Google, Microsoft, OpenAI Among Tech Firms Seeking AI Regulation on Their Terms

Google, Microsoft, OpenAI Among Tech Firms Seeking AI Regulation on Their Terms

OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman surprised everyone last month when he warned Congress of the dangers posed by artificial intelligence. Suddenly, it looked like tech companies had learned from the problems of social media and wanted to roll out AI differently. “In terms of both potential upsides and downsides, superintelligence will be more powerful than other technologies humanity has had to contend with in the past,” OpenAI execs Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever said. “We can have a dramatically more prosperous future; but we have to manage…

Microsoft adds new Transcribe in Word feature

Microsoft Office 365 Transcribe in Word

Transcribe in Word.Microsoft is adding an audio transcription feature into Word for the web today. Transcribe in Word will appear in the online version of Word for Microsoft 365 subscribers, providing an easy way to automatically transcribe audio. Microsoft is supporting existing audio files, or even the ability to record conversations directly within Word for the web and have them automatically transcribed. Once a conversation is transcribed, Microsoft’s AI will separate out each speaker and break the conversation into sections that are easy to playback, edit, and insert into a…

Microsoft to continue exploring potential Tiktok deal

Microsoft to continue exploring potential Tiktok deal Last Friday, reports emerged that Microsoft was in talks to purchase TikTok from the Beijing-based company ByteDance. The same day, Trump mentioned plans to ban the social media platform from operating in the U.S. This Sunday, Microsoft said in a statement that it is moving forward with talks to buy TikTok after speaking with President Trump, who has threatened to ban the popular video app in the U.S. “Microsoft fully appreciates the importance of addressing the President’s concerns. It is committed to acquiring…

Office 365 is now Microsoft 365

Microsoft

Office 365 is now Microsoft 365 On April 21, Office 365 became Microsoft 365.  Microsoft’s Office 365 personal and family subscription suite will be renamed Microsoft 365 in a move that heralds an effort by the company to win over more consumer users. Seeking to make a point with the rebranding, Microsoft calls it “a subscription service for your life,” which might conjure visions of Amazon Prime. Microsoft 365 will cost $6.99 per month, and a six-user, $9.99 family plan will also be offered. Its apps will be available on Windows,…

Microsoft Office 365 subscription Scam

Microsoft Office 365 Transcribe in Word

Microsoft Office 365 subscription Scam Phishing campaigns work by impersonating some well-known organization or brand, and that certainly includes a company like Microsoft. With products like Windows, Office, Outlook, and OneDrive prevalent among consumers and businesses, Microsoft is a tempting target for cybercriminals to spoof. Two recent phishing attacks analyzed by security provider Abnormal Security use a subscription renewal as the pitch to trap unsuspecting users. Abnormal Security described in a Friday blog post, two separate phishing campaigns, both of which impersonate actual notices from Microsoft. The goal is to…

NewsGuard, news credibility and transparency content scoring service free for all Microsoft Edge users

NewsGuard

NewsGuard is a desktop browser extension that displays credibility and transparency content scoring and is available by subscription. It launched in August 2018 and typically costs $2.95 per month for a desktop user. In recent weeks, NewsGuard, the internet news watchdog service, has been escalating its battle against misinformation by opening a Coronavirus Misinformation Tracking Center and offering its service for free to all internet users until July 1. Until recently, only Microsoft Edge mobile device users on iOS and Android had unlimited free access to the service. Last week, the company entered a partnership with…

Microsoft Unveils Microsoft 365 With AI + Cloud-Powered Features

Microsoft 365

Microsoft will be launching it’s new Microsoft personal together with family subscriptions to replace the current office 365. The plan will be available as of 1st April 2020. Both the personal and family option will include access to office alongside other new features that will be rolled out. The personal plan will be retail at $6.99 and $9.99 monthly subscriptions for the family package of up to six persons. Both plans will include everything in the office 365 including desktop office apps.  1TB of Onedrive cloud storage per person, 60…

Microsoft 4Afrika pledges its support to farmers

Farmers

Microsoft, through its 4Afrika Initiative has pledged support to the One Million Farmers Platform through disruptive agricultural technologies. As part of the partnership, Microsoft will be providing technical and business support to 14 Kenyan innovators selected to build technology solutions for the platform, a World Bank initiative, that aims to improve the productivity, profitability and resilience of one million African farmers. “Agriculture is a priority area of investment for us, not only because of the enormous number of livelihoods it supports and the economic growth it drives, but also because it…

Microsoft opens first Africa Development Centres in Nairobi and Lagos

It was almost three decades ago that Microsoft opened its first offices in Africa. In this time, they witnessed incredible growth on the continent – more internet connectivity, more digital capability and more innovation. Africans have expanded the applications of technology, changing the way communities bank, farm and even access healthcare. As the next step on Microsoft’s journey in Africa, and to better understand a continent rapidly adopting technology in the cloud, and at the edge, Microsoft launched its first Africa Development Centre (ADC). With two initial sites in Nairobi,…

Microsoft to offer paid Windows 7 Extended Security Updates after January 14, 2020

Microsoft said last Fall that it would offer paid Windows 7 Extended Security Updates on a per-device basis for big customers willing to pay for them after the company ends Windows 7 support on January 14, 2020. Microsoft officials wouldn’t talk about how much those updates would cost, beyond saying they’d get more expensive over time.  Windows 7 Extended Security Updates for three years, meaning through January 2023. These will be security patches/fixes like the ones Microsoft is currently providing for free for Windows 7 users, as Windows 7 is still in “Extended”…