Microsoft's Build Conference is a yearly event focusing on software and Web developments for its operating system, phone and cloud computing. For this year, the tech giant seems to be focusing many of its resources on artificial intelligence development.
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, said during his opening keynote that they want to develop an AI technology that will be capable of acquiring the best of humankind and not the not-so-good ones. In the latter case, he was referring to their latest creation, Tay, the Twitter social bot that got corrupted and taught to be a racist in less than a day.
Nadella added, as quoted by The Verge, "We quickly realized it was not up to this mark. So we're back to the drawing board."
Slowly, the tech giant is making its way to fulfilling its vision, starting with its own apps and intelligent assistant, Cortana, which has already gone a long way. Skype is already infusing Cortana, waiting to be of assistance, but in the future, she will also be able to discuss things with other third-party bots with regard to hotel and restaurant reservations that a person wants to make.
Microsoft even provided a demo on how to create a Domino's Pizza bot with its Cortana Intelligence Suite that runs on the Microsoft bot framework, a platform for developers to base their future smart bots on.
The Redmond-based tech giant also announced that it will be getting a big update when Windows 10 celebrates its anniversary. An Anniversary Edition Windows 10 will be rolled out at this special event, which is said to make Cortana smarter.
Another announcement worth noting is that Linux will now be supported within Windows. Developers can now simply open up a terminal window and start programming in Linux. The tech giant partnered with Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu and producer of Bash or "Bourne Again Shell." Third-party developer tools were eliminated in the process.
In gaming-related news, Microsoft has also incorporated Xbox into Windows. Soon, more Xbox games will be playable on Windows 10 machines.
The HoloLens also gets its time to shine during Day 1 of the Microsoft Build Conference. The company announced that the developer edition has started shipping out and soon, there will more apps available. The Galaxy Explorer and The Cleveland Clinic medical apps were featured during the HoloLens presentation.
The Microsoft Build conference started last March 30 and will last until April 1.
