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☆ Salesforce launches AI assistant across its apps including Slack and Tableau
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

The company logo for Salesforce.com is displayed on the Salesforce Tower in New York City, U.S., March 7, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsSept 12 (Reuters) - Enterprise software maker Salesforce (CRM.N) on Tuesday launched a generative AI tool that would be available across its suite of apps from instant messaging service Slack to data visualization tool Tableau and can be tailored by its clients to meet their needs. Salesforce says its Einstein Copilot can tap customer and enterprise data available on its Data Cloud to generate appropriate responses. Users will be able to embed the assistant into their websites or integrate them with messaging platforms such as Slack and Meta Platform's (META.O) WhatsApp. The company also doubled its venture capital fund for generative AI startups to $500 million in June.

Persons: Brendan McDermid, Slack, Einstein, Salesforce, Marc Benioff, OpenAI's ChatGPT, Zaheer Kachwala, Tasim Zahid Organizations: REUTERS, Enterprise, Tuesday, Meta, Microsoft, Thomson Locations: New York City, U.S, San Francisco, Bengaluru

☆ Citi says favorable setup for this Big Tech stock should send it higher in the next 90 days
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-11 | by ( Hakyung Kim | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

There's a "rich" catalyst path ahead for Microsoft shares, according to Citi. The firm initiated a positive 90-day catalyst watch on Microsoft shares. While the tech giant's stock is up nearly 40% year to date, it has lagged on a relative basis since it issued disappointing quarterly revenue guidance in July. Microsoft shares have declined 5% since, while other shares in its peer group have gained 4.9%. Radke's initial read on fiscal first-quarter earnings is more positive owing to inputs on cloud consumption trends and stabilization in the PC market.

Persons: Tyler Radke, Radke, — CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: Microsoft, Citi, CoPilot

☆ Microsoft to defend customers on AI copyright challenges
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Sept 7 (Reuters) - Microsoft (MSFT.O) will pay legal damages on behalf of customers using its artificial intelligence (AI) products if they are sued for copyright infringement for the output generated by such systems, the company said on Thursday. Microsoft will assume responsibility for the potential legal risks arising out of any claims raised by third parties so long as the company's customers use "the guardrails and content filters" built into its products, the company said. It offers functionality meant to reduce the likelihood that the AI returns infringing content. The company's Copilot Copyright Commitment extends Microsoft's existing intellectual property indemnification coverage to copyright claims relating to the use of its AI-powered assistants called Copilots and Bing Chat Enterprise. Reporting by Yuvraj Malik in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh KuberOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: OpenAI, Yuvraj Malik, Shailesh Organizations: Microsoft, Bing, Thomson Locations: ChatGPT, Bengaluru

☆ Microsoft shares fall after earnings report as analysts process a delayed A.I. ramp
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Microsoft shares were trading down as much as 5% on Wednesday, a day after the software maker issued worse-than-expected quarterly revenue guidance. Microsoft has been increasing its capital expenditures to get infrastructure in place to provide AI services to developers at other companies and roll out assistant capabilities to apps such as Word and Outlook. The extra spending cuts into Microsoft's cloud gross margin. "The messaging on Copilot was more about tempering rather than inflating expectations," wrote UBS analysts led by Karl Keirstead, which also has a buy rating on Microsoft. Raymond James' Andrew Marok and Mauricio Munoz, with the equivalent of a buy rating on Microsoft shares, had a similar tone.

Persons: Amy Hood, Mark Murphy, Karl Keirstead, It's, Brad Reback, Raymond James, Andrew Marok, Mauricio Munoz, Satya Nadella, — CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: Microsoft, JPMorgan, UBS

☆ What Alphabet and Microsoft are saying about A.I. on their earnings calls
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Samantha Subin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Second-quarter earnings season brought heavyweight technology giants and artificial intelligence frontrunners Alphabet and Microsoft head-to-head in an all-too-familiar matchup. Alphabet shares rose 6% after the company reported better-than-expected quarterly results and 28% year-over-year growth in cloud revenue, while Microsoft lost 4% on disappointing revenue guidance and a delayed AI rollout . GOOGL YTD mountain Alphabet shares in 2023 Both Alphabet and Microsoft have spearheaded the effort, facing off with competing chatbots early in the year. Alphabet Alphabet rolled out its Bard chatbot worldwide during the second quarter, removed a testing waitlist and added a host of new capabilities. Microsoft Despite confidence in Microsoft's long-term capabilities, some investors and analysts seemed disappointed by the seemingly delayed rollout of many of its AI products.

Persons: Bard, Sundar Pichai, Pichai, Ruth Porat, Goldman Sachs, Eric Sheridan, Amy Hood, Karl Keirstead, Satya Nadella, — CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: Microsoft, Wall, UBS

☆ Why we're raising our price target on Microsoft despite a softer revenue outlook
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( Jeff Marks | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Revenues beat across the board, Azure's revenue growth decelerated in line with expectations, and companywide operating margins expanded nicely from last year. But total revenues fell a little less than expected, at 4%, mostly due to a 12% decline in Windows OEM revenue and a 18% drop in devices revenue growth. Gaming revenue grew 2%, with Xbox content and services revenue up 6%, offset by a 13% decline in Xbox hardware. In the productivity and business processes segment, revenue increased about 10% from last year thanks to a 15% increase in Office 365 Commercial Revenue growth. Microsoft sees Azure revenue growing 25% to 26% in constant currency, including roughly 2 points from all Azure AI services.

