Computerworld News
OpenAI was founded a decade ago with a focus on research, but it has since expanded into products and infrastructure. Now it is looking to again broaden its presence into user-facing apps. The company announced this week that Fidji Simo will join as CEO of applications, a newly-created position. Simo is the current CEO and chair at grocery delivery company Instacart. She will begin her new role at OpenAI later this year, reporting directly to Sam Altman, who will remain overall CEO and oversee research, compute, and applications. In creating this new position, OpenAI is signaling its move from a [...]
Google’s recently released Agent2Agent protocol has emerged as a top contender to facilitate communication and collaboration between AI agents in models and enterprises. Microsoft this week adopted the A2A protocol in Copilot Studio and Azure AI Foundry for developers to build shared agents that can interact with each other. Introduced last month, Google’ open-source A2A protocol allows networks of agents to structurally set goals, reason, take action, and return results across clouds, enterprises, and data silos, said Yina Arenas, vice president of product for Azure AI Foundry, and Bas Brekelmans, chief technology officer of Copilot Studio, in a joint blog [...]
In a stark warning to lawmakers, technology leaders from the nation’s biggest AI companies will testify Thursday that the US’ aging infrastructure is unprepared for the massive energy demands of AI, potentially jeopardizing US competitiveness in the rapidly evolving technology race. US Senator Ted Cruz, who will lead the hearing, in a statement, emphasized the strategic importance of removing barriers to AI development, “Growth and development of new AI technologies will bolster our national security, create new jobs, and stimulate economic growth. This hearing will help us find ways to remove restraints on the AI supply chain and unleash American dominance [...]
Google could lose a third of its business if the courts force it to relinquish its default search deal for Apple’s Safari. It could lose the same thing if Apple voluntarily switches to AI-driven search services from other parties, including Apple itself. There is no doubt that Google will be the biggest casualty if US courts force it to stop paying Apple roughly $20b a year to be included as the default search engine in Safari. That’s bad news for Apple, but given that Google currently pays Apple 36% of search ads revenue generated by searches via the Apple browser, it’s existentially grim news [...]
AI is everywhere right now — but let’s be honest: It’s easy to slap some sort of silly text generation button onto an app and call it “AI.” It’s much more difficult to come up with a truly compelling way this type of technology can actually be helpful. And once you move away from web-based AI utilities and start focusing specifically on Android, the pool of commendable candidates only gets smaller. Don’t despair, though: There are some standout Android apps that put artificial intelligence to genuinely intelligent use. They range from multipurpose chatbots to tools for smarter note-taking and reminder-making, [...]
I don’t know about you, but I’m already tired of all the generative AI (genAI) hype. I’ve been using the technology for a while now, and I’ve found ways it can be helpful — primarily as a search engine replacement — but it’s not everything it’s supposed to be. This isn’t just cranky, cynical old me. In a recent IBM survey of 2,000 CEOs, Big Blue found that “only 25% of AI initiatives have delivered expected ROI [Return on Investment] over the last few years.” Further, “just over half (52%) of CEO respondents say their organization is realizing value from generative [...]
Microsoft 365 (and Office 365) subscribers get more frequent software updates than those who have purchased Office without a subscription, which means subscribers have access to the latest features, security patches, and bug fixes. But it can be hard to keep track of the changes in each update and know when they’re available. We’re doing this for you, so you don’t have to. Following are summaries of the updates to Microsoft 365/Office 365 for Windows over the past year, with the latest releases shown first. We’ll add info about new updates as they’re rolled out. Note: This story covers updates [...]
OpenAI, acting as part of the US government-led Stargate AI project, on Wednesday rolled out a program called OpenAI for Countries. The idea is for Stargate to help other countries create their own genAI environments, including data centers and genAI models. But analysts argue that other countries might be hesitant to join a US government-led effort, given the sensitive issues of data privacy and business intellectual property. Alvin Nguyen, a senior analyst with Forrester, said that this might not be the ideal time to champion the United States as the technology beacon to emulate. “If it is tied to the [...]
After announcing in February that Skype would be discontinued, Microsoft has officially killed off the once-popular communications platform. Users accessing any of Skype’s services will now be encouraged to use Microsoft Teams instead. Microsoft originally bought Skype for $8.5 billion in 2011 to replace its own Windows Live Messenger platform. Skype was founded in 2003 by Niklas Zennström and Danish Janus Friis. Skype quickly became known as the communications platform that popularized video calls. But after Microsoft’s purchase, the software slowly but surely lost users as video calls became increasingly available on more platforms. Microsoft started to merge Skype with [...]
Should Apple have abandoned its lawsuit against Israeli mercenary spyware vendor NSO Group — the company it once described as, “21st century mercenaries who have created highly sophisticated cyber-surveillance machinery that invites routine and flagrant abuse.” Perhaps not, but it’s still heart-warming to learn NSO has been slammed with a huge $168 million fine for spying on WhatsApp. Mercenaries in your machine The NSO is one of the most renowned of a multitude of surveillance-as-a-service companies exploiting complex and expensive hacks to break into people’s digital devices and spy on them, frequently for oppressive governments. That the spyware sector is thriving is a grim reflection of our [...]
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