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Microsoft is weaving AI into its own products, such as the $30-a-month "Copilot" assistant for its Microsoft 365 service that can summarize a day's worth of emails into a quick update. Microsoft's results show heavy spending on AI services ahead of commensurate revenue growth. For the segment that includes Azure, Microsoft forecast a first-quarter revenue range with a midpoint of $23.45 billion. Microsoft's forecast for its Windows segment had a midpoint of $12.7 billion, below analysts' estimate of $13.14 billion. Microsoft has started integrating AI functionality across its products such as Azure, Microsoft 365, GitHub and several developer tools.

Persons: Amy Hood, Hood, Satya Nadella, Yuvraj Malik, Devika Syamnath, Richard Chang Organizations: Microsoft, Wall, Nvidia Corp, Revenue, Alpha, Thomson Locations: Bengaluru

☆ You may have downloaded the wrong Threads. A four-year-old app with the same name has seen a surge in popularity since Instagram launched its Twitter clone.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Gabriel Rivera | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Earlier this month, Meta launched its Twitter-like app Threads, which already has over 100 million users. The "other" Threads has added disclaimers to its website and on the App Store. If you accidentally downloaded the wrong Threads app, you're not alone. Meta launched its wannabe "Twitter Killer" app, which it calls Threads, earlier this month, prompting millions of people to rush to the App Store. But it's not the only app that's growing: Some people appear to have downloaded the wrong Threads app.

Persons: Mark Zuckerberg, Adam Mosseri, it's, Threads.com, haven't, Rousseau Kazi, he's, Meta, Kazi, Zuckerberg, Mosseri Organizations: Meta, TechCrunch, Google, Big Tech, Elon, Facebook Locations: Data.ai, Spain, Italy, Germany

☆ A top AI expert says most outsourced coders in India will be out of a job in 2 years thanks to the technology
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Kai Xiang Teo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Stability AI CEO Emad Mostaque thinks AI will eliminate most outsourced coding jobs in India. AI will soon eliminate most outsourced coding jobs in India as the technology will drastically reduce the need for them, according to a leading AI expert. Tech jobs are one of the professions most likely to be replaced by AI, Insider's Aaron Mok and Jacob Zinkula previously reported. GitHub's CEO Thomas Dohnke told Computer Weekly last year that AI could help developers be more productive. Additionally, workers with AI skills stand to gain as the tech industry is placing a greater focus on talent in this area, Insider's Thomas Maxwell reported.

Persons: Emad Mostaque, you'll, Mostaque —, Insider's Aaron Mok, Jacob Zinkula, Thomas Dohnke, Insider's Thomas Maxwell Organizations: Morning, UBS, CNBC, Bloomberg, Computer Locations: India, France

Unlike past tech booms that have touched San Francisco, the generative AI craze brings fewer jobs, because AI firms excel at staying lean and automating work. "I think we should curb our optimism that San Francisco commercial real estate will bounce back because of AI," said Silicon Valley investor Jeremiah Owyang. Eleven of the country's top 20 AI companies are in San Francisco and have raised $15.7 billion collectively between 2008 and 2023. That amount is just 2.3% of the estimated 150,000 daily workers that downtown San Francisco lost during the pandemic. Reporting by Anna Tong in San Francisco; Editing by Sayantani Ghosh, Anna Driver and Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Carlos Barria, San, Jeremiah Owyang, Erin Price, Wright, OpenAI, Matt Schlicht, Mike Grabowski, Grabowski, Owyang, Lee Edwards, Daron Acemoglu, Anna Tong, Sayantani Ghosh, Anna Driver, Matthew Lewis Organizations: Intelligence, REUTERS, FRANCISCO, Reuters, Francisco, San Francisco Mayor London Breed's, San, Microsoft, Octane, Google, Nordstrom, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Thomson Locations: San Francisco, California, U.S, Valley, NFX, Dubai

