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Microsoft confirms it found compromised SolarWinds code in its systems
Various organizations are grappling with the impact of a massive hacking campaign that compromised networks using SolarWinds’ Orion network management tools, and now Microsoft says it found “malicious binaries” on its systems. As Reuters reports, the NSA sent out a cybersecurity advisory on Thursday that specifically referenced Microsoft products like Azure and Active Directory as tools the attackers targeted to gain access to other resources. In a statement, Microsoft confirmed it had found “malicious binaries” on its systems from the attacks, but found no access that anyone had accessed production services or customer data.
How 'Microsoft Flight Simulator' became a 'living game' with Azure AI
Microsoft Flight simulator wouldn't be possible without Azure AI.
Microsoft licenses the breakthrough natural language AI GPT-3
Microsoft announced that it has “exclusively licensed” OpenAI’s sophisticated GPT-3 language model that can generate disturbingly human-like text in applications ranging from commercial bots to creative writing
Microsoft migrates ‘Minecraft’ from Amazon Web Services to its own Azure
After depending on AWS for years, Mojang plans to migrate Minecraft to Azure later by the end of the 2020.
The BBC's Beeb voice assistant is ready for testing on PC
The BBC is launching its voice assistant 'Beeb' in beta.
Microsoft's OpenAI supercomputer has 285,000 CPU cores, 10,000 GPUs
Microsof'ts new Azure OpenAI supercomputer is one of the top 5 systems in the world.
NBA and Microsoft plan personalized, AI-powered game streaming
Microsoft and the NBA are teaming up to deliver personalized game broadcasts that use machine learning and AI to learn fans’ preferences. To start, they’ll broadcast live and on-demand games via Microsoft Azure and add personalized real-time stats overlays.
DoD's $10 billion 'Jedi' cloud contract goes to Microsoft over Amazon
After a couple years of competition, the US Department of Defense has awarded a lucrative contract for cloud computing services to Microsoft. It beat out Amazon, the only other remaining competitor after others were weeded out or, in the case of Google, dropped out citing "AI principles." Dubbed the Jedi Cloud contract, it could be worth $10 billion over the next ten years as the agency replaces legacy systems. In a statement, DoD Chief information Office Dana Deasy said "The National Defense Strategy dictates that we must improve the speed and effectiveness with which we develop and deploy modernized technical capabilities to our women and men in uniform. The DOD Digital Modernization Strategy was created to support this imperative. This award is an important step in execution of the Digital Modernization Strategy."
Microsoft invests $1 billion in Elon Musk-founded OpenAI
Today, Microsoft announced that it's investing $1 billion in the Elon Musk-founded company OpenAI. The two companies will work together to bring supercomputing technologies and AI to Microsoft Azure. And OpenAI will run its services exclusively in Microsoft's cloud. Ultimately, the partners hope to build artificial general intelligence (AGI), a technology that some say will match or exceed human intellect.
Microsoft wants to make 'Minecraft' easier for kids to read
Microsoft is bringing its Immersive Reader to Minecraft: Education Edition. The tool will let users expand the text in character dialogue, settings and boards. Immersive Reader will dictate each word as it is highlighted, so users can follow along, and it will add Minecraft-specific images for words like "Creeper" and "Mooshroom."
Gigabyte's Aero 15 OLED laptop is made for video editors (updated)
In 2019, OLED laptops are nothing new. ASUS even took this feature to the next level on its dual-screen ZenBook Pro Duo. At Computex, Gigabyte is the latest company to join the trend, with a refreshed Aero 15 featuring a Samsung 4K AMOLED panel, wrapped in a 3mm-thin bezel. Inside, you get up to a Core i9-9980HK octa-core CPU, up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Max-Q GPU, DDR4 2,666MHz RAM and a speedy SSD. It's quite the beast. But what Gigabyte has been focusing on is the fact that every Aero 15 OLED has its screen tuned by X-Rite Pantone before leaving the factory, and with its 100-percent DCI-P3 gamut plus DisplayHDR 400 certification, this laptop is clearly designed with video makers in mind. Likewise, this is one of the very few laptops that feature a UHS-II SD card slot. This means you no longer have to whip out a dedicated card reader to reach full speeds -- up to about 300MB/s or at least three times faster than UHS-I cards. For on-the-go video editors and creatives, it's a very tempting feature.
