Microsoft Research shows off AI receptionist, personal assistant and elevators at TEDx

Eric Horvitz is the co-director of Microsoft Research Redmond and is a distinguished scientist in the field of artificial intelligence.

This past Feburary he gave a TEDxAustin talk about his passion for designing automated systems that can not only do tasks well but actually understand people’s needs.

Distinguished Scientist and co-director at Microsoft Research, Eric Horvitz, shares the human side of advancing machine intelligence.

An admitted advocate for empowering machines to perform more fluidly with us, he explains how computational systems will complement human cognition in order to anticipate our needs and help us prepare for inevitable surprises of all scale and size In nurturing and supportive ways.

Throughout the talk he provides a few examples of the type of AI systems he’s been working on at Microsoft Research. Watch these.

Receptionist

Personal assistant

Intern making appointment with personal assistant

(This is my favourite.)

Third generation “magical” elevator

If this peeks your interest you can watch the entire 23 minute talk here.