☆ Microsoft could soar 22% and will top a $3 trillion valuation as it's best positioned to monetize generative AI, Morgan Stanley says
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-06 | by ( Matthew Fox | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Microsoft stock is poised to top a $3 trillion valuation in early 2024 as it is best positioned to monetize generative AI, according to Morgan Stanley. "Microsoft likely emerges as an early 'Picks and Shovels' beneficiary" of generative AI, Morgan Stanley said. The bank called Microsoft stock a "Top Pick" and said it has 22% upside potential from current levels thanks to its "pole position" in the generative AI race that should help it quickly monetize the growing trend. And investors should see the impact of AI on Microsoft's financials sooner rather than later as increased datasets flow into bigger revenues for Microsoft's Azure cloud service. And although Microsoft's stock is up about 40% year-to-date, its valuation isn't stretched based on historical averages, "despite the unrivaled Generative AI positioning," Weiss concluded.

Persons: Morgan Stanley, —, Morgan Stanley's Keith Weiss, Weiss Organizations: Microsoft, Service, Apple, OpenAI Locations: OpenAI

Morgan Stanley raised its Microsoft stock outlook to the highest on Wall Street, implying the company once famous for Windows software will climb above a market value of $3 trillion because of artificial intelligence. The generative AI boom has already helped propel Microsoft's stock by almost 41% year to date — and Morgan Stanley's new price target implies it will climb another 23% over the next 12 months. Weiss raised his price target on Microsoft by 24%, to $415 from $335. Morgan Stanley called Microsoft its top pick among large-cap software stocks on account of the company's strong positioning in the generative AI boom. MSFT YTD mountain Microsoft stock Weiss said Microsoft has taken a "leading position" providing the "picks and shovels" of the AI boom — large language models, data management and other technologies.

Persons: Morgan Stanley, —, Morgan, Keith Weiss, Weiss, FactSet, — CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: Microsoft, Windows, Software, OpenAI

Massachusetts-based writers Paul Tremblay and Mona Awad said ChatGPT mined data copied from thousands of books without permission, infringing the authors' copyrights. Several legal challenges have been filed over material used to train cutting-edge AI systems. ChatGPT and other generative AI systems create content using large amounts of data scraped from the internet. Tremblay and Awad's lawsuit said books are a "key ingredient" because they offer the "best examples of high-quality longform writing." The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of money damages on behalf of a nationwide class of copyright owners whose works OpenAI allegedly misused.

Persons: OpenAI, Paul Tremblay, Mona Awad, Matthew Butterick, Microsoft's, ChatGPT, Tremblay, Awad, Blake Brittain, David Bario, Richard Chang Organizations: OpenAI, Microsoft Corp, Stability, Thomson Locations: San Francisco federal, . Massachusetts, Washington

☆ 10 Things in Tech: Low morale at Microsoft
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( Hallam Bullock | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Morale appears to be low at Microsoft. According to internal messages, those changes were another blow to morale, after Microsoft announced it was laying off 10,000 staff in January. In other news:The AGI House is the Bay Area's hottest AI hacker house, hosting dinners, hackathons, and fireside chats on a weekly basis. Founders and VCs are clamoring to get into a $68 million AI hacker house. AGI House, an 18,000 square foot Hillsborough mansion, serves as a hacker house and community hub for the Bay's exploding AI scene.

Persons: Hallam Bullock, Satya Nadella, Kathleen Hogan, Stephanie Palazzolo, ElevenLabs, Andreessen Horowitz, Wharton, Eddie Wu, Daniel Zhang, Wu, Meta, Ashley Flowers, Jordan Pettitt, Shona Ghosh Organizations: CBS, US Coast Guard, Microsoft, Workers, Tmall, Getty Locations: London

☆ He was employee No. 8 at Stripe. Now, he's taking on Salesforce and AWS with $50 million in new funding for his startup Render. Here's the pitch deck it used.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

That led to Render, a cloud provider that has now raised $50 million in Series B funding. That's the idea behind Render, a tech startup that makes a modern cloud to build and run apps and websites. RenderBefore Render, Goel got hired as the eighth employee of a then-unknown tech startup called Stripe. It serves more than half a million developers, an increase from just under 100,000 developers in July of 2022, Goel said. The latest funding will allow Render to hire its first chief of marketing and expand its engineering team.

