Another Quality Microsoft Product(tm)

IEEE Spectrum has a lengthy profile of the tiny, 11-man division of mighty Microsoft developing a toolkit for robot designers. The blatantly uncritical article glowingly portrays the team as an underdog guaranteed to succeed. I’m shocked that there are still tech-savvy people out there who believe Microsoft to be capable of producing quality products.

Will the machines controlled by MS Robotic Studio crash with Blue Screens or Red Rings?

via AAAI.org News

Better Off Without the Butterfly

Despite its questionable track-record of innovation, many people often assume the coming revolution in Artificial Intelligence will be led by Microsoft.

Although MS has devoted significant resources to this cause, my utter lack of faith was recently amplified by this banner ad for MSN Search. In an attempt to showcase the new 'intelligent' instant answers provided by their search engine, MS has demonstrated new levels of artificial stupidity. A definition of champagne (the bubby alcohol beverage) is not a valid answer for a question seeking to ascertain the location of the Champagne region of France. MS is completely missing the point, and I suspect this trend will continue. I'm betting on another couple of grad students defeating the billion-dollar warchest of Microsoft in this battle as well.