
Why Microsoft is betting its future on AI - nzonbi
http://www.theverge.com/2016/7/7/12111028/microsoft-bot-framework-artificial-intelligence-satya-nadella-interview
======
iamleppert
"conversation as a platform"?

Is he talking about that "Tay" debacle?
[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/microsoft-tay-racist-
twe...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/microsoft-tay-racist-
tweets_us_56f3e678e4b04c4c37615502)

Reading this article reminds me about the story of McDonald's. After a certain
level in the organization, at a certain executive delusion, McDonalds starts
thinking they are all restaurateurs, and not low-quality fast food
establishments to get a quick bite. They are so out of touch with what people
are really doing and using their products, so misguided, they actually fail to
innovate on their core concept.

For a company that finally has a decent web browser (and it's still not
anywhere near Chrome/FF in terms of features and developer adoption), I am
skeptical at best. Does anyone remember when Steve ignored the web and mobile
for so many years, while Google and Facebook and Apple practically ate their
lunch? Remember when he famously said he was "betting the company on .net"?
[http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2000-10-29/microsofts...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2000-10-29/microsofts-
big-bet)

"AI" is just a tool like .net is a tool. It's not a product or idea. It's not
a service. It's cool to be excited about your HoloLens and 3D calendar, but
it's just a calendar, and after the hype has worn down most people would
prefer to look at a calendar on a laptop anyway. "AI" is Microsoft's new .net

~~~
gone35
_" AI" is just a tool like .net is a tool. It's not a product or idea. It's
not a service. It's cool to be excited about your HoloLens and 3D calendar,
but it's just a calendar, and after the hype has worn down most people would
prefer to look at a calendar on a laptop anyway. "AI" is Microsoft's new .net_

This. It is as vacuous as saying "betting the future on the Fourier
transform", or something.

And besides, they just closed the venerable Microsoft Research Silicon Valley,
so it's not that they are putting their money where their mouth is.

~~~
internaut
> they just closed the venerable Microsoft Research Silicon Valley, so it's
> not that they are putting their money where their mouth is.

I seem to remember they fired Leslie Lamport.

~~~
internaut
Am correct.

[https://j2kun.svbtle.com/what-microsoft-lost-when-it-
closed-...](https://j2kun.svbtle.com/what-microsoft-lost-when-it-closed-msr-
silicon-valley)

------
htaunay
Will CAAP be the next best thing? Who knows? But one thing that has surprised
me about MS and this whole bot-frenzy is how much they are opening up to other
platforms.

MS offers tools to build a bot within their framework using Node.js with first
party library support[0], and for deploying your bot to third-party chat apps
(e.g. Telegram, Slack and FB messenger[1]). The idea is to build a bot once,
and their service routes the bot's API between different endpoints. All of
this with no obligation of ever touching VisualStudio, Azure or dotnet.

This type of attitude would be unthinkable three years ago.

[0]
[http://docs.botframework.com/builder/node/overview/#navtitle](http://docs.botframework.com/builder/node/overview/#navtitle)
[1]
[http://docs.botframework.com/connector/getstarted/#navtitle](http://docs.botframework.com/connector/getstarted/#navtitle)

~~~
droidist2
Interesting. Does the framework support menus and stuff though? Like this:

[http://www.humanisethebrand.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/05/f...](http://www.humanisethebrand.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/05/facebook-messenger-bots-1.jpg)

------
Animats
After losing on search, mobile, and social, Microsoft needs a win.

~~~
adrenalinelol
Perhaps some company introspection would make more sense than investing in an
unproven, (currently) hard to monetize CS problem.

~~~
Animats
What business wants from Microsoft is It Just Works. The same thing business
wants from the power company and the water company. No constant fixes. No
viruses. No crashes. Overall, corporate America liked Windows 7 and does not
want to upgrade.

Maybe they could focus on that for a while.

------
Avshalom
Who isn't betting their future on AI?

~~~
sdegutis
We've been getting along just fine so far without it. I imagine that could
continue for a few more centuries, right?

~~~
internaut
Now there's a contrarian opinion ;-)

------
Mieaou
Use AI to fix their blue screen of death first?

~~~
drcode
Hey that's not fair, I haven't seen a windows blue screen since...

...well yesterday, actually.

------
samfisher83
I remember smarterchild way back in the day. It was pretty cool, but it never
seemed to take off. I wonder if any of this stuff will?

------
rafa2000
Because Google started before?

------
graycat
So, let's see: Microsoft is thinking that a lot of the future of their
business is new versions of a _user interface_.

They might make some money this way, but I have to doubt it will be very much
money.

Why? At the core, from their computing, people want some significant _utility_
, _content_ , functionality, etc. E.g., I come to HN for _content_ and find
the user interface to be just fine except too often there are too many
characters per line and to see the whole like I have to use horizontal scroll
bars twice for each line or just copy the screen into my favorite text editor
and reflow the lines to fewer characters per line.

Satya, for developers, there is a lot that is good in .NET. Now, if you would
do much better documenting it, then it would stand a much better chance of
taking off like it should and a lot of developers wish it would.

I'm doing an ambitious startup: By a very wide margin, far and away the worst
problem was working through 5000+ Web pages of Microsoft documentation of .NET
and SQL Server; the quality of the technical writing was not good -- need
better explanations and for the jargon links to a glossary. The next worse
problem was having to rebuild the boot partition as attempts at SQL Server
installation ruined it. The next worse problem was rebuilding the boot
partition after malware ruined it. All the work unique to my startup was fast,
fun, and easy. Mud wrestling with Microsoft's work wasted literally YEARS,
seriously hurt both my startup and me, and nearly killed at least my startup.

It appears from the article and more that Nadella is short on good, new ideas
for new directions for Microsoft, is ignoring a lot that users are screaming
about, e.g., security and system management, and that developers are screaming
about, e.g., better documentation, and is having vague, ethereal, dreams about
the power of new user interfaces.

Uh, Satya, I don't really have any problems with translating foreign
languages; for any serious content in a foreign language, no way would I trust
a machine translation; I don't want my computer talking to me; even when alone
I don't want to talk to my computer; no way in front of others will I talk to
my computer.

Satya, for my computer giving me advice, no thanks. For unsolicited advice, no
way. The second or first time my computer tries to give me advice, I will look
how to turn off that functionality.

Satya, what you call _artificial intelligence_ I call at best trivial and
otherwise nearly useless, silly, annoying, insulting, absurd, a pain in the
back side, and just _genuinely stupid_.

Satya, I am NOT going to talk to my computer. That is just not negotiable.
And, I'm not going to wear a helmet or funny glasses. And I do NOT want a
touch screen interface.

I WOULD very much like a better keyboard, e.g., as good as the old IBM PC/AT
keyboard.

Satya, let me give you some warm advice: Computing is the greatest opportunity
in the history of civilization, but you are addressing it with all the
seriousness of toys in Cracker Jacks boxes. Satya, get real, get serious.

