Azure and NVIDIA deliver next-gen GPU acceleration for AI

Microsoft Azure users are now able to harness the latest advancements in NVIDIA's accelerated computing technology, revolutionising the training and deployment of their generative AI applications.

The integration of Azure ND H100 v5 virtual machines (VMs) with NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs and Quantum-2 InfiniBand networking promises seamless scaling of generative AI and high-performance computing applications, all at the click of a button.

This cutting-edge collaboration...

9 August 2023 | Artificial Intelligence

SAP taps Microsoft’s generative AI technologies

SAP and Microsoft have announced a new collaboration aimed at utilising generative AI technology to address fundamental business challenges.

The partnership will integrate SAP SuccessFactors solutions with Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot in Viva Learning, as well as Microsoft's Azure OpenAI Service, to harness the power of language models for analysing and generating natural language. These integrations will enable organisations to enhance their recruitment, talent development,...

17 May 2023 | Applications

Microsoft lays off AI ethics team 

Microsoft has laid off a team dedicated to ensuring the responsible development and deployment of AI.

Platformer reports the ethics and society team were laid off as part of wider cuts to Microsoft’s workforce. However, the decision leaves Microsoft with fewer experts working to ensure solutions are safe and have a net positive impact.

The perception of Microsoft as an AI leader has deepened following its exclusive partnership with OpenAI. The duo continue to deliver...

14 March 2023 | Artificial Intelligence

Microsoft’s AI chatbot is ‘unhinged’ and wants to be human

Early testers of Microsoft’s new AI chatbot have complained of receiving numerous “unhinged” messages.

Most of the attention has been around Google’s rival, Bard, embarrassingly giving false information in promo material. That error, and Bard’s shambolic announcement, caused investors to panic and wiped $120 billion from the company’s value.

However, unlike Microsoft, Google is yet to release its chatbot for public testing. Many have complained that it...

16 February 2023 | Applications

Microsoft releases Azure OpenAI Service and will add ChatGPT ‘soon’

Microsoft has announced the general availability of the Azure OpenAI Service and plans to add ChatGPT in the near future.

Currently, Azure OpenAI Service provides access to some of the most powerful AI models in the world—including Codex and DALL-E 2.

A “fine-tuned” version of GPT-3.5 will also be available through Azure OpenAI Service soon.

https://twitter.com/OpenAI/status/1615160228366147585

Azure OpenAI Service was unveiled in November 2021....

17 January 2023 | Applications

GitHub Code Brushes uses ML to update code ‘like painting with Photoshop’

GitHub Next has unveiled a project called Code Brushes which uses machine learning to update code “like painting with Photoshop”.

Using the feature, developers can “brush” over their code to see it update in real-time.

Several different brushes are included to achieve various aims. For example, one brush makes code more readable—especially important when coding as part of a team or contributing to open-source projects.

Here are the other included...

16 January 2023 | Applications

Microsoft and OpenAI to challenge Google Search with ChatGPT

Microsoft is set to use technology from OpenAI to challenge Google’s search dominance.

OpenAI and Microsoft have formed a deep relationship in recent years. In 2019, Microsoft invested $1 billion in OpenAI as part of an exclusive computing partnership “to build new Azure AI supercomputing technologies”.

A year later, Microsoft teamed up with OpenAI to exclusively license GPT-3. The licensing deal allowed Microsoft to leverage GPT-3’s technical innovations to...

4 January 2023 | Applications

OpenAI and Microsoft hit with lawsuit over GitHub Copilot

A class-action lawsuit has been launched against OpenAI and Microsoft over GitHub Copilot.

GitHub Copilot uses technology from OpenAI to help generate code and speed up software development. Microsoft says that it is trained on “billions of lines of public code … written by others.”

Last month, developer and lawyer Matthew Butterick announced that he’d partnered with the Joseph Saveri Law Firm to investigate whether Copilot infringed on the rights of developers...

9 November 2022 | Applications

Xbox’s Matt Booty wants to see QA testers replaced by AI

Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty told a live audience at PAX that he’d like to see QA (Quality Assurance) testers replaced by AI.

Gaming QA testers regularly come under fire as bug-riddled games reach the hands of disappointed gamers with seemingly increasing prevalence.

The backlash QA testers receive from frustrated gamers is often misplaced. Managers are often aware that games are full of bugs but decide to release unfinished games anyway in the hope of starting to...

7 September 2022 | Applications

AI learns how to play Minecraft by watching videos

Minecraft characters.

Open AI has trained a neural network to play Minecraft by Video PreTraining (VPT) on a massive unlabeled video dataset of human Minecraft play, while using just a small amount of labeled contractor data.

With a bit of fine-tuning, the AI research and deployment company is confident that its model can learn to craft diamond tools, a task that usually takes proficient humans over 20 minutes (24,000 actions). Its model uses the native human interface of keypresses and mouse...

29 June 2022 | Artificial Intelligence