Persons: Anurag Goel, Elliott Robinson, Mary D'Onofrio, Catalyst, Goel, Salesforce, It's, They've Organizations: Investors, Bessemer Venture Partners, Fund, Web Services, Microsoft, Google, Developers

☆ Hot AI startup ElevenLabs confirms it's raised $19 million from Andreessen Horowitz and GitHub's former CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

AI company ElevenLabs has raised $19 million in fresh funding, confirming earlier Insider reporting. Year-old AI voice startup ElevenLabs has raised $19 million in early-stage funding, as venture capital investors rush to back firms in generative AI. Cofounder and CEO Mati Staniszewski previously told Insider that the startup saw huge potential in the publishing and audiobooks sector. Since launching its beta platform in January 2023, the startup says it has hit 1 million users and generated over 10 years of audio content. Credo Ventures and Concept Ventures, which backed the startup's $2 million pre-seed round, also joined the new round.

Persons: ElevenLabs, Andreessen Horowitz, Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, Mike Krieger, Mustafa Suleyman, Brendan Iribe, Mati Staniszewski, Staniszewski Organizations: Venture, Ventures, Concept Ventures Locations: London, New York

☆ Investors have piled into AI startups following the launch of ChatGPT. Here are 20 pitch decks used by Europe's AI founders to win over VCs.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-16 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

AI startups raised $60 billion last year and investors have continued to pile in on the tech in 2023. Below are 20 pitch decks used by European startups deploying AI in everything from health to property. V7Generative AI, media, and designThis startup uses generative AI to speed up the property-buying process. This AI startup helps Big Tech firms compress videos while maintaining quality. This AI startup helps firms like TrueLayer and CurrencyCloud meet their revenue targets.

Persons: Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Andreessen Horowitz, Nat Friedman, Alberto Rizzoli, Simon Edwardsson, Iris Organizations: Morning, Investment, Venture, Insight Partners, Ventures, Google, Creative Fabrica, Big Tech, Health, Microsoft, Enterprise, Ikea, Twitter, CurrencyCloud Locations: Temasek

☆ 10 Things in Tech: Twitter 2.0, how to create with AI, and Reddit employees' swag warning
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Nathan Rennolds | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Twitter's new CEO, Linda Yaccarino, is looking to turn the site into an accurate, real-time source of information — Twitter 2.0. For Insider's most fascinating stories of the day, delivered right to your inbox, sign up for Insider Today. Twitter logo and Linda Yaccarino. Linda Yaccarino wants to turn the platform into a place where you can find accurate, timely information on hot topics with minimum effort. Reddit CEO Steve Huffman has told staff to avoid wearing branded gear amidst a mass revolt by the platform's users.

Persons: Nathan Rennolds, Linda Yaccarino, Tayfun, Isaac Brekken, —, Yaccarino, Nat Friedman, Rich, it's, Steve Huffman, Tesla, TikTok, Bernstein, Tim Levin, Hallam Bullock Organizations: Twitter, Insider, Anadolu Agency, Getty Images, Penske Media, Getty, Bloomberg, Nvidia, eBay, Ford, GM, Google, Toyota bZ4X AWD, Toyota, Washington DC, Everest Locations: London, New York, Washington, Everest's

☆ EU lawmakers pass landmark artificial intelligence regulation
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The European Parliament has approved the bloc's landmark rules for artificial intelligence, known as the EU AI Act, clearing a major hurdle for the first formal regulation of AI in the West to become law. What generative AI is capable of, from producing music lyrics to generating code, has wowed academics, businesspeople and even school students. During a critical Wednesday vote, the Parliament adopted the AI Act with 499 votes in favor, 28 against and 93 abstentions. Generative AI developers will be required to submit their systems for review before releasing them commercially. The laws have huge implications for developers of generative AI models, such as the Microsoft -backed OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google 's Bard.

