^TagMicrosoft

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
February 24, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Bing, ChatGPT, Google, Kevin Roose, Large Language Models (LLMs), metaverse, Microsoft, New York Times, Search engine, SEO}

The Metaverse was a Bust. Will AI Save the Day?

_{Microsoft is counting on it, investing billions into AI research and development} _{Peter Biles

February 24, 2023

3

Artificial Intelligence}

Just a couple of years ago, the metaverse was taking the tech world captive with grandiose promises of revolutionizing the internet and representing the future of human interaction. Microsoft was among the moguls who embraced the metaverse project with open arms, only to face the harsh fact that the technology was underdeveloped, investors were skeptical of its viability, and a massive swath of the American public seemed simply uninterested in the product. But, it was new technology. It was exciting. It was supposed to be the future. Now, Microsoft is hailing AI as the destiny of the internet, again with the sort of optimism that directed their love affair with virtual reality. The company has jumped the gun and sought Read More ›

Businessman holding a light chatbot hologram intelligence AI. Digital chatbot, chatGPT, robot application.Chat GPT chat with AI Artifice intelligent developers digital technology concept.

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post

Author
Gary Smith and Jeffrey Funk
Date
February 21, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Gary Smith, Google, GPT-3, LaMDA, Large Language Models (LLMs), Microsoft, OpenAI}

Does New A.I. Live Up to the Hype?

_{Experts are finding ChatGPT and other LLMs unimpressive, but investors aren't getting the memo} _{Gary Smith and Jeffrey Funk

February 21, 2023

7

Artificial Intelligence}

Original article was featured at Salon on February 21st, 2023. On November 30, 2022, OpenAI announced the public release of ChatGPT-3, a large language model (LLM) that can engage in astonishingly human-like conversations and answer an incredible variety of questions. Three weeks later, Google’s management — wary that they had been publicly eclipsed by a competitor in the artificial intelligence technology space — issued a “Code Red” to staff. Google’s core business is its search engine, which currently accounts for 84% of the global search market. Their search engine is so dominant that searching the internet is generically called “googling.” When a user poses a search request, Google’s search engine returns dozens of helpful links along with targeted advertisements based on its knowledge of the Read More ›

introduction to the metaverse universe. Man wearing augmented reality glasses for future technology. transition to the virtual world.

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
January 25, 2023

Categorized
Virtual Reality

Tagged
apple, CEO, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, metaverse, Microsoft, Silicon Valley, social media, Technology, Virtual Reality (VR)}

More Bad News for the Metaverse

_{Virtual reality projects are losing steam across the tech industry in the wake of layoffs and investor skepticism} _{Peter Biles

January 25, 2023

2

Virtual Reality}

Big tech companies across the spectrum, including Meta, Microsoft, and Apple, are scaling back on virtual reality research and development. The technological demands of the metaverse are more advanced than CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg have anticipated, and employees are feeling the impact. Microsoft recently laid off 10,000 workers, cutting funding from the lab responsible for the production of its mixed-reality “HoloLens.” The army was originally in the works to use the Microsoft lens for aids in combat and training, but the technology has since been labeled as “dangerous and poorly designed.” Meta laid off 11,000 employees last November and continues to struggle to gain interest and traction for its ambitious metaverse project. A report from Insider notes that a combination Read More ›

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post

Author
Eric Holloway
Date
January 16, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
ChatGPT, ChatGPT and humans in the loop, Featured, Microsoft, Microsoft and ChatGPT}

Found! ChatGPT’s Humans in the Loop!

_{I am the only writer I’ve been able to discover who is suggesting ChatGPT has humans in the loop. Here is a series of telling excerpts from our last conversation…} _{Eric Holloway

January 16, 2023

10

Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind}

The new ChatGPT chatbot has wowed the internet. While students revel in the autogenerated homework assignments, the truly marvelous property of ChatGPT is its very humanlike interactions. When you converse with ChatGPT you could swear there was a human on the other end, if you didn’t know better. For all intents and purposes, ChatGPT has achieved the holy grail of AI and passed the Turing test, on a global scale. Always quick to snatch a deal, Microsoft is currently in talks to spend a mere $10B to acquire half “the lightcone of all future value.” However, things are not always what they seem. Previously, I pointed out aspects of ChatGPT that implied humans were helping craft the chatbot’s responses. Now, Read More ›

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post

Author
Caitlin Bassett
Date
October 7, 2021

Categorized
Events, Science

Tagged
Azure Quantum, COSM 2021, Julie Love, Microsoft, Quantum Computing, Quantum Physics}

