Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002

You Are Here: Home » Microsoft

Category Archives: Microsoft

Microsoft’s generative search engine weds something new, something old

by on

ZDNET: “Microsoft has been a major player in the AI race and one of the first companies to unveil a chatbot that’s a worthy ChatGPT competitor — Copilot. Now, the company is returning its attention to the project that started it all: the Bing search engine. On Wednesday, Microsoft unveiled a new generative search experience that combines the conversational responses facilitated by generative AI with a search engine results page found in traditional search engines.”

Microsoft researchers are teaching AI to read spreadsheets

by on

Spreadsheet LLM – Encoding Spreadsheets for Large Language Models: “Spreadsheets are characterized by their extensive two-dimensional grids, flexible layouts, and varied formatting options, which pose significant challenges for large language models (LLMs). In response, we introduce SpreadsheetLLM, pioneering an efficient encoding method designed to unleash and optimize LLMs’ powerful understanding and reasoning capability on spreadsheets.… Continue Reading

Academic authors ‘shocked’ after Taylor & Francis sells access to their research to Microsoft AI

by on

The Bookseller: “Authors have expressed their shock after the news that academic publisher Taylor & Francis, which owns Routledge, had sold access to its authors’ research as part of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) partnership with Microsoft—a deal worth almost £8m ($10m) in its first year. The agreement with Microsoft was included in a trading update… Continue Reading

Microsoft tells yet more customers their emails have been stolen

by on

The Register: “It took a while, but Microsoft has told customers that the Russian criminals who compromised its systems earlier this year made off with even more emails than it first admitted.  We’ve been aware for some time that the digital Russian break-in at the Windows maker saw Kremlin spies make off with source code,… Continue Reading

Nine Takeaways From Our Investigation Into Microsoft’s Cybersecurity Failures

by on

ProPublica: “After Russian hackers exploited a flaw in a widely used Microsoft product duringone of the largest cyberattacks in U.S. history, the software giant downplayed its culpability. However, a recent ProPublica investigation revealed that a whistleblower within Microsoft’s ranks had repeatedly attempted to convince the company to address the weakness years before the hack —… Continue Reading

LinkedIn’s AI Career Coaches Will See You Now

by on

Amanda Hoover, Wired: “LinkedIn has ramped up its generative AI tools in the past year and is moving to incorporate the tech into even more of its offerings. On Thursday, the career site announced new features like a pilot for AI-powered expert advice, an interactive chat to break down information in LinkedIn courses, and more… Continue Reading

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, June 15, 2024

by on

Via LLRX – Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, June 15, 2024 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the… Continue Reading

This Hacker Tool Extracts All the Data Collected by Windows’ New Recall AI

by on

Wired [unpaywalled]: “When Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed the new Windows AI tool that can answer questions about your web browsing and laptop use, he said one of the “magical” things about it was that the data doesn’t leave your laptop; the Windows Recall system takes screenshots of your activity every five seconds and saves… Continue Reading

Windows AI feature that screenshots everything labeled a security ‘disaster’

by on

The Verge: “Microsoft is about to launch a new AI-powered Recall feature that screenshots everything you do on your PC. Recall is part of the new Copilot Plus PCs that are debuting on June 18th, but experts who have tested the feature are already warning that Recall could be a “disaster” for cybersecurity. Recall is… Continue Reading

New FTC Data Shed Light on Companies Most Frequently Impersonated by Scammers

by on

FTC: “New data from the Federal Trade Commission shows that Best Buy/Geek Squad, Amazon, and PayPal are the companies people report scammers impersonate most often. A newly released data spotlight shows that consumers in 2023 submitted about 52,000 reports about scammers impersonating Best Buy or its Geek Squad tech support brand, followed by about 34,000… Continue Reading

Giving Windows total recall of everything a user does is a privacy minefield

by on

The Register: “Microsoft’s Windows Recall feature is attracting controversy before even venturing out of preview. Like so many of Microsoft’s AI-infused products, Windows Recall will remain in preview while Microsoft refines it based on user feedback – or simply gives up and pretends it never happened. The principle is simple. As noted earlier, Windows takes… Continue Reading