Microsoft developing Siri-rival called Cortana

Al character Cortana from the Halo series is to lend itself to a new Siri-rivalling tech from Microsoft.

That’s according to ZDnet, which has collated a number of hints and leaks from across the internet to arrive at the claim.

The tech can apparently learn and adapt, relying on machine-learning technology and the ‘Satori’ knowledge repository powering Bing”. Cortana is apparently intended to be a core feature in future versions of the Windows, Windows Phone and Xbox One operating systems.

Our UI will be deeply personalized, based on the advanced, almost magical, intelligence in our cloud that learns more and more over time about people and the world,” Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer said in a note believed to be about Cortana back in July.

Our shell will natively support all of our essential services, and will be great at responding seamlessly to what people ask for, and even anticipating what they need before they ask for it."

At the moment it is not anticipated that Microsoft will launch Cortana before 2014, and could even wait until 2016.