Why Just Microsoft Technologies?

This book deals exclusively with Microsoft technologies. The primary reason for this is that Microsoft technologies focus on the needs of businesses and therefore are in line with revenue-generating goals. Many developers today are already familiar with Microsoft tools because they serve as the building blocks of some key business applications. This instantly lowers the learning curve needed for exploring AI techniques utilizing them.

Microsoft has dedicated substantial funds to a vast research division, Microsoft Research, that reviews many current AI areas. The division has made many advances toward speech recognition and natural language processing, as will be explored in the first and last chapters.

Microsoft is generous in providing developers with knowledge. The numerous Software Development Kits (SDKs) available for free download from its Web sites are a testament to this. These kits significantly lower the learning curve associated with adopting new technologies. Since the primary goal of this book is to lower the learning curve associated with AI, it makes sense to utilize a few SDK's in the process.

This book is the start of what I hope will be a trend toward making AI-related technologies more accessible and easy to use. I hope to see more and more developers finding creative and insightful ways to harness these technologies. Have fun!