Microsoft on Monday announced it bought a start-up to boost its artificial intelligence capabilities, and rival Apple confirmed it has boosted its health focus with an acquisition of its own.
Microsoft did not disclose financial terms of its deal to buy Genee, which specializes in using machine smarts to handle the time-sucking task of scheduling meetings.
“Genee uses natural language processing and optimized decisionmaking algorithms, so that interacting with a virtual assistant is just like interacting with a human one,” Outlook and Office 365 corporate vice president Rajesh Jha said in a blog post.
For example, Genee can be copied into an e-mail exchange to act as a virtual assistant of sorts to pin down a time for a business or social meeting.
Jha touted Genee as having designed “an intelligent virtual assistant specialized in the appointment decision.”
The technology was expected to be put to work in Office 365 software that Microsoft offers as a service in the Internet cloud.
The team that started Silicon Valley-based Genee in 2014 will join the Microsoft and the existing service will be discontinued next month, the companies said.
Apple confirmed press reports that it has bought start-up Gliimpse, which uses machine learning as part of its formula for letting people secure, manage and share personal medical information.
“Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans,” Apple said in a statement.
Gliimpse offers a unique platform by allowing users to compile medical and health data from different sources, and share as needed with third parties, including doctors.
“We’ve built a magical machine,” Gliimpse said on its Web site. “It takes incomprehensible electronic medical records and turns them into understandable, standardized, coded elements and terminology that both humans and machines can easily understand and use.”
Apple has introduced features and software platforms for its mobile devices to be tools for people to manage and improve health.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
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