Microsoft to Change The Way How AI Assistants Conversate

AI assistants nowadays are getting better at conversations. But one thing at which they absolutely take the back seat is holding up those conversations. AI assistants are good to have you speak I speak conversations but they don’t know when to interrupt and when to strike up a conversation again after a pause.

Well, Microsoft wants to fix that issue for you. Microsoft is working on its Xiaolce chatbot AI with “full duplex” conversation. This will enable the bot to engage in the conversation more naturally. The new capabilities of the chatbot give it the ability to let it start speaking when it’s listening to you. The AI can predict what the other person is going to say next. So it can interrupt you in between with some important info. It can even say something to restart a conversation when both the sides suddenly go quiet. The AI can politely keep up a conversation just like your old childhood friend who knows you.

The new Microsoft feature not only provides a more natural flow to a conversation, but it also saves the number of times one uses the wake phrase to wake up smart assistants. Humans conversations are not quite very apprehensive and they know when to interrupt. Talking to an AI often feels one way and is followed by a lot of weird pauses. This is due to the incapability of AI to keep up with a conversation. Microsoft’s step in this direction might help to change this.

Initially, Microsoft is planning to spread this service to Microsoft’s other chatbots. The technology will surely help Cortana to be better at conversations and predicting what is next to come. The service will help the conversation feel more natural, instead of waiting for the responses from the AI. This would help to hold a two-way conversation which feels like you are talking to real people.