Microsoft Research Podcast

With all the buzz surrounding AI, it can be tempting to envision it as a stand-alone entity that optimizes for accuracy and displaces human capabilities. But Dr. Besmira Nushi, a senior researcher in the Adaptive Systems and Interaction group at Microsoft Research, envisions AI as a cooperative entity that enhances human capabilities and optimizes for team performance. On today’s podcast, Dr. Nushi talks about what it takes to develop collaborative AI systems and unpacks the unique challenges machine learning engineers face in their version of the software development cycle. She also reveals why understanding the “terrain of failure” can help researchers develop AI systems that perform as well in the real world as they do in the lab. https://www.microsoft.com/research

Deep learning methodologies like supervised learning have been very successful in training machines to make predictions about the world. But because they’re so dependent upon large amounts of human-annotated data, they’ve been difficult to scale. Dr. Phil Bachman, a researcher at MSR Montreal, would like to change that, and he’s working to train machines to collect, sort and label their own data, so people don’t have to. Today, Dr. Bachman gives us an overview of the machine learning landscape and tells us why it’s been so difficult to sort through noise and get to useful information. He also talks about his ongoing work on Deep InfoMax, a novel approach to self-supervised learning, and reveals what a conversation about ML classification problems has to do with Harrison Ford’s face. https://www.microsoft.com/research  

There’s a lot of excitement around self-driving cars, delivery drones, and other intelligent, autonomous systems, but before they can be deployed at scale, they need to be both reliable and safe. That’s why Gurdeep Pall, CVP of Business AI at Microsoft, and Dr. Ashish Kapoor, who leads research in Aerial Informatics and Robotics, are using a simulated environment called AirSim to reduce the time, cost and risk of the testing necessary to get autonomous agents ready for the open world. Today, Gurdeep and Ashish discuss life at the intersection of machine learning, simulation and autonomous systems, and talk about the challenges we face as we transition from a world of automation to a world of autonomy. They also tell us about Game of Drones, an exciting new drone racing competition where the goal is to imbue flying robots with human-level perception and decision making skills… on the fly. https://www.microsoft.com/research  

Dr. Sumit Gulwani is a programmer’s programmer. Literally. A Partner Research Manager in the Program Synthesis, or PROSE, group at Microsoft Research, Dr. Gulwani is a leading researcher in program synthesis and the inventor of many intent-understanding, programming-by-example and programming-by-natural language technologies – aka, the automation of “what I meant to do and wanted to do, but my computer wouldn’t let me” tasks. Today, Dr. Gulwani gives us an overview of the exciting “now” and promising future of program synthesis; reveals some fascinating new applications and technical advances; tells us the story behind the creation of Excel’s popular Flash Fill feature (and how a Flash Fill Fail elicited a viral tweet that paved the way for new domain investments); and shares a heartwarming story of how human empathy facilitated an “ah-ha math moment” in the life of a child, and what that might mean to computer scientists, educators and even tech companies in the future. https://www.microsoft.com/research  

Computer programming has often been perceived as the exclusive domain of computer scientists and software engineers. But that’s changing, thanks to the work of people like Dr. Thomas Ball, a Partner Researcher in the RiSE group at Microsoft Research, and Dr. Teddy Seyed, a post-doctoral researcher in the same group. Their goal is to make programming accessible to non-programmers in places like the classroom, the workshop… and even the runway! On today’s podcast, Tom and Teddy talk about physical computing through platforms like MakeCode, a simplified programming environment that makes it easier for young people – and other computer science neophytes – to start coding with programmable microcontrollers. They also tell us all about Project Brookdale, where they did a collaborative fashion show that gave emerging designers the tools to embed technology in their garments and produce wearables you’d actually want to be seen in! https://www.microsoft.com/research  

