Data Backup Digest

With the modern artificial intelligence industry heating up, some of IT's largest and most prolific names are making moves that will, hopefully, cement their company amongst the frontrunners of next-gen AI. As such, Microsoft's latest announcement - the acquisition of the Canadian startup known as Maluuba - is in direct alignment with their future goals.

Big Plans for a Small Company

Although they've maintained a rather unknown presence in the industry, Maluuba, according to a Microsoft blog post, is "one of the world's most impressive deep-learning research labs for natural language understanding." The team with Microsoft is eager to integrate the potential of Maluuba with the proven background of the company responsible for, amongst other things, the Windows operating system.

Harry Shum, executive vice president with Microsoft's artificial intelligence and research group, described how the recent acquisition could accommodate future AI storage needs. He was quoted as saying: "Maluuba's expertise in deep learning and reinforcement learning for question-answering and decision-making systems will help us advance our strategy to democratize AI and make it accessible and valuable to everyone - consumers, businesses and developers. We've recently set new milestones for speech and image recognition using deep-learning techniques, and with this acquisition we are, as Wayne Gretzky would say, skating to where the puck will be next: machine reading and writing."

Benefits Across the Board

Maluuba has focused on natural language processing algorithms for use in next-gen AI ever since the company's inception in 2011. While they are expected to continue their research and development in related areas, the exact role they'll play in the future of artificial intelligence remains to be seen.

On the other hand, Microsoft is taking aim at their competition in the niche of AI; particularly the machine-learning capabilities seen in the latest developments from the likes of Google and Amazon. Given Microsoft's long-time reign as a frontrunner in general IT, as well as their latest efforts surrounding artificial intelligence, it's safe to say that they'll receive substantial support from the expertise of Maluuba.

The team with Maluuba also stands to benefit from the recent acquisition. As their goals in natural speech recognition are rather significant, especially for a startup tech company, they will see an increased access to IT resources - such as data storage, backup and security systems - from the tech giant. They'll also receive financial and talent support from their new parent-company.

Embracing and Accepting the Art of the Acquisition

Although some may view Microsoft's latest moves as an attempt to corner the market, acquisitions such as this one are a shining example of how these newfound business relationships can actually benefit all parties involved; including the consumer.

For more information on Maluuba, including details on the progress they've made in natural speech recognition, machine-learning and artificial intelligence in general, please visit their official website at www.maluuba.com. Those who are interested in finding out more about Microsoft, including specifics on their latest acquisitions and breaking news, please refer to their site at www.microsoft.com.