Page 32 - Microsoft

Microsoft Xbox app for iOS and Android gets touch controls for select games

Touch controls would allow users to remote control their Xbox consoles and play games on their smartphones and tablets without necessitating a wireless controller

Microsoft Teams outage blocks access, limits features for some users

Microsoft Teams is experiencing an outage that has blocked access and limited features for some users. The issue began around 11 a.m. Eastern Time Friday and grew rapidly in scope, according to outage tracker DownDetector. Users have complained of an inability to access the service, delays in sending and receiving messages, and issues displaying graphics. Microsoft said in messages on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, that it has identified a networking issue impacting a portion of the Teams service and had moved the affected processes to a backup system.

US antitrust inquiry targets OpenAI, Anthropic's deals with big tech firms

In a statement, Microsoft said it would provide the FTC information to complete its review and that collaboration by American companies put the US ahead in AI

FTC launches inquiry into AI deals such as Microsoft's OpenAI partnership

US antitrust enforcers are opening an investigation into the relationships between leading artificial intelligence startups such as ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and Anthropic and the tech giants that have invested billions of dollars into them. We're scrutinising whether these ties enable dominant firms to exert undue influence or gain privileged access in ways that could undermine fair competition, said Lina Khan, chair of the US Federal Trade Commission, in opening remarks at a Thursday AI forum. The FTC said it has issued compulsory orders to five companies requiring them to provide information regarding investments and partnerships. All of the leading cloud providers Amazon, Google and Microsoft have made huge investments into AI firms, most notably Microsoft's close partnership with OpenAI. Both Google and Amazon have made multibillion-dollar deals with Anthropic, another San Francisco-based AI startup formed by former leaders at OpenAI. The European Union and the United Kingdom hav

Microsoft lays off 1,900 Activision Blizzard, Xbox employees: Report

Blizzard President Mike Ybarra and Chief Design Officer Allen Adham are also leaving the company, while a previously announced survival game by Blizzard has been canceled, the report said

Microsoft Translator adds two new languages, Chhattisgarhi and Manipuri

Further, the company now claims to cover more than 95 per cent of the Indian population in terms of its language support options in Microsoft Translator

Microsoft adds two more Indian languages to Translator, total tally at 20

Microsoft India on Thursday said it has added two new Indian languages - Chhattisgarhi and Manipuri - in Microsoft translator. With the latest move, Microsoft Translator now supports a total of 20 official Indian languages. These include Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu, as well as two other vernacular languages - Bhojpuri, and Chhattisgarhi, covering more than 95 per cent of the country's population. "The expansion beyond official languages underscores Microsoft's dedication to democratising technology," according to a release. Microsoft said inclusion of Chhattisgarhi and Manipuri is a testament to the company's commitment of supporting and empowering the linguistic diversity of India through its innovative language technologies and solutions. "Azure AI Translator not only enhances computing accessibility in official languages but also broade

Microsoft hits $3 trillion market value, cementing strength of AI rally

The stock rose as much as 1.3% to $403.95, resulting in a market capitalization of $3 trillion. The threshold cements Microsoft's status as one of the largest public stocks

Microsoft, others making tools to help small businesses capitalise on AI

The influx of generative artificial intelligence software is transforming small businesses. Small business owners are using AI tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Bard and others to check grammar in emails, punch up marketing copy and research business plans. What's more, bigger companies are developing tools specifically to help small businesses integrate AI into their operations in more advanced ways. Microsoft's Copilot lets users ask software to perform tasks like summarize an email or a Teams meeting, come up with key themes in a document, or draft emails in a conversational tone in Outlook. The service, which costs USD 30-a-month per employee, was recently expanded from companies with at least 300 employees to all companies, so smaller businesses even solopreneurs with no employees can use Copilot for Microsoft 365. Meanwhile, MasterCard is piloting a product called MasterCard Small Business AI, aimed at helping small business owners analyze data and offer other resource

Microsoft Corp's Bing, Edge to avoid EU's digital dominance crackdown

European Commission officials are leaning toward the reprieve for the US software giant as part of a five-month market investigation ending in February

OpenAI bans developer for bot mimicking US lawmaker, says repor

'We recently removed a developer account that was knowingly violating our API usage policies which disallow political campaigning, or impersonating an individual without consent,' OpenAI said

MachineGames reveals first look of upcoming Indiana Jones video game

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will be mostly first-person with occasional third-person moments for a more cinematic feel

Karnataka signs investment deals worth Rs 22,000 cr at Davos summit

Microsoft, Hitachi, Lulu Group among companies that commit projects in state

Microsoft Copilot Pro: What is on offer in a new subscription-based AI plan

The Microsoft Copilot Pro plan offers advanced capabilities to help individuals with writing, coding, designing and researching - compared to the free version of the AI chatbot

Microsoft introduces subscription based Copilot Pro AI to boost business

Microsoft now expects virtually all of its business customers to sign up, Corporate Vice President Jared Spataro said in an interview

Certainly important case: MoS IT on NYT lawsuit against OpenAI, Microsoft

Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has said the NYT-OpenAI-Microsoft case is important and interesting one, and represents the broader issue of the nature of a relationship between those scraping internet and monetising from it versus the copyrighted content on the internet. Last Wednesday, New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft over copyright infringement, alleging that millions of its articles were used without consent to train chatbots and AI models, which now compete with it. "It is certainly a very important case. It is an issue that I have spoken about in the past in the context of social media and big tech platform versus Indian creators of content... "This is a broader issue of what is the relationship between those who scrape the internet and monetise from that scraping, versus the content that is on the internet that is copyrighted content," Chandrasekhar told PTI in a recent interview. He described the case as an "interesting" one. "We should all stay tuned... watch t

With $2.8 trn mcap Microsoft overtakes Apple as most valuable company

Shares of Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft rose 1.5%, giving it market valuation of $2.888 trillion as early lead in race to make money from generative artificial intelligence helped draw investors

Samsung teams up with Microsoft for AI features on Galaxy Book 4 laptops

Samsung announced the Galaxy Book4 series in December 2023. The series comprises the Galaxy Book 4 Ultra (16-inch), Galaxy Book 4 Pro (14-inch and 16-inch), and Galaxy Book 4 Pro 360 (16-inch)

Microsoft to train 100,000 Indian developers in AI technologies, tools

The developers will be trained under Microsoft's AI Odyssey initiative. The month-long programme is open to all, without any experience or background preference required

Software giant Microsoft adds AI button to keyboards to summon chatbots

Pressing a button will be one way to summon an artificial intelligence agent as Microsoft wields its computer industry influence to reshape the next generation of keyboards. Starting this month, some new personal computers that run Microsoft's Windows operating system will have a special Copilot key that launches the software giant's AI chatbot. Getting third-party computer manufacturers to add an AI button to laptops is the latest move by Microsoft to capitalize on its close partnership with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and make itself a gateway for applications of generative AI technology. Although most people now connect to the internet and AI applications by phone rather than computer, it's a symbolic kickoff to what's expected to be an intensively competitive year as tech companies race to outdo each other in AI applications even as they haven't yet resolved all the ethical and legal ramifications. The New York Times last month sued both OpenAI and Microsoft alleging that tools like