Microsoft has repeatedly stated that it wants to democratize AI and bring to every person around the world. Today, the Redmond giant has announced that it will be purchasing Lobe, a company based in San Francisco which has been working on AI development tools that attempt to simplify the process and make it accessible to everyone.
Lobe's development tools offer a simple visual experience that makes it easier to understand how data is being interpreted and how decisions are made based on it. It essentially allows anyone to easily develop and train AI models based on a variety of inputs, such as image, audio, or movement sensors. The trained models can then be exported to CoreML or TensorFlow and, as of right now, it doesn't seem to support Microsoft's own Windows ML platform, but that could change as a result of this acquisition.
This is the latest of many purchases Microsoft has made in the field of artificial intelligence - back in June, it announced plans to acquire Bonsai, another AI company based in California. Redmond sees this as an important step in making sure that everyone can have access to the power of AI, regardless of their ability to code. As artificial intelligence continues growing in relevance, the results of these investments should become more visible.
Source: Microsoft via TechCrunch
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