Microsoft considers acquiring Siri creator Nuance for $16 billion

Microsoft is considering acquiring Siri creator Nuance for $16 billion in a deal that’s expected to be announced imminently.

Silicon Valley darling Nuance is one of the world’s most recognisable AI companies for the creation of Siri, the voice assistant that would later go on to become Apple’s first-party solution.

Nuance now focuses its efforts predominantly on enterprise communications, particularly in the healthcare space which has seen increased interest amid...

Microsoft poaches former Siri chief from Apple for its AI division

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Microsoft has poached former Siri chief Bill Stasior from Apple to join the company’s artificial intelligence division.

Although Apple was his most recent employer, Stasior actually left the company in May. Stasior will now join Microsoft later this month as corporate vice president and will report to CTO Kevin Scott.

Stasior worked at Apple for almost a decade. Having also held the positions of director of search and navigation at Amazon, director of advanced...

Google Assistant wins IQ test, but Alexa and Siri are catching up

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Google Assistant continues to lead the virtual assistant pack, but its rivals are close behind according to a new IQ study by Loup Ventures.

Loup Ventures asked each of the three main virtual assistants – Google Assistant, Alexa, and Siri – a total of 800 questions. The assistants understood almost every question, even if not all of the responses were correct/sufficient.

In terms of understanding the questions, these are the results:

Google Assistant – 100...

UN: AI voice assistants fuel stereotype women are ‘subservient’

A report from the UN claims AI voice assistants like Alexa and Siri are fueling the stereotype women are ‘subservient’.

Published by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), the 146-page report titled “I’d blush if I could” highlights the market is dominated by female voice assistants.

According to the researchers, the almost exclusive use of female voice assistants fuels stereotypes that women are "obliging, docile and...

NHS report suggests AI will give docs more patient time

A report from the NHS suggests the impending technological ‘revolution’ in healthcare will increase the amount of time doctors can spend with patients.

NHS doctors are overburdened; a problem only getting worse from a growing and ageing population, and not enough funding.

The report was led by US academic Eric Topol and calls for a reskilling of NHS staff to harness new digital skills. AI and robotics can reduce the burden on healthcare professionals, but only if...

Google’s AI has a higher IQ than Siri, Bing, and Baidu — but all were beaten by a six-year-old

A trio of researchers developed an IQ test designed to determine how smart today’s AIs from three global leaders really are. Feng Liu, Yong Shi, and Ying Liu put their test to AIs from Google, Apple, and Microsoft. The AIs scored as follows: Google: 47.28 Baidu: 32.92 Bing: 31.92 Siri: 23.9 Google leads the pack comfortably according to the results. Baidu and Bing are a comfortable distance behind. Siri’s result is the most notable as it trails its competitors...