Cortana's big challenge: Catching up to Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant

When Google wowed the tech world with its demo of Duplex — the tech that allows its digital Assistant make phone calls to perform mundane tasks like booking haircuts or making restaurant reservations — Microsoft's Cortana chief was impressed, but not worried.

"The technologist in me had no choice but to feel impressed," Javier Soltero, Microsoft corporate vice president of Cortana, told me in a far-ranging discussion about voice technology for Mashable's MashTalk podcast. "The idea that a computer can generate a voice with the right processes, right inflection, all of the right things to mimic humans, is amazing to see in practice, but not entirely surprising." Read more...