So it should come as no great surprise to hear that Microsoft is indeed planning to bring Cortana to rival operating systems, as Reuters reports. While Cortana will remain a tightly integrated component in Windows on PCs, phones and other devices, the company is planning to making the assistant available as a standalone app on Android and iOS.

 

The effort to extend Cortana's reach across multiple platforms is being developed with knowledge from 'Project Einstein', a Microsoft research project focusing on artificial intelligence. More than simply bringing access to its assistant to other app stores, Microsoft has been working on a 'more advanced' version of Cortana as part of its cross-platform efforts, using the AI research from Einstein.

 

Eric Horvitz, managing director of Microsoft Research, and part of the Einstein team said: "This kind of technology, which can read and understand email, will play a central role in the next roll out of Cortana, which we are working on now for the fall time frame."

 

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