MICROSOFT Corp. will set up an open platform with four of China’s most prestigious universities to share its data and tools on artificial intelligence (AI), quickening efforts to try and wrest clients away from local giants. The company demonstrated its AI chip system, Project Brainwave, in Beijing earlier this week. It showed off how “XiaoIce,” its Chinese digital assistant for chats, can emulate people’s voices, converse with humans over the phone and even compose poetry, echoing Google’s now-infamous demo to convince developers to adopt it as the chatbot of choice. The displays encapsulate Microsoft’s efforts to use AI tools to win customers from more entrenched global rivals, including Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc. Among cloud vendors, AI services are regarded as effective at winning new business. The Chinese market remains dominated by the likes of Baidu Inc., Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. “As the global and Chinese AI market keeps evolving it’s very important to have a global perspective,” Microsoft executive vice president Harry Shum said. “We hope we can democratize AI.” Project Brainwave uses advanced chips designed specifically to supercharge the training of machine learning in a manner similar to Google’s Tensor Processing Units. The company now plans to create an open AI platform with Peking University, the University of Science and Technology of China, Xi’an Jiaotong University and Zhejiang University. That platform will give students and lecturers AI training tools and datasets to help advance their AI work.(SD-Agencies) |