The race in creating better and more powerful Artificial Intelligence continues. Microsoft has created a research lab with a focus on developing general-purpose AI technology.
The lab is called Microsoft Research AI (MSR AI). Based at the company’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington, the lab involves a team of more than 100 scientists from across various sub-fields of artificial intelligence research, including perception, learning, cognitive psychology, reasoning and natural language processing.
According to Eric Horvitz, the director of Microsoft Research Labs, the aim is to combine these disciplines to work toward creating a more general artificial intelligence.
What this means, Microsoft is trying to develop a general-purpose AI that can address problems in a range of different areas, rather than focusing on a single specific task. Such AI, for instance, might be able to both plan the best route to drive through traffic, but also understand some human humor, gestures and sarcasms.
Microsoft is one, other notable company that also works in the fields of AI include Google. With its DeepMind project and Google Brain project, Google is also attempting to create a more generalized AI.
Microsoft previously signed on to work with DeepMind, Amazon, Google, Facebook and IBM on a cross-company partnership for ethical AI development (Partnership On AI).
The lab also partners with MIT's Center for Brains, Minds and Machines. Seeking academic-private partnership is not unusual in terms of AI development. Microsoft, Google and others, including Uber, have also made commitments to academic institutions in order to help secure talent and pipeline for people with related expertise and knowledge.
In addition to the MSR AI lab, the company is also creating an AI ethics oversight panel that will act in an advisory capacity across the company, which is also to keep up with the industry's trends.
With the MSR AI lab, Microsoft is entering the race to develop more general learning systems, competing with Google's London-based DeepMind and San Francisco-based Google Brain, both divisions of Alphabet Inc., as well as OpenAI, GoodAI and others.
Further reading: Paving The Roads To Artificial Intelligence: It's Either Us, Or Them