to set reminders in Outlook, for example. Additionally, the integration of Cortana with the Edge web browser allowed for more efficient web browsing and searching.
Despite these improvements, some users still felt that Cortana was lacking in certain areas. Some criticized the assistant for being too limited in its capabilities and for not being as advanced as other virtual assistants on the market. Additionally, some users felt that the integration of Cortana with the Windows 10 operating system was not as seamless as it could have been.
Overall, the reception of Microsoft’s virtual assistant, Cortana, has been mixed. While it has received praise for its natural language processing capabilities and ease of use, it has also been criticized for its limited functionality and lack of integration with other apps and services. With the release of Windows 10, Microsoft has made significant improvements to the assistant, but there is still room for further development and improvement in the future.
This is where Chat GPT comes in, but….
Open AI’s Chat GPT
If you ask Chat GPT itself to emphasize on that it would tell you that
“ChatGPT is a cutting-edge natural language processing (NLP) technology developed by OpenAI. It is a large language model that has been trained on a massive dataset of conversational text, and is able to generate human-like responses to a wide range of prompts.
The model is based on the GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) architecture, which is a type of deep neural network. This architecture is particularly well-suited for NLP tasks, as it is able to process and understand large amounts of text data.
One of the key features of ChatGPT is its ability to generate text that is almost indistinguishable from text written by a human. This is made possible by the huge amount of data that the model has been trained on, as well as the advanced techniques used in the training process.
ChatGPT can be used for a wide range of applications, including language translation, question answering, and text summarization. For example, it can be used to automatically generate responses to customer inquiries, or to translate text from one language to another.
In addition to its ability to generate text, ChatGPT also has the ability to understand and interpret text. This means that it can be used to perform tasks such as sentiment analysis, which involves determining whether a piece of text expresses a positive, negative, or neutral sentiment.
Overall, ChatGPT is a powerful tool for NLP that has the potential to revolutionize the way we interact with machines. With its ability to generate and understand human-like text, it has the potential to make communication with machines more natural and intuitive. “
So What does Microsoft want with Chat GPT
Satya Nadella and Sam Altman
Microsoft’s reported a $10 billion investment in OpenAI, the startup behind the popular chatbot ChatGPT has sparked speculation on the ways in which the technology giant plans to integrate the language model into its Office products and Bing search engine. Although Microsoft and OpenAI have not yet revealed their plans for integration, experts suggest that ChatGPT’s natural language generation capabilities could revolutionize online search, making Bing a formidable competitor to Google.
ChatGPT’s ability to answer queries in natural language, as opposed to a list of links, could make the search experience more efficient and user-friendly. However, there are also concerns about the potential for biased and harmful content generated by the model. Language models like ChatGPT have a tendency to state both facts and falsehoods with the same level of confidence, and removing the “human assessment” layer in search results could lead to the spread of misinformation.
Beyond search, experts suggest that ChatGPT’s capabilities could also be used to improve productivity tools such as Outlook and Office. The model’s ability to assist with summarizing reports, writing proposals, and generating ideas could make tasks such as creating PowerPoint presentations and answering emails more efficient. Additionally, ChatGPT’s integration with Microsoft’s text-to-image generator DALL-E could result in the creation of more visually appealing presentations.
While the potential applications of ChatGPT are numerous and exciting, it is important to consider the implications of blindly automating our communications and creative processes. The integration of advanced AI tools like ChatGPT into everyday technology must be done with caution and thought, to ensure that the benefits outweigh any potential negative consequences.