Persons: Amy Hood, Jim Cramer's, Jim Cramer, Jim, Satya Nadella, Flipkart, Nadella, Amit Madheshiya Organizations: Microsoft, Revenue, Refinitiv, Revenues, Services, Activision Blizzard, Office Consumer Products, Nvidia, CNBC, Microsoft Corp, Bloomberg, Getty Locations: Mumbai, India

☆ This global chip giant is set for an 'outsized' growth opportunity from A.I., fund manager says
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-21 | by ( Weizhen Tan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

One global chipmaker is set to benefit from an "outsized growth opportunity" on the back of the artificial intelligence trend, says Richard Clode, fund manager at Janus Henderson Investors. "Ultimately, when you look out in three years time, your iPhone is going to have to have a huge amount of AI capability. Clode manages the Horizon Global Technology Leaders Fund and the Horizon Sustainable Future Technologies Fund. Top holdings in his funds include chipmakers Nvidia and TSMC , payments giants Mastercard and Visa and a range of Big Tech stocks. The Horizon Global Technology Leaders Fund was up around 34% in the six months to the end of June, while the Horizon Sustainable Future Technologies Fund was 25% higher.

Persons: Richard Clode, Janus Henderson, CNBC's, Clode Organizations: Janus Henderson Investors, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Horizon Global Technology, Fund, Technologies, Nvidia, Mastercard, Visa, Big Tech, Nasdaq, Global Technology

☆ Microsoft's latest A.I. subscription is boosting Wall Street's confidence in the software giant
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Samantha Subin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Analysts are turning more bullish on Microsoft and its artificial intelligence capabilities after the software giant revealed pricing for its A.I. Shares closed at a record Tuesday after Microsoft revealed a $30 fee for its monthly Copilot offering, which adds AI capabilities to Microsoft 365. The announcements led to a handful of Wall Street price target adjustments, as the company solidifies its dominance in the latest technology revolution consuming the investing community. The analyst has an overweight rating on the stock and raised his price target to $385 per share from $350. The analyst hiked his price target to $400 from $330.

Persons: chatbot, Microsoft's, Amy Hood, Mark Murphy, James, Brad Sills, Sills, Brad Zelnick, — CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: Microsoft, Meta, Bank of America Locations: ChatGPT

"High level, we want this to become something like your personal AI friend," said developer Div Garg, whose company MultiOn is beta-testing an AI agent. The race towards increasingly autonomous AI agents has been supercharged by the March release of GPT-4 by developer OpenAI, a powerful upgrade of the model behind ChatGPT - the chatbot that became a sensation when released last November. GPT-4 facilitates the type of strategic and adaptable thinking required to navigate the unpredictable real world, said Vivian Cheng, an investor at venture capital firm CRV who has a focus on AI agents. OpenAI itself is very interested in AI agent technology, according to four people briefed on its plans. There are at least 100 serious projects working to commercialize agents, said Matt Schlicht, who writes a newsletter on AI.

Persons: Siri, Alexa, Tony Stark's, Kanjun Qiu, Reid Hoffman, Mustafa Suleyman, Qiu, OpenAI, Vivian Cheng, CRV, Aravind Srinivas, Jarvis, Yoshua Bengio, Satya Nadella, Apple's Siri, it's, Google, Edward Grefenstette, Jason Franklin, WVV Capital, Hesam Motlagh, Matt Schlicht, Anna Tong, Jeffrey Dastin, Kenneth Li Organizations: Microsoft, Google, U.S . Federal Trade Commission, Reuters, FTC, OpenAI's, Financial Times, Amazon, Alexa, Investors, WVV, Google Ventures, Entrepreneurs, Thomson Locations: Silicon, Jarvis, GPT, Cognosys, San Francisco, Palo Alto

☆ We became the first mother-daughter duo to copilot an international flight — here's how the FedEx trip happened and what it was like
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-14 | by ( Ryan Hogg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Teri Eidson and Nicole McCallister are the first mom-daughter co-pilots of an international flight. Eidson's husband was a relief pilot on the flight, meaning McCallister got to fly with both parents. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Teri Eidson and Nicole McCallister, FedEx pilots who became the first mother-daughter duo to copilot an international flight. So I started working with FedEx as a box handler and FedEx helped pay for part of my instruments. How it happenedThe FedEx flight used by Teri Eidson and Nicole McCallister on their record breaking journey.

☆ AI and the future of work: Everything is about to change
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Suddenly, AI tools, which have long operated in the background of many services, are now more powerful and more visible across a wide and growing range of workplace tools. Google’s new features, for example, promise to help “brainstorm” and “proofread” written work in Docs. A long list of startups are also developing AI writing assistants and image generators. The pitch from tech companies is clear: AI can make you more productive and eliminate the grunt work. Curran said just how much these AI-powered tools will change work depends on the application.

☆ I'm a commercial pilot for Frontier. The commute and unruly passengers are a challenge, but I love that I get paid to travel.
▼ + stars: | 2022-04-20 | by ( David Silverberg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Ron Fishman is a commercial pilot for Frontier Airlines with more than 17 years of experience. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Ron Fishman, a 42-year-old commercial pilot from Toronto, Ontario, who's been flying for more than 17 years. This one-year certificate gave me my private pilot license (PPL), commercial pilot license (CPL), instrument rating (IR), and other things like night ratingsA private pilot license allows you to fly for fun, meaning you aren't allowed to profit from piloting. A commercial license allows you to make money as a pilot, with limitations. I'm not anxious and I support United, Delta, Frontier, JetBlue, and each airline's decisions, regardless of their stance on masks.

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