Cortana would be named Bingo if Steve Ballmer had his way

Steve Ballmer wanted Microsoft’s Cortana AI to be called “Bingo” so it would be more Microsoft-branded, according to the Big Bets newsletter. That’s according to former Microsoft product manager Sandeep Paruchuri, who recounted the story of how Microsoft’s AI assistant got its name to writer Alice Newton Rex as part of a deep dive into Cortana’s origins.

While we’ve gotten a pretty good idea of Microsoft’s ambitious vision for the AI assistant in the years since it leaked then launched, Paruchuri and Rex gave the inside story of how Cortana was named, pitched to management, and the clash that happened between dreams and reality. Also included are interesting details about how the assistant became one of the main advertising points for...

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