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Microsoft researchers predict the search box will disappear by 2027

Microsoft researchers predict the search box will disappear by 2027

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Most of us can’t wait for 2016 to end, and researchers at Microsoft are giving us good reason to think ahead. The company polled 17 women working in its research organization about the technology advances they expect to see in 2017, as well as a decade later in 2027. The researchers’ predictions touch on natural language processing, machine learning, agricultural software, and virtual reality, among other topics. You can check them all out here, but I’ve put some of the most interesting predictions below. Spoiler alert: it’s time for you to start thinking about life after the search bar.

For virtual reality, Mar Gonzalez Franco, a researcher in Microsoft’s Redmond lab, believes body tracking will improve next year, and then over the next decade we’ll have “rich multi-sensorial experiences that will be capable of producing hallucinations which blend or alter perceives reality.” Haptic devices will simulate touch to further enhance the sensory experience.

can 2027 get here faster?

Meanwhile, Susan Dumais, a scientist and deputy managing director at the Redmond lab, believes deep learning will help improve web search results next year. In 2027, however, the search box will disappear, she says. It’ll be replaced by search that’s more “ubiquitous, embedded, and contextually sensitive.” She says we’re already seeing some of this in voice-controlled searches through mobile and smart home devices. We might eventually be able to look things up with either sound, images, or video. Plus, our searches will respond to “current location, content, entities, and activities” without us explicitly mentioning them, she says. Of course, it’s worth noting that Microsoft has been losing the search box war to Google, so it isn’t surprising that the company thinks search will die.

With global warming as a looming threat, Asta Roseway, principal research designer, says by 2027 famers will use AI to maintain healthy crop yields, even with “climate change, drought, and disaster.” Low-energy farming solutions, like vertical farming and aquaponics, will also be essential to keeping the food supply high, she says.

So can we hurry up and get through the rest of 2016 and maybe even 2017? I’m ready for the future.