Remember when a hard drive that could hold a terabyte of data was a big deal? Well, we’re now in an era where peta-, exa- and even zetta-bytes are the bytes of the day, and it turns out it’s hard to fit that many zeroes on a hard drive. That’s where Dr. Ant Rowstron, Deputy Lab Director of Microsoft Research Cambridge, and Mark Russinovich, Chief Technical Officer of Azure, come in. Their respective teams are working on paradigm-breaking solutions to give us phenomenal storage power in an itty-bitty living space. Today, Ant and Mark discuss their roles in the development of new optical technologies, like Project Silica, for cloud-scale storage demands, and talk about the Optics for the Cloud Research Alliance, an exciting new collaboration between academic researchers and MSR. They also explain how just the right mix of innovation and engineering can make the cloud more powerful and less expensive to use and, at the same time, deliver “forever” storage that’s both dishwasher and microwave safe! https://www.microsoft.com/research

Jenny Sabin is an architectural designer, a professor, a studio principal and MSR’s current Artist in Residence. Asta Roseway is a principal research designer, a “fusionist” and the co-founder of the Artist in Residence program at Microsoft Research. The two, along with a stellar multi-disciplinary team, recently completed the installation of Ada, the first interactive architectural pavilion powered by AI, in the heart of the Microsoft Research building in Redmond. On today’s podcast, Jenny and Asta talk about life at the intersection of art and science; tell us why the Artist in Residence program pushes the boundaries of technology in unexpected ways; and reveal their vision of the future of bio-inspired, human-centered, AI-infused architecture. https://www.microsoft.com/research

Machine learning is a powerful tool that enables conversational agents to provide general question-answer services. But in domains with more specific taxonomies – or simply for requests that are longer and more complicated than “Play Baby Shark” – custom conversational AI has long been the province of large enterprises with big budgets. But not for long, thanks to the work of Dr. Riham Mansour, a Principal Software Engineering Manager for Microsoft’s Language Understanding Service, or LUIS. She and her colleagues are using the emerging science of machine teaching to help domain experts build bespoke AI models with little data and no machine learning expertise. On today’s podcast, Dr. Mansour gives us a brief history of conversational machines at Microsoft; tells us all about LUIS, one of the first Microsoft products to deploy machine teaching concepts in real world verticals; and explains how an unlikely combination of engineering skills, science skills, entrepreneurial skills – and not taking no for an answer – helped make automated customer engagement and business functions more powerful, more accessible and more intelligent! https://www.microsoft.com/research

Dr. Craig Costello is in the business of safeguarding your secrets. And he uses math to do it. A researcher in the Security and Cryptography group at Microsoft Research, Dr. Costello is among a formidable group of code makers (aka cryptographers) who make it their life’s work to protect the internet against adversarial code breakers (aka cryptanalysts), both those that exist today in our classical computing world, and those that will exist in a quantum computing future. On today’s podcast, Dr. Costello gives us a battlefield update in the ongoing crypto wars; talks about different approaches to post quantum cryptography and explains why he believes isogeny-based primitives are among the most promising; and reassures us that, as long as the battle goes on, cryptographers will continue to work very hard on the very hard math they hope will protect us from hackers and attackers, even in the age of quantum computers. https://www.microsoft.com/research

Using technology to help us improve our health is nothing new: a quick web search returns hundreds of apps and devices claiming to help us get fit, quit smoking, master anxiety or just “find our center.” What is new is a serious cohort of researchers exploring how artificial emotional intelligence, or AEI, could help us understand ourselves better and, when used in concert with human caregivers, enhance our well-being. One of those researchers is Jina Suh, a former Xbox developer who got hooked on research and is now an RSDE in the Human Understanding and Empathy group at MSR, as well as a PhD student in computer science at the University of Washington. On today’s podcast, Jina shares her passion for creating technologies that promote emotional resilience and mental health; gives us an inside look at an innovative research collaboration that aims to improve collaborative care for cancer patients with depression; and tells us an emotional story of how, on the brink of quitting her job, she found inspiration to get back in the game and begin a new career in research for human well-being. https://www.microsoft.com/research