Quantum Physicist Julie Love to Speak at COSM 2021

_{She fell in love with physics in high school, and continues to pursue that love today at Microsoft} _{Caitlin Bassett

October 7, 2021

2

Events, Science}

She may not be a household name, but Dr. Julie Love works with technology that could have massive implications on our economy, in our industry and agriculture, and on society at large: Quantum computing. At this year’s COSM conference in Bellevue, Washington, Love will be addressing quantum computing and the question, “Does it change everything, or anything?” First, what exactly is quantum computing? “Quantum computing applies the properties of quantum physics to the processing of information,” Love explains in a Youtube series produced by Microsoft exploring the impact of the technology. “This exponentially faster and more powerful computing will accelerate the development of new sustainable materials, improved healthcare, methods to address food production, and combat climate change.” You can watch Read More ›

Downton Bellevue, Washington with Mt. Rainier

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post

Author
Caitlin Bassett
Date
October 1, 2021

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Events

Tagged
Artificial Intelligence, COSM 2021, Gurdeep Pall, Microsoft, Skype for Business, speech recognition software}

Meet Gurdeep Pall, Microsoft Executive and COSM 2021 Speaker

_{Pall has flourished as a developer and a leader in the world of artificial intelligence and speech recognition} _{Caitlin Bassett

October 1, 2021

3

Artificial Intelligence, Events}

“I believe the world is ready for autonomous systems,” says Gurdeep Singh Pall, a Corporate Vice President at Microsoft. Pall will be joining the impressive lineup of speakers at COSM 2021 this November. Pall has been with Microsoft since 1990 – a long and fruitful thirty-one years in which he rose from a software design engineer to the Corporate VP for the Information Platform and Experience team. In that time, he has worked on several noteworthy projects, including Windows NT 3.1, Windows XP, Skype for Business (now Teams), and many others. Pall was born in Chandigarh, India. In later adolescence, he considered following in his Brigadier father’s footsteps by joining the Indian army. “There was something inside me that kept Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Caitlin Bassett
Date
July 28, 2021

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Media

Tagged
Alexa, apple, Audrey, Cortana, Microsoft, Mohamad Awad, Roz Burch, Siri, Smart Adaptive Voice "SAV", text-to-speech technology, Website Voice}

You Can Now Hear Our Articles When You Are Driving or Sweeping Up

_{Curious about that "loudspeaker" icon that has recently appeared in our articles?} _{Caitlin Bassett

July 28, 2021

3

Artificial Intelligence, Media}

You may have recently noticed a new icon that’s appeared on your screen at the beginning of our articles. If you press the little black button with the loudspeaker icon, you will find our article being read aloud for you. This exciting new application – which will make it easier for our readers to enjoy our content even while driving, doing chores, or running errands – is made possible by WebsiteVoice advances in artificial intelligence technology. WebsiteVoice is a text-to-speech application that converts blog posts and online articles into audible material. It serves over 4,000 clients worldwide in 30 different languages. Founded by Mohamad Awad and Roz Burch, the WebsiteVoice team calls itself “a group of avid readers and podcast Read More ›

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post

Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
July 22, 2021

Categorized
Data Privacy, Events

Tagged
Antony Blinken, China, cybersecurity, hacking, Hafnium, Kellen Dwyer, Microsoft, Microsoft Exchange Server, NATO, Nicole Perlroth, This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends (book), U.S. Department of Justice, Wall Street Journal, zero-day hack}

U.S. and Allies Formally Accuse China of Exchange Server Hack

_{This isn’t the first time the Chinese-backed hacker group has infiltrated organizations} _{Heather Zeiger

July 22, 2021

7

Data Privacy, Events}

On Monday, July 19, three cybersecurity announcements were made: In response to the massive Microsoft Exchange Server hack, the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Japan, the E.U., and NATO formally accused the Chinese government of engaging in harmful cyberactivity. The U.S. Department of Justice published its indictment of four Chinese hackers associated with the Chinese government, known as APT40. The FBI, CSIS, and the NSA published a cybersecurity advisory cataloging the fifty tactics, techniques, and procedures used by Chinese state-sponsored hackers. Then, on Tuesday, the CSIA and the FBI published a report on state-sponsored international hacking groups that included accusations that the Chinese state-backed hackers infiltrated thirteen oil and natural gas pipeline operators between 2011 and 2013. In Read More ›

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post

Author
Jonathan Bartlett
Date
July 9, 2021

Categorized
Business and Finance

Tagged
Automation, Facebook, iOS applications, Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, Productivity, technology investment}

Is Technology Running Backward?

