{"id":99724,"date":"2018-04-06T10:58:05","date_gmt":"2018-04-06T10:58:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sftarticles.wpenginepowered.com\/en\/?p=99724"},"modified":"2025-07-01T23:33:57","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T06:33:57","slug":"am-i-talking-to-a-human-microsoft-thinks-it-has-made-a-breakthrough-in-conversational-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/am-i-talking-to-a-human-microsoft-thinks-it-has-made-a-breakthrough-in-conversational-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"Am I talking to a human? Microsoft thinks it has made a breakthrough in conversational AI"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Let\u2019s be honest,<b> having to say \u201cHey Siri\u201d \u201cHey Cortana\u201d \u201cAlexa\u201d and \u201cOK Google\u201d<\/b> before you can start interacting with your AI assistant is pretty annoying. It <b>doesn\u2019t feel natural and stands in the way of using your assistant for simple mundane tasks<\/b> like adding an item to your shopping list. <b>It still feels like you\u2019re talking to a computer, so you don\u2019t do much talking.<\/b> Instead, you might ask for the weather now and then or play the odd song, but really you only use your AI assistant for alarms and reminders, if even that.<\/p>\n<p><span data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;&lt;!-- Shortcode [starred] does not exist --&gt;&quot;}\" data-sheets-userformat=\"{&quot;2&quot;:513,&quot;3&quot;:[null,0],&quot;12&quot;:0}\"><div class=\"sc-card-starred-link\">\r\n  <div class=\"sc-card-starred-link__body\">\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-starred-link__row clearfix\">\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-starred-link__col-logo\">\r\n        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sc-card-starred-link__img\" src=\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/profile_images\/557965220178432000\/co5IizIf_400x400.jpg\" width=\"100px\" height=\"100px\">\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-starred-link__col-title\">\r\n        <p class=\"sc-card-starred-link__title\">Check out this fully holographic AI assistant<\/p>\r\n        <a class=\"sc-card-starred-link__button\" href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/would-you-like-a-fully-holographic-ai-assistant\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer sponsored\">Read now<\/a>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <a class=\"sc-card-starred-link__link\" href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/would-you-like-a-fully-holographic-ai-assistant\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer sponsored\"><\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Microsoft claims to have made a \u201ctechnological breakthrough\u201d that could change all that. \u201cFull duplex\u201d is a telecommunications term that means there can be <b>two-way communication, just like in a regular telephone call,<\/b> and Microsoft thinks they\u2019ve cracked it for AI with their latest update called <b>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.microsoft.com\/ai\/xiaoice-full-duplex\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">full duplex voice sense<\/a>.\u201d<\/b> This\u00a0update means AI will be able to <b>listen to you and talk to you at the same time<\/b> so you won\u2019t have to wait until Alexa or Cortana has stopped talking before you can reply.<\/p>\n<p>Xiaolce, Microsoft\u2019s AI chatbot currently in operation in China, has already received the full duplex voice sense update. It allows her not only to listen to users while they\u2019re talking to her but also to gage more efficiently<b><\/b><b> when to respond to what users\u00a0are saying.<\/b> This\u00a0also has the <b>added effect of removing the need to use a wake word every time they want to get her attention.<\/b><\/p>\n<div class=\"sc-blockquote\">\r\n<blockquote>Microsoft is working to bring the full duplex voice sense update to its other chatbots around the world including Zo in the United States.<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/div>\n<p>Microsoft\u2019s <b>social chatbots, like Xiaolce and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zo.ai\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zo<\/a>, focus more on conversational sessions with users than assistants like Cortana and Alexa do.<\/b> They have a sense of humor and are more adept at chit-chat. That does not mean, however, that skills from both types of AI bots can\u2019t bleed into each other. Microsoft has been teaching its chatbots to stop what they\u2019re doing, like telling you a story for example, so that they can perform other tasks like switch a light on or off. This is another skill that would be <b>very handy for your productivity-based AI assistant.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>This development makes conversations with computers sound much more natural,<\/b> which breaks down another of those mental barriers that stand in the way of full AI integration at all levels of society. The robots are coming, people.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey\">\r\n<p class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__title\">AI Assistants<\/p>\r\n  <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__row\">\r\n    <a title=\"Amazon Alexa\" href=\"https:\/\/amazon-alexa.en.softonic.com\/android?ex=REG-60.2\">\r\n    <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__article\">\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__image\">\r\n        <div style=\"background-image:url(https:\/\/images.sftcdn.net\/images\/t_optimized,f_auto\/p\/3b8d24f6-a4ee-11e6-85f3-00163ed833e7\/1429676496\/amazon-alexa-logo.png)\"><\/div>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__text\">\r\n        <p>Amazon Alexa<\/p>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    <a title=\"Cortana\" href=\"https:\/\/cortana.en.softonic.com\/android?ex=REG-60.2\">\r\n    <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__article sc-related-articles-grey__article--last\">\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__image\">\r\n        <div style=\"background-image:url(https:\/\/images.sftcdn.net\/images\/t_optimized,f_auto\/p\/ec602126-e2fa-11e6-a3fc-4ee8e08d48e3\/1367756151\/cortana-logo.png)\"><\/div>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__text\">\r\n        <p>Cortana<\/p>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n  <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__row\">\r\n    <a title=\"Google Assistant \" href=\"https:\/\/google-assistant.en.softonic.com\/android?ex=REG-60.2\">\r\n    <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__article\">\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__image\">\r\n        <div style=\"background-image:url(https:\/\/images.sftcdn.net\/images\/t_optimized,f_auto\/p\/d3da0a58-d5ad-11e7-ac3b-5d9518ffbf98\/1696075209\/google-assistant-logo.png)\"><\/div>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__text\">\r\n        <p>Google Assistant <\/p>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    <a title=\"Bixby Assistant\" href=\"https:\/\/bixby-assistant-voice-us.en.softonic.com\/android?ex=REG-60.2\">\r\n    <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__article sc-related-articles-grey__article--last\">\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__image\">\r\n        <div style=\"background-image:url(https:\/\/images.sftcdn.net\/images\/t_optimized,f_auto\/p\/dced1dce-ffa1-11e7-ad79-02420a000a0b\/1742405766\/bixby-assistant-voice-us-logo.png)\"><\/div>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-grey__text\">\r\n        <p>Bixby Assistant<\/p>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let\u2019s be honest, having to say \u201cHey Siri\u201d \u201cHey Cortana\u201d \u201cAlexa\u201d and \u201cOK Google\u201d before you can start interacting with your AI assistant is pretty annoying. It doesn\u2019t feel natural and stands in the way of using your assistant for simple mundane tasks like adding an item to your shopping list. It still feels like &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/am-i-talking-to-a-human-microsoft-thinks-it-has-made-a-breakthrough-in-conversational-ai\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Am I talking to a human? Microsoft thinks it has made a breakthrough in conversational AI&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9073,"featured_media":99727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-99724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9073"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99724"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":328106,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99724\/revisions\/328106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99724"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=99724"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=99724"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=99724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}