Have you tried having a normal conversation with your virtual assistant? You know it isn’t really fun when you want more, except the usual commands it can respond to. Satya mentioned three setbacks with the current virtual agents. Conversations with current virtual agents he said are very brittle, don’t have natural language capabilities and aren’t multi-agents.
The new breakthrough Satya says, brings a conversational experience away from the previous manually curated set of skills. The Conversational AI Technology will use a multi-turn, multi-domain and multi-agent experience, keeping the conversation in context.
This is an excerpt of what he said;
“Now, in spite of all the progress, you’ve got to remember, today, most of the conversations that we have are still very brittle. They’re truly not multi-turn. The context from turn to turn gets lost — especially human language is complex, where the context sometimes is subtle. So, therefore, how do you make sure that the natural language capabilities inside of these personal assistants is capable of having that shared context across a long dialogue versus just a few turns?”
Satya Nadella
Conversational AI Technology demo
From the video we can see how the conversation takes a total of 34 dialog turns. With the virtual assistant keeping the conversation in relation and context to who, where, what and when it applies to.
Microsoft says the new conversational engine will be integrated into Cortana and made available to developers through the Bot Framework, other Azure surfaces and beyond. Microsoft will also make it available to its customer ecosystem, who will be able to customise it for their use.
An area of focus in Microsoft’s research is Agriculture. Microsoft research scientists are focusing on unleashing the future of agriculture using data driven techniques called precision farming. The process involves using broadband connectivity through TV whitespaces, connected to IoT sensors that enable data driven farming. These data when collected over time will help farmers improve their yields and lower costs. This initiative from Microsoft is called FarmBeats.
Piloting FarmBeats in Africa
Microsoft is expanding the pilot program of FarmBeats to Africa, starting in Kenya. The program in Nairobi will be focused on addressing the specific challenges of farming in Africa with the intent of expanding to other African countries.
Data-driven digital agriculture
FarmBeats
“AI doesn’t replace human knowledge; it augments it“
Satya Nadella
Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO says “AI doesn’t replace human knowledge, it augments it. Talking about Microsoft FarmBeats initiative he shares that “Data from low-cost sensors in soil and drones with machine learning algorithms work with farmers’ knowledge and intuition to help them gather and parse data about their farms. Informing what, when, and where to plant in order to drive the highest-possible yields and reduce costs”.
Microsoft FarmBeats will help farmers benefit from technology innovation at the edge. Microsoft says although technology could help the farmer, its adoption is limited. This is majorly due to farms not having power, Internet connectivity on the farms and farmers not technology savvy.
To address this Microsoft says “We are working towards an end-to-end approach. From sensors to the cloud, to solve the problem. As part of the FarmBeats project, we are building several unique solutions to solve these problems using low-cost sensors, drones and vision and machine learning algorithms“.
Bill Gates visited a pilot site and shares his experience in the video below.
If you are a student, there is a Student Kit that will help you learn about precision agriculture.
Now on Azure Marketplace
Microsoft releases FarmBeats on the Azure Marketplace to help farmers with low-cost agtech solutions. Azure FarmBeats in the Azure marketplace will be a business-to-business offering. Offered at no additional charge and users will only pay for the Azure resources used. It will include a Datahub. (An API layer that enables aggregation, normalization, and contextualization of various agriculture datasets across providers). As well as an Accelerator. (A sample solution, built on top of Datahub, that jumpstarts your UI and model development).
Update: Microsoft announces Africa Development Center sites in Kenya and Nigeria
In a teaser post on Microsoft’s social pages, the company shared “Something great is coming to Nairobi, Kenya! and Something great is coming to Lagos, Nigeria!, Watch this space to learn more“. The big announcements are scheduled to be made on May 14th in Nairobi Kenya and the 17th in Lagos Nigeria.
Microsoft’s premier developer conference Build 2019 is here with us. Get to hear about the latest in Microsoft technologies.
Watch Livestream
Join us follow the online viewing of Build 2019 conference. Event starts at these times world wide 8:30AM PT, 3:30PM GMT (4:30PM UK), 6:30PM EAT and 5:30PM SAT. Right after the Imagine Cup world finals. Get to hear what’s new and evolving in Microsoft world of technology. Microsoft says this year the developer event is focused on empowering developers of all kinds. The event is taking place from the 6th to 8th of May 2019 in Seattle.
This year’s event is focused on empowering developers of all kinds, from experienced computer scientists to tech beginners with big ideas. Join us here at 8 a.m. PT on Monday, May 6, to watch the World Championship of Imagine Cup, our global student technology competition. The Build keynote presentations will begin at 8:30 a.m. PT, when we’ll share the latest about Microsoft’s platforms and tools aimed at helping people build great things.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella will lead the Build 2019 vision keynote followed by other technical keynotes. Satya Nadella will share with the developer community what Microsoft is doing to help them build great platforms and leverage its tools.
We will have all the announcements coming out of Build on this site. Do stay tuned and don’t forget to share what you are most excited about with us in the comments.
Join us watch the final show down of Imagine Cup 2019. Three teams representing Asia, Europe Middle East and Africa and the Americas regions will compete for the grand prize. Taking home USD100K and a mentoring session with Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella.
This year, Imagine Cup 2019 World Championship student developer team finalist will present their ideas at Microsoft Build. Yes, Imagine Cup finals is taking place at Microsoft’s 2019 Build developer conference. The finals will take place before Build 2019 keynotes begin. Event will be live at 8:00AM PT, 3:00PM GMT (4:00PM UK), 6:00PM EAT and 5:00PM SAT.
Watch 2019 World Championship Live
About the Teams
The three regional finalists are;
Asia Winner: Team Caeli, from Manav Rachna Institute of Research & Studies, India
