By Rishabh Singh, Jacob Devlin, Abdelrahman Mohamed, and Pushmeet Kohli, Microsoft Research Despite the many advances in computing over the past decades, the actual process of writing computer software has not fundamentally changed — a programmer must manually code the exact algorithmic logic of a program in a…
The term ‘Artificial Intelligence’ may have been coined way back in the 1950s, but we have yet to see the types of machines described in books and films. In our daily lives and workplaces, we aspire to having machines that can help us get things…
Recent years have seen great progress for AI. In particular, artificial agents have learned to classify images and recognize speech at near-human level. However, for artificial agents to reach their full potential, they should not only observe, but also act and learn from the consequences…
By John Roach, Writer, Microsoft Research A Microsoft Research team has created a competition using Project Malmo, a platform that uses Minecraft as a testing ground for advanced artificial intelligence research. The team is challenging PhD students to develop an AI that learns to collaborate…
By Kenji Takeda, Director, Azure for Research Doctors make life-saving — and life-changing — decisions every day. But how do they know that they are making the best decisions? Can artificial intelligence (AI) help? “Before evidence-based medicine, decision-making in health care was heavily reliant on…
2017 Swiss Joint Research Center kick off By Scarlet Schwiderski-Grosche, Senior Research Program Manager Recently, we celebrated an important milestone for our Swiss Joint Research Center (Swiss JRC). We welcomed top researchers from all partners to a workshop at the Microsoft Research Cambridge Lab, to…
By Noboru Sean Kuno, Research Program Manager, Microsoft Research Asia The potential for virtual reality (VR) to upend industrial design, medicine, and other specialized fields has now vaulted the emerging field into the ranks of what the National Academy of Engineering calls its 14 grand…
By Allison Linn, Senior Writer, Microsoft Just a decade ago, the idea of using technology to do things like automatically translate conversations, identify objects in pictures — or even write a sentence describing those pictures — seemed like interesting research projects, but not practical for real-world use.…
By Jim Pinkelman, Senior Director, Microsoft Research Since 2008, Microsoft Research has been awarding two-year PhD fellowships to computer science and related researchers at leading universities in the United States and Canada. These awards are designed to help promising young researchers focus on their studies,…
By Jim Pinkelman, Senior Director, Microsoft Research Since 2004, the Microsoft Research PhD Scholarship Programme in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) has supported groundbreaking PhD projects. This year we have 17 projects that span six countries, and include research areas such as computational biology,…
By Winnie Cui, Senior Research Manager, Microsoft Research Asia Data scientist, Anthony Tockar, used publicly available location data to show how celebrities can be tracked throughout New York City, while working on his Master’s Degree at Northwestern University. By cross-referencing public news and photos about…
Humans have an innate desire to know and understand. From a child learning to ride a bike to an adult gaining skills in an online course, we constantly absorb information from our environment through interaction. Motivated by this observation, we’ve developed a suite of…
