未來(lái)，人們想通過(guò)應(yīng)用訂披薩時(shí)，再也不必浪費(fèi)時(shí)間擺弄他們的智能手機(jī)了。他們只需要對(duì)著設(shè)備說(shuō)出要求，一款小軟件助手便可以幫他們搞定一切。

至少在微軟CEO薩提亞?納德拉的眼中，這就是未來(lái)的發(fā)展趨勢(shì)。在舊金山召開(kāi)的微軟年度開(kāi)發(fā)者大會(huì)上，納德拉介紹了他眼中人機(jī)交互的未來(lái)愿景。

納德拉認(rèn)為，與互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的發(fā)展，以及在移動(dòng)設(shè)備上使用觸摸屏一樣，利用“人類語(yǔ)言的力量”與機(jī)器溝通，將產(chǎn)生深遠(yuǎn)的影響。

在納德拉眼中的未來(lái)，微軟個(gè)人助手軟件Cortana居于核心地位。微軟一直致力于將Cortana打造成消費(fèi)者的便利助手，例如用它來(lái)詢問(wèn)電影院的方向，提醒工作任務(wù)，甚至發(fā)送電子郵件等。

與蘋果Siri和Google Now等數(shù)字助手類似，Cortana基于機(jī)器學(xué)習(xí)算法，通過(guò)消化用戶每次提問(wèn)題時(shí)輸入的數(shù)據(jù)，訓(xùn)練服務(wù)能力。雖然數(shù)字助手不能始終正常運(yùn)行，但它們正在變得越來(lái)越好。

納德拉斷言，Cortana最終將更加擅長(zhǎng)回答問(wèn)題，人們不必移動(dòng)手指，只要張開(kāi)嘴說(shuō)出要求，便可以在設(shè)備上執(zhí)行日常任務(wù)。

除了Cortana，納德拉還認(rèn)為，所謂的聊天機(jī)器人也是人機(jī)交互的一個(gè)重要元素。這些軟件程序被越來(lái)越多的零售商和投資公司用于網(wǎng)站上，鼓勵(lì)投資者提問(wèn)基本問(wèn)題，由聊天機(jī)器人進(jìn)行回答。

與數(shù)字助手類似，由于程序員賦予了聊天機(jī)器人機(jī)器學(xué)習(xí)能力，它們正在變得越來(lái)越擅長(zhǎng)理解人類語(yǔ)言。隨著人工智能的發(fā)展，如自然語(yǔ)言處理等，機(jī)器人現(xiàn)在可以執(zhí)行更加高級(jí)的任務(wù)，比如為那些通過(guò)職場(chǎng)通信服務(wù)Slack提出請(qǐng)求的用戶預(yù)定Uber打車服務(wù)。

微軟高管在舞臺(tái)上演示了如何完全通過(guò)軟件訂甜品外賣。

例如，微軟Skype Internet呼叫服務(wù)高管莉莉安?里肯演示了一番她如何與Skype內(nèi)置的Cortana對(duì)話，讓Cortana與一家面包店創(chuàng)建的軟件機(jī)器人交流，協(xié)調(diào)蛋糕外賣。此外，里肯還演示了，未來(lái)Cortana如何從用戶之前的聊天信息中學(xué)習(xí)，預(yù)測(cè)用戶的需求。

例如，她演示了Cortana如何推測(cè)出她將出差到外地，參加一個(gè)會(huì)議。之后，Cortana決定提供幫助，通過(guò)與威斯汀酒店的聊天機(jī)器人交流，為她提供在出差日期可用的房間。

一切都非常順利。當(dāng)然，這畢竟只是演示。在現(xiàn)實(shí)中，人工智能技術(shù)和聊天軟件的效果尚不盡如人意。

納德拉說(shuō)道：“我們希望創(chuàng)建的技術(shù)能夠?qū)W會(huì)人性最好的一面，而不是最惡的一面?！边@引起了臺(tái)下程序員們的一片笑聲。

他們之所以發(fā)笑，是因?yàn)樯现?，一個(gè)微軟研究項(xiàng)目推出了一款試驗(yàn)性聊天機(jī)器人Tay，最終卻失去了控制，因?yàn)閻?ài)惡作劇的網(wǎng)民令這款機(jī)器人吸收了大量冒犯性的語(yǔ)言，讓她發(fā)表了許多不當(dāng)言論。對(duì)于這個(gè)問(wèn)題，納德拉表示，微軟“很快意識(shí)到這款機(jī)器人遠(yuǎn)達(dá)不到上市的要求”，隨即讓Tay下線。

納德拉表示：“現(xiàn)在我們要從頭開(kāi)始設(shè)計(jì)。”

將這些小問(wèn)題放在一邊，很顯然納德拉將聊天和語(yǔ)音命令，視為擴(kuò)大微軟影響力的途徑之一。另外值得注意的是，他是在開(kāi)發(fā)者大會(huì)上描繪語(yǔ)音交互的未來(lái)的。