_{Technology isn't adding value anymore. It's adding expense.} _{Jonathan Bartlett

July 9, 2021

4

Business and Finance}

I’ve been a computer nerd since I was a young child. My dad bought the family a TI 99/4A before I even went to Kindergarten, and I basically started programming when I learned to read. As I grew up, the thing that fascinated me most about technology was the ability to automate. Automation, in theory, is supposed to make people’s lives better. It’s supposed to take the drudgery out of work, to leave people to focus on the more creative aspects of their work. With a word processor, I can type, correct, spellcheck, rewrite, and reorganize in an instant. I can even maintain old drafts easily. With a spreadsheet, I can keep track of all my income, expenses, grades, goals, Read More ›

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post

Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
October 12, 2020

Categorized
Global Technology, Programming, Social Media, Surveillance, Technocracy

Tagged
Ai Fen, censorship, China, Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Chinese Human Rights Defenders (organization), COVID-19, Fang Fang, Featured, Gitee, GitHub, Li Wenliang, Microsoft, Peter Hessler, Wuhan, Wuhan Diary (book)}

China: COVID-19’s True History Finds an Unlikely Home — GitHub

_{The Chinese Communist party, rewriting the COVID-19 story with itself as the hero, must reckon with truthful techies} _{Heather Zeiger

October 12, 2020

9

Global Technology, Programming, Social Media, Surveillance, Technocracy}

For a brief window of time at the beginning of 2020, China’s internet censors didn’t block stories about Wuhan and COVID-19, the coronavirus. Caixin, a widely-read news magazine, published a multi-page investigative report on everything leading up to the outbreak, including the way in which the provincial authorities in Hubei, of which Wuhan is the capital, suppressed knowledge of the virus. Fang Fang, an award-winning novelist, kept a Wuhan diary online on Weibo, which was recently published as a book in the U.S. (HarperCollins 2020). For that short time, comments on the coronavirus were not being censored (Wired) at WeChat. Many people were thus able to vent their frustrations and pay their respects when 32-year-old ophthalmologist and whistleblower Li Wenliang Read More ›

Curious boy looking out the window with binocular

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post

Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
September 23, 2020

Categorized
Business and Finance, Programming

Tagged
Apple (company), Bill Gates, Bill Gates Sr., Bing, Excel, Featured, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, Microsoft Word, MS-DOS, Netscape, PowerPoint, WordPerfect, X-Box}

Has Microsoft Ever Really Innovated?

_{That’s a question worth asking, with a history of litigation winning out over innovation} _{Robert J. Marks

September 23, 2020

6

Business and Finance, Programming}

An interesting question in a 2010 discussion thread at Quora is “Why has Microsoft seemingly stopped innovating?” A deeper question is “Has Microsoft ever innovated?” Microsoft’s Bill Gates should be celebrated as a gifted and highly competitive entrepreneur and businessman. But his background as a computer scientist and student of algorithmic information theory is questionable. For this reason, Bill Gates’ assessment of the future of AI should be questioned. Undergraduate Gates dropped out of Harvard University to pursue the founding of Microsoft. He was a knowledgeable programmer with early computer hardware but his more significant talents as an entrepreneur did not require deep studies in computer science. Much of his success came from his business instincts and his team of Read More ›

iron chain and castle on the silk national flag of Hong Kong with beautiful folds, the concept of a ban on tourism, political repression, crime, violation of the rights and freedoms of citizens

^{Type
post

Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
July 9, 2020

Categorized
Business and Finance, Data Privacy, Ethics, Global Technology, Surveillance, Technocracy

Tagged
___longform, Apple (company), China, Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Facebook, Featured, Google, Great Firewall, Hong Kong, Hong Kong National Security Law, Instagram, Microsoft, Telegram, Tik Tok, Twitter, WhatsApp, Zoom}

Hong Kong: Tech Companies Face Serious Ethical Decisions

_{As Hong Kong is transformed into a police state, Western companies, faced with demands for snitching on users, are rethinking cozy relationships with China} _{Heather Zeiger

July 9, 2020

7

Business and Finance, Data Privacy, Ethics, Global Technology, Surveillance, Technocracy}

The semi-autonomous region of Hong Kong is no longer semi-autonomous, at least in practice. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), circumventing Hong Kong’s parliament and courts, passed the Hong Kong National Security Law on June 30 that effectively abolishes the “one country, two systems” regime outlined in the Sino-British Joint Declaration. The law was passed one day before the anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong to China (July 1, 1997), in time to quash any pro-democracy candidates who would likely win in the September elections. Although the CCP justifies its moves from the Hong Kong Basic Law and claims that Hong Kong will maintain autonomy, in practice, it has already arrested dissidents and formed a secretive agency called the Office Read More ›

Flying futuristic central processing unit. electronic circuitry within a computer that carries out the instructions of a computer program performing arithmetic, logic, controlling.

