Microsoft wants to teach drones, robots and drills how to think

In a world where factories and wind farms will increasingly run on autonomous systems, drones will criss-cross cities delivering packages and robots will operate in underground mines, Microsoft wants to make the software that helps mechanical and chemical engineers teach those devices how to behave, where to go and how to maintain safe conditions. — Dreamstime/TNS

Microsoft Corp and technology rivals spend a lot of time talking about machine learning. Now Microsoft is talking about something called machine teaching.

No the software maker doesn’t plan to send robots into classrooms. In a world where factories and wind farms will increasingly run on autonomous systems, drones will criss-cross cities delivering packages and robots will operate in underground mines, Microsoft wants to make the software that helps mechanical and chemical engineers teach those devices how to behave, where to go and how to maintain safe conditions.