Microsoft moves to make AI development more accessible with Lobe acquisition

There's no doubt that Microsoft has placed a big bet on the future of AI, as is apparent with its dedicated team of AI researchers and multiple acquisitions of AI-focused startups in recent years. Today, Microsoft announced it is giving those efforts yet another boost with the acquisition of Lobe, an AI company initially formed in 2015 with the mission of making deep learning accessible to everyone.

From Microsoft:

Today, we're excited to announce the acquisition of Lobe. Based in San Francisco, Lobe is working to make deep learning simple, understandable and accessible to everyone. Lobe's simple visual interface empowers anyone to develop and apply deep learning and AI models quickly, without writing code.

As for Lobe's future, the company says that it will continue to operate as a standalone service while enjoying the backing of Microsoft's "world-class AI research, global infrastructure, and decades of experience building developer tools."

Lobe joins two other firms that have been gobbled up by Microsoft this year: Bonsai and Semantic Machines. The former is focused on bolstering machine learning autonomy, while the latter is concentrated on improving conversational AI.