Microsoft Pulls the AI ​​Wagon

News in the AI ​​universe comes in floods. The spotlight this week is on Microsoft, which is providing computer makers with a new Windows operating system that will make possible the concept of a PC with built-in artificial intelligence (AI PC in English). The idea is that computers can use AI without needing to be connected to the outside world. The presentation touched on the controversial issue of privacy and confirmed that the new era will require new hardware. The implicit message is that the industry will ask us to restore the world’s supply of computers. And all this in the same week that Scarlett Johansson forced OpenAI to remove from ChatGPT the voice for its GPT-4o language model, which was suspiciously similar to hers, the very voice she used to embody the AI ​​in the movie Her.

The new category of PCs announced by Microsoft are called Copilot+ PCs, and they have processors with a built-in neural processing unit (NPU) that allow artificial intelligence tasks to be carried out directly in their guts, without the need to connect to the cloud. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that these devices will be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite and Plus processors based on ARM architecture, just like Apple Silicon. For now, two computing giants have been left out – Intel and AMD, which use the x86 architecture in their processors, although they participated in the presentation and will join the platform as soon as they have new chips ready with processors suitable for artificial intelligence.

To make these changes, Microsoft had to create an internal Windows system called Prism that adapts programs built for x86 on the fly to run on ARM. Apple has done this twice in its history with Rosetta and Rosetta 2, two translators that allowed users to experience the transition between theoretically incompatible hardware systems. “The goal has always been for computers to understand us, rather than for us to understand computers,” Nadella said, defining this new era. Several manufacturers (Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Samsung and Microsoft itself) have already announced new models with such functions. Projected to sell 50 million per year.

These computers, designed for artificial intelligence, have a neural engine capable of performing more than 40 trillion operations per second, and Microsoft claims that these machines are 58% faster than Apple’s MacBook Air M3, although they may be the most powerful PCs in history . They should be compared to the most powerful Mac computers, the MacBook Pro with the M3 Max chip. The Apple company equipped the new iPad Pro with a new chip called M4, which increased the number of NPU cores and reached 38 billion operations per second.

But among all that Redmond introduced, the one that attracted the most attention was the Recall feature, which records screenshots of everything the user does on the PC during his workday, so you can return to any moment in the past at any time. you need. The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the country’s data watchdog, has already asked Microsoft for clarification on the feature. The company says that users “can limit the number of snapshots Recall collects” and that their data is “only stored locally and cannot be accessed by Microsoft or anyone without access to the device.”

Microsoft Copilot is set to deliver the high-performance GPT-4o AI, the same one that OpenAI introduced on May 13 with the voice of Sky in its ChatGPT chatbot, which resembled Scarlett Johansson. The actress asked the company to withdraw her vote and explained that the company tried to hire her until the last moment before the presentation, but she turned down the offer. OpenAI said it had hired an actress for the voice, but suspicions that she cloned Johansson remained in the air. Reality continues to bring us closer to the science fiction world of Her.

Possible announcement from Apple and OpenAI

Bloomberg reported that Apple and OpenAI are planning to make a major joint announcement at the opening of the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which will take place on June 10. Apple needs an advanced chatbot to compete with its competitors, but its generative artificial intelligence doesn’t seem to be that advanced. All indications are that the agreement will greatly improve Siri, which will also bring proactive intelligence to Apple’s operating systems.

Altman was accused of neglecting safety

As a result of the departure of OpenAI’s security researchers, one of its managers, Jan Leike, attributed growing disagreement with the company’s core executives, led by Sam Altman, over their priorities. “In recent years, safety culture and processes have taken a back seat to stellar products,” Leike said.

ECB warns about use of AI

The European Central Bank (ECB) noted this week that the wider integration of AI into the financial sector poses a number of risks and that it may require new regulation. Misuse of AI “can impact public confidence in financial intermediation, which is a cornerstone of financial stability… The introduction of AI into the financial system must be carefully monitored as technology advances.” The ECB cited risks of bias, hallucination and attributability, noting that there was potential for “misuse or overuse”.

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