Persons: Bard, Jens, Henrik Jeppesen, Thomas Dohmke, Dohmke, CNBC's Arjun Kharpal, Rishi Sunak, Goldman Sachs Organizations: EU, European People's Party, Microsoft, Google, CNBC, European Union

☆ Nvidia GPUs are so hard to get that rich venture capitalists are buying them for the startups they invest in
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Alistair Barr | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Nvidia GPUs are essential for training the big models behind ChatGPT and other generative AI tools. That gives big tech companies an advantage over smaller startups. Nvidia GPUs are the water that feeds today's flourishing AI ecosystem. This is giving Big Tech companies another huge advantage over smaller upstarts. Many startups can't afford that, or they just can't get hold of the chips.

Persons: TSMC, OpenAI, Bing, Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, That's, Friedman, Gross, Jack Clark Organizations: Nvidia, Big Tech, Microsoft, Google

☆ Marc Andreessen Has a Plan to Use 'AI to Save the World'
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Vishal Persaud | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Marc Andreessen writes that AI can "make everything we care about better" in a new blog post. He believes AI companies should be able to build fast and aggressively without regulation. The current AI wave wouldn't be complete without a pithy missive from famed venture-capitalist and entrepreneur Marc Andressen. To help avert those risks, Altman recommended to lawmakers that a new agency should be created to police AI projects, particularly ones that operate at higher levels of capabilities. He also says his firm is eager to fund AI startup founders.

Persons: Marc Andreessen, Marc Andressen, Andreessen Horowitz, he's, Andreessen, Sam Altman, Altman, Andreeseen, Catalyst, Nat Friedman Organizations: OpenAI Locations: China, Coactive, London

☆ Office workers everywhere are about to face their own Uber moment
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( Matt Turner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

In other words, the lessons learned from months or years of experience are baked into an AI tool. The rise of AI tools could help millions of new software developersMicrosoft CEO Satya Nadella for example recently told Time that AI tools could lower the barriers to entry for software developers. This doesn't mean the great software developers won't remain great software developers but the ability for more people to enter the field will increase. That's good news for many wannabe software developers, but it's also bad news for many existing ones. "But for the most part, people in these jobs will just face more competition, similar to taxi drivers as Uber proliferated."

Persons: Uber, —, you'll, Carl Benedikt Frey, Erik Brynjolfsson, Lindsey R, Raymond, Danielle Li, Satya Nadella, it's, Aki Ito, Frey Organizations: Service, Transport, Oxford Martin School, Fortune Locations: London

☆ It's becoming clear that AI is going to whack the mediocre middle of office workers
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Matt Turner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

More specifically, AI could disproportionately impact the middle class of white-collar workers — the folks who are mid-career, mid-ability, mid-level, and yes, in some cases, mediocre. In other words, the lessons learned from months or years of experience are baked into an AI tool. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella for example recently told Time that the same could be true for software developers. This doesn't mean the great software developers won't remain great software developers but the ability for more people to enter the field will increase. That's good news for many wannabe software developers, but it's also bad news for many existing software developers.

Persons: —, Erik Brynjolfsson, Lindsey R, Raymond, Danielle Li, Satya Nadella, it's, Aki Ito, Carl Benedikt Frey, Uber, Frey, Mark Muro, Jacob Zinkula, Richard Baldwin, Aaron Mok Organizations: Service, Fortune, Microsoft, Oxford Martin School, London, BT Group, Workers, Brookings Institution, Geneva Graduate Institute Locations: London, British, Switzerland

☆ Welcome to the final phase of software eating the world. SaaS companies beware, you're on the menu this time.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

This could disrupt the way software is created, distributed, and used, VCs and startup founders say. This outcome would flip the traditional software industry on its head, calling into question the value of SaaS companies in a world where everyday people can build software themselves. "This is the final chapter of software eating the world, where a bunch of people can create enterprise software within the enterprise." A 'healthy pressure' for traditional SaaS providersTo be sure, the death of the traditional software company still seems a long way off. However, even skeptics admit that the threat of generative AI to traditional SaaS will push established software companies to prove their worth.

