Microsoft Research Podcast

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057 (rerun) - Making intelligence intelligible with Dr. Rich Caruana Jan 02, 2019

Show notes

The episode first aired in May, 2018.In the world of machine learning, there’s been a notable trade-off between accuracy and intelligibility. Either the models are accurate but difficult to make sense of, or easy to understand but prone to error. That’s why Dr. Rich Caruana, Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research, has spent a good part of his career working to make the simple more accurate and the accurate more intelligible.Today, Dr. Caruana talks about how the rise of deep neural networks has made understanding machine predictions more difficult for humans, and discusses an interesting class of smaller, more interpretable models that may help to make the black box nature of machine learning more transparent.

056 (rerun) - Functional Programming Languages and the Pursuit of Laziness with Dr. Simon Peyton Jones Dec 26, 2018

Show notes

This episode first aired in January, 2018.When we look at a skyscraper or a suspension bridge, a simple search engine box on a screen looks tiny by comparison. But Dr. Simon Peyton Jones would like to remind us that computer programs, with hundreds of millions of lines of code, are actually among the largest structures human beings have ever built. A principle researcher at the Microsoft Research Lab in Cambridge, England, co-developer of the programming language Haskell, and a Fellow of Britain’s Royal Society, Simon Peyton Jones has dedicated his life to this very particular kind of construction work.

Today, Dr. Peyton Jones shares his passion for functional programming research, reveals how a desire to help other researchers write and present better turned him into an unlikely YouTube star, and explains why, at least in the world of programming languages, purity is embarrassing, laziness is cool, and success should be avoided at all costs.

055 (rerun) - Building Literate Machines with Dr. Adam Trischler Dec 19, 2018

Show notes

This episode first aired in March, 2018.Learning to read, think and communicate effectively is part of the curriculum for every young student. But Dr. Adam Trischler, Research Manager and leader of the Machine Comprehension team at Microsoft Research Montreal, would like to make it part of the curriculum for your computer as well. And he’s working on that, using methods from machine learning, deep neural networks, and other branches of AI to close the communication gap between humans and computers.Today, Dr. Trischler talks about his dream of making literate machines, his efforts to design meta-learning algorithms that can actually learn to learn, the importance of what he calls “few-shot learning” in that meta-learning process, and how, through a process of one-to-many mapping in machine learning, our computers not may not only be answering our questions, but asking them as well.

054 - Soundscaping the world with Amos Miller Dec 12, 2018

Show notes

Amos Miller is a product strategist on the Microsoft Research NeXT Enable team, and he’s played a pivotal role in bringing some of MSR’s most innovative research to users with disabilities. He also happens to be blind, so he can appreciate, perhaps in ways others can’t, the value of the technologies he works on, like Soundscape, an app which enhances mobility independence through audio and sound.

On today’s podcast, Amos Miller answers burning questions like how do you make a microwave accessible, what’s the cocktail party effect, and how do you hear a landmark? He also talks about how researchers are exploring the untapped potential of 3D audio in virtual and augmented reality applications, and explains how, in the end, his work is not so much about making technology more accessible, but using technology to make life more accessible.

053 - Chasing convex bodies and other random topics with Dr. Sebastien Bubeck Dec 05, 2018

Show notes

Dr. Sebastien Bubeck is a mathematician and a senior researcher in the Machine Learning and Optimization group at Microsoft Research. He’s also a self-proclaimed “bandit” who claims that, despite all the buzz around AI, it’s still a science in its infancy. That’s why he’s devoted his career to advancing the mathematical foundations behind the machine learning algorithms behind AI.

Today, Dr. Bubeck explains the difficulty of the multi-armed bandit problem in the context of a parameter- and data-rich online world. He also discusses a host of topics from randomness and convex optimization to metrical task systems and log n competitiveness to the surprising connection between Gaussian kernels and what he calls some of the most beautiful objects in mathematics.

