Microsoft Unveils Fifth-Generation Xiaoice Chatbot in Beijing, Strikes IoT Partnership with Xiaomi
Yicai
DATE:  Aug 23 2017
/ SOURCE:  Yicai
Microsoft Unveils Fifth-Generation Xiaoice Chatbot in Beijing, Strikes IoT Partnership with Xiaomi Microsoft Unveils Fifth-Generation Xiaoice Chatbot in Beijing, Strikes IoT Partnership with Xiaomi

(Yicai Global) Aug. 23 -- Global tech giant Microsoft Corp. [NYSE:MSFT] yesterday released its fifth-generation artificial intelligence product, Xiaoice, in the Chinese capital Beijing. The firm will also partner with Chinese internet firm Xiaomi Inc. to enter the Internet of Things sector.

Part of Microsoft's localization strategy in China, Xiaoice could be one of Microsoft's most popular products since it was founded more than 40 years ago.

Xiaoice can speak with humans over the phone and use streaming video to detect emotions and engage in conversation based on the person's expressions.

General and emotional intelligence are at the core of artificial intelligence. "IQ is important, but what Microsoft wants is to do really well in EQ through Xiaoice," Shen Xiangyan, global executive vice president, said at the product's release.

Data from Microsoft shows that Xiaoice has engaged in than 30 billion rounds of dialogue with over 100 million people worldwide. Among them, the longest single conversation was 7,151 rounds with an uninterrupted dialogue lasting 29 hours and 33 minutes.

At the release conference, Microsoft also announced that Xiaoice will integrate with Xiaomi's Internet of Things platform, through which the chatbot can control 35 kinds of smart device. The global tech firm will also work with other IoT manufacturers and integrate Xiaoice with their devices.

Shen believes Microsoft is now an artificial intelligence firm and its focus is to integrate artificial intelligence into all of its products, including its core Microsoft Office package and cloud computing business.

"Our PowerPoint users may be surprised to find that they can use machine translation within the software," Shen added. "If they add a picture to a presentation, we can automatically help add captions."

Xiaoice kicked off in China in 2014 and has since broken into Japan, the US, India and Indonesia.

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Keywords:   New Products,Microsoft,Xiaoice,AI,Internet of Things,Phonetics Robot