Mubasher: Microsoft Corporation on Monday announced the purchase of Semantic Machines, an artificial intelligence (AI) start-up, in a bid to boost its efforts in developing conversational AI.

Microsoft did not disclose any financial details yet regarding the acquisition of the California-based start-up, whose speech recognition team led the automatic speech recognition development for Apple’s Siri.

Semantic Marchines’ AI approach is using machine learning to add context to conversations with chatbots, applying inputs received by AI to future dialogues.

"With the acquisition of Semantic Machines, we will establish a conversational AI centre of excellence in Berkeley to push forward the boundaries of what is possible in language interfaces," Microsoft AI and Research chief technology officer David Ku posted in a blog.

The deal implies that the American multinational technology company would merge its own AI development effort with Semantic Machines, at a time when major companies seek to make their personal assistants more human-like.

In a related note, Amazon has said that it mulls over providing its virtual assistant Alexa with a memory and other new features, like contextual conversation skills.