Microsoft’s Cortana assistant has become more of an assistance aid, than a standalone service, notes Gizmodo.
Cortana was moved from Microsoft’s AI + Research dept. to its s Experiences & Devices Team and working with Amazon to pair it with the latter company’s Alexa technology.
Microsoft supports Alexa-powered tech
Engadget reported that Microsoft seems to encourage customers to buy Alexa-powered technology such as the Echo Dot and regular Echo and use Cortana through it.
Famous Twitter user and Microsoft enthusiast Walking Cat and more have noticed that both of these devices have been listed for sale in Microsoft’s online and retail locations.
Amazon Echo (2nd Generation) https://t.co/C8Jn11exDv
— WalkingCat (@h0x0d) November 16, 2018
The tech giant seems to believe that most smart assistant users will use Alexa and not its less versatile Cortana for various routine purposes.
“Where Microsoft originally pitched Cortana as a direct competitor to other mainstream voice assistants, it has shifted the AI helper’s focus toward chatbots and behind-the-scene tasks that are more useful to the corporate crowd than home users,” Engadget writes.
More than that, it looks like the VP in charge of Cortana Javier Soltero is leaving Microsoft as the company decided to move its assistant from its AI team. For the moment, it looks like Alexa is Microsoft’s voice assistant of choice for users.
Siri, Google Assistant, and Alexa
Cortana doesn’t seem to be a priority now for Microsoft, and this means that only three major players are currently in the voice assistant market: Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant, and Alexa.
But this does not mean that these are flawless. Gizmodo calls Siri, “the dumbest of all of them, with recent times it’s popped up in the news including erroneously announcing comics legend Stan Lee’s death and activating during a UK Parliament hearing on Syria.”
And regarding Alexa, not too many people are using it to buy things, as Amazon intended.
After finishing Theatrical Journalism at the Faculty of Theatre and Television in Cluj-Napoca, Rada reviewed movies, books, theatre pieces and she also wrote articles from the IT niche as a content editor for software producers. At the moment, she is working with various online advertising firms.
