未來，人們想通過應用訂披薩時，再也不必浪費時間擺弄他們的智能手機了。他們只需要對著設備說出要求，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，這就是未來的發展趨勢。在舊金山召開的微軟年度開發者大會上，納德拉介紹了他眼中人機交互的未來愿景。

納德拉認為，與互聯網的發展，以及在移動設備上使用觸摸屏一樣，利用“人類語言的力量”與機器溝通，將產生深遠的影響。

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

與蘋果Siri和Google Now等數字助手類似，Cortana基于機器學習算法，通過消化用戶每次提問題時輸入的數據，訓練服務能力。雖然數字助手不能始終正常運行，但它們正在變得越來越好。

納德拉斷言，Cortana最終將更加擅長回答問題，人們不必移動手指，只要張開嘴說出要求，便可以在設備上執行日常任務。

除了Cortana，納德拉還認為，所謂的聊天機器人也是人機交互的一個重要元素。這些軟件程序被越來越多的零售商和投資公司用于網站上，鼓勵投資者提問基本問題，由聊天機器人進行回答。

與數字助手類似，由于程序員賦予了聊天機器人機器學習能力，它們正在變得越來越擅長理解人類語言。隨著人工智能的發展，如自然語言處理等，機器人現在可以執行更加高級的任務，比如為那些通過職場通信服務Slack提出請求的用戶預定Uber打車服務。

微軟高管在舞臺上演示了如何完全通過軟件訂甜品外賣。

例如，微軟Skype Internet呼叫服務高管莉莉安?里肯演示了一番她如何與Skype內置的Cortana對話，讓Cortana與一家面包店創建的軟件機器人交流，協調蛋糕外賣。此外，里肯還演示了，未來Cortana如何從用戶之前的聊天信息中學習，預測用戶的需求。

例如，她演示了Cortana如何推測出她將出差到外地，參加一個會議。之后，Cortana決定提供幫助，通過與威斯汀酒店的聊天機器人交流，為她提供在出差日期可用的房間。

一切都非常順利。當然，這畢竟只是演示。在現實中，人工智能技術和聊天軟件的效果尚不盡如人意。

納德拉說道：“我們希望創建的技術能夠學會人性最好的一面，而不是最惡的一面。”這引起了臺下程序員們的一片笑聲。

他們之所以發笑，是因為上周，一個微軟研究項目推出了一款試驗性聊天機器人Tay，最終卻失去了控制，因為愛惡作劇的網民令這款機器人吸收了大量冒犯性的語言，讓她發表了許多不當言論。對于這個問題，納德拉表示，微軟“很快意識到這款機器人遠達不到上市的要求”，隨即讓Tay下線。

納德拉表示：“現在我們要從頭開始設計。”

將這些小問題放在一邊，很顯然納德拉將聊天和語音命令，視為擴大微軟影響力的途徑之一。另外值得注意的是，他是在開發者大會上描繪語音交互的未來的。

微軟不斷向程序員們傳遞一個信念：他們可以信任公司，利用微軟的技術開發軟件。這已經不是前任CEO史蒂夫?鮑爾默領導下的微軟。鮑爾默傾向于把微軟打造成一家更封閉的公司，批評者認為，這導致微軟錯失新技術帶來的良機。2014年，鮑爾默自己也承認，在他的任期內，微軟未能預見到移動計算的崛起。

納德拉希望程序員們相信，如今的微軟已是最新技術潮流的引領者。

雖然微軟在大肆夸耀Cortana有多么智能，但要想實現納德拉的未來愿景，微軟需要其他公司開發出先進的聊天機器人。如果沒有外部程序員開發出各種可支持Cortana訂酒店或訂糕點的聊天機器人，納德拉的語音交互未來將很難成功。

譯者：劉進龍/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.