Build 2016: Microsoft announces ambitious bot plans at developer conference
The opening event of Build 2016 was crammed full of big announcements
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Microsoft just wrapped up the opening event of its Build 2016 developer conference, and they're going big on bots.
There was a whole host of major announcements during the four-hour presentation (the major ones are listed below), but the conversational bots which Microsoft wants to inject into your everyday life got the most stage time.
This year's Build is wrapping up on 1 April, and there's going to be more big stories to come - so watch this space.
Bots
Microsoft sees conversational chatbots as the future of computing, and the next big platform to be tackled by tech companies.
One of the demonstrations of this new technology involved using a chatbot to order a pizza - rather than clicking checkboxes and navigating menus to choose what they wanted, the user simply told the bot, which understood their order and put it through.
It was a simple example, but showed how bots might soon replace more familiar web interfaces.
As Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said, "human language is the new AI layer." The inorganic processes through which we use computers now will one day be replaced with ordinary conversations, according to Microsoft, and they want to be at the forefront of that change.
To that effect, they've produced the Microsoft Bot Framework - a toolkit which will allow developers and companies to easily create chatbots which could potentially replace traditional web interfaces.
This framework can create bots which are compatible with services like Skype, Slack, Outlook and the wider internet, and they've built-in a few features which will make them good at understanding human language fresh out the box.
Build is naturally developer-focused, but Microsoft's bot ambitions will have big impacts on consumers, too. Don't be surprised if you start seeing bots popping up on the internet soon. Let's just hope they're not all like Tay.
The HoloLens is now shipping to developers
Microsoft's impressive-looking augmented reality headset is making its way to selected developers from today.
The company has been taking applications for the $3,000 device from developers for a while, and the first wave of pre-orders are finally getting dispatched. The next few waves will be sent out in the coming months.
270 million computers are now running Windows 10
This is apparently the fastest adoption rate of a new Windows version that Microsoft's ever seen. How much of that is down to the surprise updates is unknown.
There's an 'Anniversary Update' coming to Windows 10 this summer
The free update will offer a range of new under-the-hood features, like added stylus support, more automation and integration across apps using tools like Cortana and Bing, and support for Windows 10 apps on the Xbox.
You'll be able to turn your Xbox One into a dev kit
Microsoft showed their developers a lot of love at the event, particularly with the news that any developers will be able to use their existing Xbox Ones as dev kits.
This will help developers make sure their new products look better on TV screens, and should hopefully make it easier to iterate and improve new software.
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