052 - Machine learning and the learning machine with Dr. Christopher Bishop Nov 28, 2018

Show notes

Dr. Christopher Bishop is quite a fellow. Literally. Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. Fellow of Darwin College in Cambridge, England. Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Fellow of The Royal Society. Microsoft Technical Fellow. And one of the nicest fellows you’re likely to meet! He’s also Director of the Microsoft Research lab in Cambridge, where he oversees a world-class portfolio of research and development endeavors in machine learning and AI.

Today, Dr. Bishop talks about the past, present and future of AI research, explains the No Free Lunch Theorem, talks about the modern view of machine learning (or how he learned to stop worrying and love uncertainty), and tells how the real excitement in the next few years will be the growth in our ability to create new technologies not by programming machines but by teaching them to learn.

051 (rerun) - When Psychology Meets Technology with Dr. Daniel McDuff Nov 21, 2018

Show notes

This episode first aired in March (2018)One of the most intriguing areas of machine learning research is affective computing, where scientists are working to bridge the gap between human emotions and computers. It is here, at the intersection of psychology and computer science, that we find Dr. Daniel McDuff, who has been designing systems, from hardware to algorithms, that can sense human behavior and respond to human emotions.

Today, Dr. McDuff talks about why we need computers to understand us, outlines the pros and cons of designing emotionally sentient agents, explains the technology behind CardioLens, a pair of augmented reality glasses that can take your heartrate by looking at your face, and addresses the challenges of maintaining trust and privacy when we’re surrounded by devices that want to know not just what we’re doing, but how we’re feeling.

050 - Hearing in 3D with Dr. Ivan Tashev Nov 14, 2018

Show notes

After decades of research in processing audio signals, we’ve reached the point of so-called performance saturation. But recent advances in machine learning and signal processing algorithms have paved the way for a revolution in speech recognition technology and audio signal processing. Dr. Ivan Tashev, a Partner Software Architect in the Audio and Acoustics Group at Microsoft Research, is no small part of the revolution, having both published papers and shipped products at the forefront of the science of sound.

On today’s podcast, Dr. Tashev gives us an overview of the quest for better sound processing and speech enhancement, tells us about the latest innovations in 3D audio, and explains why the research behind audio processing technology is, thanks to variations in human perception, equal parts science, art and craft.

049 - Celebrating 20 Years of MSR in Asia with Dr. Hsiao-Wuen Hon Nov 07, 2018

Show notes

In 1998, Microsoft Research opened a small lab in Beijing to expand its research efforts and draw on the immense high-tech talent pool in China. No one expected that only twenty years later, MSR Asia would become the dynamic organization it is today, with innovative research contributing to nearly every part of Microsoft’s business. Dr. Hsiao-Wuen Hon has watched it grow from the beginning and this year, celebrates the lab’s 20th anniversary as Managing Director, Corporate Vice President and Chairman of Microsoft’s Asia-Pacific R&D Group.

On today’s podcast, Dr. Hon gives us a brief history of MSR Asia, from its humble beginnings to its significant role in the AI boom today, talks about MSR Asia’s unique talent pipeline, shares his vision for the complementary roles of machine intelligence and human wisdom, and explains why, he believes, the more progress we make in AI, the better we understand ourselves.

048 - Storing Digital Data in Synthetic DNA with Dr. Karin Strauss Oct 31, 2018

Show notes

As traditional semiconductor technologies for computer storage scale down, everyone is looking for alternative solutions to the growing gap between the amount of data we’re capable of producing and the amount of data we’re capable of storing. While some have focused on hardware accelerators for machine learning, and others are investigating new memory technologies, Dr. Karin Strauss, a Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research in Redmond, has been exploring the role of biotechnology in IT via an end-to-end system that stores digital data in DNA.

On today’s podcast, Dr. Strauss talks about life at the intersection of computer science and biology which, for many, is more like the intersection of science fiction and science, and explains how the unique properties of DNA could eventually enable us to store really big data in really small places for a really long time.

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