Microsoft invests in seven AI projects to help people with disabilities
Today marks the eighth annual Global Accessibility Awareness Day, and for the second year, Microsoft is awarding grants to AI projects meant to make the world more inclusive. The grants are part of a five-year initiative that will invest $25 million in AI-based accessibility tools. This year, seven recipients will receive access to the Azure AI platform (through Azure compute credits) and Microsoft engineering support.
Microsoft beats Amazon to open the first cloud data center in Africa
Microsoft has become the first major cloud provider to open a data center in South Africa. Its two new Azure facilities in Cape Town and Johannesburg have been in the works since 2017, and while they were originally slated to go live in 2018, their arrival still pips other big players to the post -- Amazon plans to open a data center there in 2020, while Huawei announced back in November its intention to deliver on the continent later this year.
Microsoft's Build developer conference starts May 6th
Early May is going to be particularly busy in the tech world. Microsoft has announced that the 2019 edition of its Build developer conference will take place in Seattle between May 6th and May 8th. In other words, it starts just one day before Google I/O -- you're going to get a lot of news in a very short space of time.
'Crackdown 3' multiplayer test begins February 7th on Xbox and PC
You won't have to wait until February 15th to see if Crackdown 3 is worth its protracted development process, although you might want to temper your expectations. Microsoft is launching a stress test for the game's Wrecking Zone mode at 3PM Eastern on February 7th (installations are available at 12PM) to see how well its cloud-based destruction fares in real-world conditions. It's "not a beta," Microsoft emphasized -- this is about collecting data and feedback based on a slice of the finished game. You'll be limited to the Agent Hunter mode on one map, but there will be multiple play sessions, including two on the 7th and others on the weekend.
Microsoft will help train LG's self-driving car software
While LG's CES presence has mainly been about TVs -- of the rollable and 8K variety -- and robots, it hasn't forgotten about the tech show's other obsession: cars. With a self-driving data collection partnership with Here maps already under its belt, not to mention its plans to import WebOS from its TVs into car dashboards, LG's latest team-up sounds like its biggest yet. The Korean company is tapping Microsoft's cash cow cloud service Azure and AI tech to grow its own autonomous driving and infotainment systems.
Kroger and Microsoft are testing out two 'connected' grocery stores
Kroger and Microsoft have teamed up on a "connected store experience" that will provide customers with new ways to shop. The companies are piloting the experience at two Kroger stores -- one in Monroe, Ohio and another in Redmond, Washington -- and it represents the next step for their EDGE shelving system. Kroger and Microsoft announced EDGE, or Enhanced Display for Grocery Environment, last year, and it consists of digital shelving displays that can show pricing, promotions and nutritional information. With the pilot program, the companies are further incorporating EDGE into customers' shopping experience.
Microsoft briefly surpassed Apple as world's most valuable company
Apple's reign as the world's most valuable company might be in jeopardy. Microsoft briefly claimed the title on November 26th after its market cap surpassed Apple's, climbing to $812.93 billion versus its erstwhile rival's $812.60 billion. The lead didn't last long (Apple was back on top with $822 billion as we wrote this), but it's no mean feat when Microsoft hasn't had such a lead since 2010.
Microsoft deal with Grab brings its AI, cloud tech to ride-hailing
Earlier this year Uber sold off its ride-hailing business in southeast Asia to a competitor, Grab, which is now raising $3 billion to further expand operations. Today Microsoft announced it's making a "strategic investment" in Grab, as the two launch a "broad partnership" to use Microsoft's machine learning and AI tech. The first step is adopting Microsoft's Azure servers as the cloud platform backing Grab's ride-hailing and digital wallet. After that the plans get bigger, as it anticipates using machine learning and image recognition to let passengers share their location with a driver by taking a picture of their surroundings that the system recognizes and converts into an address. Otherwise it could handle recommendations, improve fraud detection, improve its maps or power facial recognition to identify drivers and passengers. There are also non-AI powered parts of the arrangement, like in-car entertainment systems, linked rewards programs and integration with Outlook. Like Uber, Grab is building a platform to do a lot more than have a stranger come pick you up in their car, while for Microsoft, all of this seems similar to its efforts to compete with Amazon in building more-connected grocery and retail stores and dominate developing back-end technology to control everything. Microsoft didn't say how much it's investing in Grab, but Japan's Softbank is reportedly investing $500 million, while Toyota already announced it's in for $1 billion.
Microsoft plans 2019 beta for its game streaming service
We've known that Microsoft is working on a cloud streaming service that will allow users to play high-quality video games on phones and tablets. Today, the company introduced Project xCloud, which is game-streaming tech that "will offer you the freedom to play on the device you want without being locked to a particular device," according to a blog post.
