You\u2019re not going to hear anything about Cortana this week at Microsoft\u2019s Build conference.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Confused? You\u2019re not alone. Microsoft Cortana has moved from becoming the flagship feature at the Windows 10 launch to something of a has-been.\u00a0And yet the intelligence that powers her is something that\u2019s become a priority for Microsoft, creating the impression that there\u2019s Cortana, and then there\u2019s AI, and the two are separate and distinct.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a similar gap between the reason that Cortana is absent from Build, and separate underlying issues with Cortana itself. Put simply, it\u2019s a bit of a mess.<\/p>\n The Cortana app on Windows 10 lacks some functionality from the older, integrated version.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n During the development of the Windows 10 May 2020 Update, Microsoft made the tricky decision to separate Cortana from the Windows shell and turn the assistant into an app. In our review, we noted how that essentially forced Cortana backwards, eliminating some of her ability to do math (which has returned) and robbing her of the conversational aspects, such as the \u201cHey Cortana\u201d wake word. And then the pandemic hit.<\/p>\n Andrew Shuman, Microsoft\u2019s corporate vice president in charge of Cortana, told PCWorld that Cortana is absent from Build primarily because the Windows 10 May 2020 release itself was in flux until recently. But the forced shutdown also cut off access to hardware testing facilities like Building 88, where Microsoft spent a reported $1.5 million to build the anechoic chamber known as the \u201cquietest room in the world.\u201d China, too, shut down, cutting off Microsoft\u2019s manufacturing supply lines.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been a huge drain on our testing resources and our ability to test hardware with the new versions of Windows,\u201d Shuman explained over a Teams call.<\/p>\n That means that Microsoft is focusing its efforts where it can: on developers, more than ever before, Shuman said. The \u201cend user\u201d stories where Cortana can show off future skills will come later, he said.<\/p>\n Okay, so that explains Cortana\u2019s absence from Build. But Microsoft still has some explaining to do regarding the future of Cortana, and that\u2019s far more murky.<\/p>\n Science fiction tells us that humans want to interact with artificial intelligence through some sort of personality, even one that\u2019s as generic as the \u201cComputer\u201d in\u00a0Star Trek.\u00a0<\/em>Early on, a real team of writers hand-crafted responses for Cortana. Yet right now the \u201cHey Cortana\u201d wake word that summons Cortana has been disabled, and Microsoft\u2019s digital assistant can only be invoked by a key press. Shuman admits that\u2019s not ideal.<\/p>\n In days gone by, Cortana was the foundation of Windows Mobile.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n \u201cThe voice stuff is not at the level it needs to be,\u201d Shuman said. \u201cAnd it is off by default in the first releases. We know that the rollout of Windows takes a while, so we didn\u2019t want to hold that up. But we do need to do a fast follow with the wake word detection.\u201d<\/p>\n But when offered the chance to wow us with what Cortana could be, Shuman doesn\u2019t bite. From Azure to Office through to Windows and down to Cortana, Microsoft\u2019s corporate priorities lie with business intelligence, not as a conversational assistant that can tell you a joke or sing you a song. Shuman turns instead to features like Outlook\u2019s Play My Email feature, which uses AI to read your email and prioritize which are more important.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think that the real usage and engagement of fans has to come down to a promise you can really deliver on,\u201d Shuman said. \u201cI mean, it\u2019s why Alexa is great for setting a timer. And it\u2019s great for playing music by genre, right? And it\u2019s great for turning off all my lights. We need the moral equivalent of that in the office productivity space…<\/p>\n \u201cIt [Cortana] will be great at launching apps. It\u2019ll be great at simple calculations. It will soon be great at launching web sites\u2014we don\u2019t have that in there yet. That\u2019s what people do on Windows all day. So we need to meet them there. And kind of earn the right to go farther.\u201d<\/p>\n Shuman\u2019s aspirations for Cortana don\u2019t seem especially ambitious. On the other hand, Microsoft has been quite good about diving deep into niche applications and filling them. This is the other side of Cortana: the Microsoft intelligence that it\u2019s working to embed in our daily work lives.<\/p>\n Again, go back to 2016, where just a few months after we learned about Cortana\u2019s personalization efforts, former AI chief Harry Shum told PCWorld that Microsoft was going big on artificial intelligence across all areas of Microsoft. Javier Soltero, Cortana\u2019s former boss, had the same goal. It\u2019s this belief in pervasive AI that\u2019s led to Play My Emails for Android and iOS, which uses AI to provide you a way to get caught up on your email, interacting with individual messages, all via voice.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"Microsoft](\"https:\/\/images.idgesg.net\/images\/article\/2020\/02\/windows-10-20h1-cortana-conversation-100833547-orig.jpg\")
<\/a> Mark Hachman \/ IDG<\/small>Why Cortana isn\u2019t at Build<\/h2>\n
Cortana\u2019s problems… and solutions<\/h2>\n
Microsoft<\/small>Intelligence everywhere<\/h2>\n