Microsoft today announced the establishment of the Cortana Intelligence Institute. Under this new co-funded collaboration between Microsoft Research, Cortana Research, and RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, the groups will work together and build next-generation Cortana features and capabilities.
According to a blog post penned by Roy Zimmermann, a Director at Microsoft Research Outreach, the RMIT University research team will “collaborate with Microsoft researchers to create and draw on a multidimensional dataset.” This same research team is already focused on work-related tasks, which means that they can help Cortana become more proactive and context-aware.
They also will work with Microsoft’s researchers on the on the development of algorithms that use the novel dataset to improve Cortana. According to Zimmermann, this means Cortana in the future can “assist with chores from cooking to calendar management, which involve multiple steps, contextual awareness and a rich dialogue with users.”
In the words of Andrew Shuman, Corporate Vice President of Cortana Engineering:
“Working with RMIT on the Cortana Intelligence Institute is an amazing chance to inject new thinking in what we build.”
At the end of the day, you can perhaps expect Cortana to better understand the users and help complete more tasks thanks to the forthcoming work of the new Cortana Intelligence Institute.
Further reading: AI, Computer Science, Cortana, Microsoft