☆ Here are Monday's biggest analyst calls: Apple, Nvidia, Amazon, DraftKings, Nike, Snowflake & more
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Michael Bloom | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Piper Sandler names Microsoft, Snowflake and Oracle top AI picks Piper said that Microsoft, Snowflake and Oracle are the next "all-stars" in AI. Citi adds a negative catalyst watch on Nike Citi said Foot Locker's negative earnings report last week does not portend well for Nike. Citi downgrades Foot Locker to neutral from buy Citi downgraded Foot Locker after its disappointing earnings report last week and says shares are not fully de-risked. Deutsche Bank reiterates Snowflake as buy Deutsche says it's "constructive" heading into Snowflake earnings on Wednesday. Bank of America reiterates Alphabet as buy Bank of America says the internet search giant is "well positioned for mobile."

☆ Apple restricts use of OpenAI's ChatGPT for employees -WSJ
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

May 18 (Reuters) - Apple Inc (AAPL.O) has restricted the use of ChatGPT and other external artificial intelligence tools for its employees as Apple develops similar technology, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing a document and sources. Last month, OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, said it had introduced an "incognito mode" for ChatGPT that does not save users’ conversation history or use it to improve its artificial intelligence. Scrutiny has been growing over how ChatGPT and other chatbots it inspired manage hundreds of millions of users’ data, commonly used to improve, or "train," AI. Earlier Thursday, OpenAI introduced the ChatGPT app for Apple's iOS in the United States. Apple, OpenAI and Microsoft did not respond to Reuters request for comment.

☆ Apple is working on its own AI large language model and restricting employees from using ChatGPT over privacy concerns, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Apple is working on its own AI large language model, the WSJ reported. Its efforts are being led by Google's former AI chief and Tim Cook says it plans to "weave" AI into products. Apple has also told some employees to limit their use of ChatGPT and other external AI tools, per the WSJ. Apple is working on its own AI and restricting its staff's ChatGPT use over privacy concerns, The Wall Street Journal reported. Apple is also telling some employees to limit their use of ChatGPT and other external AI tools, according to an internal document seen by the Journal.

☆ Microsoft's venture capital arm, M12, has faced months of turmoil over a change in strategy and pay, insiders say
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Ashley Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Microsoft's M12 changed its strategy to become less like a VC and more like a business development team. "As with any leadership and strategy change, we aligned our team in a way that helps us meet our future direction. The problem with that shift, sources said, is that a corporate fund needs people who have very different career goals than an independent venture fund does. "Over the last year and half, we brought on new leadership at M12 and intentionally changed our corporate VC strategy. Employees who went along with the strategy change are generally happy at the fund, two of the people said.

☆ Meta pulls the curtain back on its A.I. chips for the first time
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

She said that Meta has a "multi-generational roadmap" for its family of AI chips that include processors used for the task of training AI models, but declined to offer details beyond the new inference chip. Reuters previously reported that Meta cancelled one AI inference chip project and started another that was supposed to roll out around 2025, but Bjorlin declined to comment on that report. Meta used the supercomputer, which contains 16,000 Nvidia A100 GPUs, to train the company's LLaMA language model, among other uses. Unlike other tech companies, Meta released its LLaMA language model to researchers so they can learn from the technology. However, the LlaMA language model was then leaked to the wider public, leading to many developers building apps incorporating the technology.

☆ After ChatGPT, AI startups are poised to boom. See 16 pitch decks used by founders in generative AI, health, and enterprise.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

See 16 pitch decks used by AI founders using the tech in everything from health to fintech. V7Generative AI, media, and designSupernormal, a generative AI startup that automates meeting notes, just raised $10 million. This AI startup helps Big Tech firms compress videos while maintaining quality. These 3 founders are using AI to analyze patients' biological profiles and recommend drugs. This AI startup helps firms like TrueLayer and CurrencyCloud meet their revenue targets.

☆ Tech giants aren't just cutting thousands of jobs — they're making them extinct
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Matt Turner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

That has far-reaching implications for tech workers and those seeking to work in the industry. By some estimates, more than 250,000 tech workers have been laid off since the start of 2022. Site-reliability engineers manage the operations of Google's systems and keep them running, while software engineers work on developing Google's infrastructure and products. This trend has significant implications for tech workers and those hoping to work in the industry. As Insider's Ito has reported, tech workers and software engineers have often been thought of as impervious to the march of automation.

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