Certain businesses manage to invent the future and win present-day battles at the same time. In a commercial released on Fox Television in November, for a fleeting second, Microsoft allows you to glimpse it.

“I am in India, and I’m going to see how Microsoft AI is helping people from going blind,” says the commercial’s lead actor. For 60 seconds, it’s a wide-eyed trip down a crowded street. A man on a bike unpacks a fundus camera, and people begin to queue up for eye screening. The device is made by Bengaluru’s 9-year-old startup Forus Health, but it’s the AI (artificial intelligence) from Microsoft that is doing the magic.

AUTHOR

Seema Singh

Seema has over two decades of experience in journalism. Before starting The Ken, Seema wrote “Myth Breaker: Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and the Story of Indian Biotech”, published by HarperCollins in May 2016. Prior to that, she was a senior editor and bureau chief for Bangalore with Forbes India, and before that she wrote for Mint. Seema has written for numerous international publications like IEEE-Spectrum, New Scientist, Cell and Newsweek. Seema is a Knight Science Journalism Fellow from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a MacArthur Foundation Research Grantee.

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