^{Type
post

Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
April 29, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Medicine and Health

Tagged
AlphaGo, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Data Mining, Deep Mind, Featured, IBM Watson, Microsoft}

Coronavirus: Is Data Mining Failing Its First Really Big Test?

_{Computers scanning thousands of paper don’t seem to be providing answers for COVID-19} _{Robert J. Marks

April 29, 2020

4

Artificial Intelligence, Medicine and Health}

If Alphabet’s Deep Mind or Microsoft had successfully data mined the 29,000 papers and found useful coronavirus information, that would be pretty impressive. But they appear to be giving others a chance to try instead, raising issues once again about the value of data mining in medicine.

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post

Author
Jay Richards
Date
March 22, 2020

Categorized
Business and Finance, Ethics, Religion

Tagged
Catholicism, Featured, Microsoft, Pontifical Academy for Life, Regulatory capture, Vatican}

Why Does the Vatican Need Microsoft?

_{Should the Church really partner with IBM and Microsoft to make pronouncements on tech regulation?} _{Jay Richards

March 22, 2020

6

Business and Finance, Ethics, Religion}

When giant corporate actors like IBM and Microsoft promote “transparency and compliance with ethical principles?”, we run the risk that they are helping to craft regulations that hinder future competitors (“regulatory capture”). Rather than partner with them in making statements, the Church should stay clear.

^{Type
post

Author
Brendan Dixon
Date
February 13, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Ethics

Tagged
Microsoft, Seattle University}

AI has changed our relationship to our tools

_{If a self-driving car careens into a storefront, who’s to blame? A new Seattle U course explores ethics in AI} _{Brendan Dixon

February 13, 2020

4

Artificial Intelligence, Ethics}

A free course at Seattle University addresses the “meaning of ethics in AI.” I’ve signed up for it. One concern that I hope will be addressed is: We must not abdicate to machines the very thing that only we can do: Treat other people fairly.

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
October 31, 2019

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning

Tagged
Alchemy, AlphaGo Zero, Amazon, Artificial Intelligence, Consciousness, COSM, George D. Montanez, Google, Homonculus, Machine Learning, Matt McIlwain, Microsoft, non-algorithmic, Oren Etzioni, Ray Kurzweil, Robert J. Marks, Singularity}

Is Ray Kurzweil’s Singularity Now Nearer — or Impossible?

_{In response to Kurzweil’s talk at the COSM Technology Summit, panelists noted that AI achievements are revolutionary in size but limited by their nature in scope} _{Denyse O'Leary

October 31, 2019

4

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning}

George Montañez, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Harvey Mudd College, took issue with Kurzweil’s claim that AlphaGoZero needed no instructions to beat humans at the game of Go: “For a system like this to work, a human must define the incentive structure, also encoding the assumptions.” The sheer power of a computing system does not cause it to do anything at all.

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
October 24, 2019

Categorized
Machine Learning, Medicine and Health

Tagged
AlphaGo, Artificial Intelligence, Bill Dembski, COSM, Craig Mundie, DeepMind, General Artificial Intelligence, George Gilder, health and medicine, Machines, Medicine, Microsoft, Open AI}

Former Microsoft Head of Research: Machines Will Soon Know Better Than Your Doctor

_{Other experts at the COSM Technology Summit were skeptical of Craig Mundie’s claims} _{Denyse O'Leary

October 24, 2019

3

Machine Learning, Medicine and Health}

Mundie, former Microsoft Chief Research & Strategy Officer, formerly told his audience that Big Data will enable each person to be “completely understood” by machines that can produce a computer facsimile of each detail. It would be far too complex for human physicians to make sense of, he said.

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post

Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
August 1, 2019

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Education, Work

Tagged
apple, Augmented Reality, Donald Trump, Google, Microsoft, Spelling, Tom Caudell, Uber}

Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene: How to Spell Gud

_{Also, Google and Apple ditching college degree requirements is not really that new} _{Robert J. Marks

August 1, 2019

4

Artificial Intelligence, Education, Work}

Twenty years or so ago, when I worked in Seattle, Microsoft was famous for the testing coding skills of their applicants and asking Mensa-like questions. Degrees were secondary.