Microsoft allies with Facebook on A.I. software | CNBC

Surprising the reporter didn't also mention Microsoft's Chromium capitulation

"But the direction is clear. "The momentum of community, really, is around PyTorch and TensorFlow, and so that's where were throwing the bulk of our emphasis," said Eric Boyd, Microsoft's corporate vice president of AI platform. "Having community adoption is hugely important."

The move around Cognitive Toolkit is part of a recent trend at Microsoft to embrace technology from outside the company. It has embraced Linux, making it accessible from within Windows 10 and creating a Linux version of its SQL Server database software. It has reduced its efforts around Windows for mobile devices and ramped up development of applications for Apple's iOS and Google's Android. And Microsoft stopped developing its own big-data software, Dryad, and threw its support around the Hadoop open-source tools."

Microsoft allies with Facebook on A.I. software | CNBC