微軟不斷向程序員們傳遞一個(gè)信念：他們可以信任公司，利用微軟的技術(shù)開(kāi)發(fā)軟件。這已經(jīng)不是前任CEO史蒂夫?鮑爾默領(lǐng)導(dǎo)下的微軟。鮑爾默傾向于把微軟打造成一家更封閉的公司，批評(píng)者認(rèn)為，這導(dǎo)致微軟錯(cuò)失新技術(shù)帶來(lái)的良機(jī)。2014年，鮑爾默自己也承認(rèn)，在他的任期內(nèi)，微軟未能預(yù)見(jiàn)到移動(dòng)計(jì)算的崛起。

納德拉希望程序員們相信，如今的微軟已是最新技術(shù)潮流的引領(lǐng)者。

雖然微軟在大肆夸耀Cortana有多么智能，但要想實(shí)現(xiàn)納德拉的未來(lái)愿景，微軟需要其他公司開(kāi)發(fā)出先進(jìn)的聊天機(jī)器人。如果沒(méi)有外部程序員開(kāi)發(fā)出各種可支持Cortana訂酒店或訂糕點(diǎn)的聊天機(jī)器人，納德拉的語(yǔ)音交互未來(lái)將很難成功。

譯者：劉進(jìn)龍/汪皓

審校：任文科

In the future, people won’t have to waste time fidgeting with their smartphones as they try to order pizza from an app. They’ll just have to talk to the device, and little software helpers will do all the work for them.

At least, that’s the way Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella sees it. Nadella outlined his vision of the future of human and computer interaction during Microsoft’s annual developer conference in San Francisco.

For Nadella, using “the power of human language” to communicate with machines will be as profound as the development of the Internet and the use of touchscreens on mobile devices.

At the center of Nadella’s glimpse into the future is Microsoft’s MSFT 0.62% Cortana personal assistant software. Microsoft has been pushing Cortana as an easy way for consumers to ask for directions to movie theaters, remind them of tasks, and even send emails.

Similar to other digital assistants like Apple’s AAPL 1.69% Siri and Google Now, Cortana is powered by machine-learning algorithms that train the service as it ingests data from users every time they ask it a question. Although these digital assistants don’t always work correctly, they are getting better.

Nadella is betting that Cortana will eventually get so good at answering questions that people will stop moving their fingers and start moving their mouths to perform daily tasks on their devices.

Besides Cortana, Nadella also believes that so-called chat bots will be an important element for computer interaction. These software programs, which are increasingly used by retailers and investment companies on their websites, prompt visitors to ask basic questions and then answer them.

Like digital assistants, however, these chat bots are getting better at understanding human language as coders wire them up with machine-learning capabilities. With more advances in artificial intelligence like natural language processing, bots are now capable of performing more advanced tasks like ordering a ride from Uber for people who ask for one through workplace messaging service Slack.

Microsoft executives demonstrated on stage how placing orders for a dessert delivery would be almost completely handled by software.

For example, Lilian Rincon, an executive for Microsoft’s Skype Internet calling service, showed that she could talk to Cortana within Skype, and have Cortana interact with a software bot created by a bakery to coordinate a cake delivery. Rincon also showed off how Cortana would one day be able to learn from a user’s previous chat messages and anticipate what that person will want.

In one example, she showed how Cortana had deduced that she would be traveling out of town for a conference. It then decided to help her by looping in a chat bot from the Westin Hotels to show her some available rooms during the dates she was traveling.

Everything worked smoothly. But this was merely a demonstration, after all. In real life, artificial intelligence technologies and chatting software don’t always work as intended.

“We want to build more technology so that it gets the best of humanity and not the worst,” Nadella said as the audience of coders laughed.

They were chuckling because last week, a Microsoft research project involving an experimental chat bot named Tay went haywire after Internet pranksters fed the bot offensive language, which trained it to say hostile things. Nadella addressed the problem by saying that Microsoft “quickly realized that it was not up to the market” and took Tay offline.

“And so we are back to the drawing board,” said Nadella.

Hiccups aside, it’s clear Nadella views chatting and voice commands as a way to spread Microsoft’s influence. It’s also noteworthy that he laid out the future of voice interactions at a developer conference.

Microsoft is continuing to push the idea to coders that they can trust the company and build software using Microsoft technology. This is not the same company under former CEO Steve Ballmer, who preferred a more closed business that critics say missed the boat on new technologies. Ballmer evenadmitted in 2014 that Microsoft failed to anticipate the rise of mobile computing during his tenure.

Nadella wants coders to believe that Microsoft is a new company that is on top of the latest technological trends.

And while Microsoft may brag about how smart Cortana is, it will need companies to build the advanced chat bots that will help Nadella’s vision of the future to become reality. Without outside coders building the versatile chat bots that enable Cortana to book hotels and order pastries, Nadella’s future of voice interactions will fail to pan out.