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Microsoft AI Boss: Most White-Collar Jobs Will Be Automated Within 18 Months

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Mustafa Suleyman, the CEO of Microsoft AI, has predicted that AI will be capable of automating the vast majority of white-collar professional tasks within the next 12 to 18 months.

The Financial Times reports that Mustafa Suleyman, who leads Microsoft’s AI division, has made a bold prediction about the near-term impact of AI on white-collar professions. In an interview with the Times published this week, Suleyman stated that he expects most, if not all, tasks performed by white-collar workers will be fully automated by AI within the next 12 to 18 months.

According to Suleyman, AI systems will achieve human-level performance across a wide range of professional duties. “I think that we’re going to have a human-level performance on most, if not all, professional tasks,” Suleyman said in the interview. “So white-collar work, where you’re sitting down at a computer, either being a lawyer or an accountant or a project manager or a marketing person — most of those tasks will be fully automated by an AI within the next 12 to 18 months.”

The Microsoft AI chief pointed to software engineering as an early indicator of this trend. He noted that developers are already using AI-assisted coding for the majority of their code production, representing a fundamental shift in how the work is performed. “It’s a quite different relationship to the technology, and that’s happened in the last six months,” he said. (Read more from “Microsoft AI Boss: Most White-Collar Jobs Will Be Automated Within 18 Months” HERE)

Microsoft Bans Employees From Using ‘Chinese Propaganda’ Chatbot

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Microsoft has banned employees from using DeepSeek — the viral Chinese chatbot it worries is a purveyor of “propaganda” — company President Brad Smith told senators Thursday.

He testified that the app is blocked across all Microsoft devices and stripped from the Windows Store because engineers fear it funnels employee data to Chinese servers and pushes CCP-friendly answers. Smith’s disclosure to the Senate Commerce Committee vaults Microsoft to the front of a widening effort to keep DeepSeek off American — especially government and corporate — devices.

“At Microsoft we don’t allow our employees to use the DeepSeek app,” Smith testified, warning of “data going back to China” and answers shaded by “Chinese propaganda.”

Smith said engineers dissected DeepSeek’s open-source R1 model after it went viral in January and “changed the code … to remove the harmful side effects” after putting it through stress tests designed to catch security gaps and weed out propaganda before listing it on Azure’s cloud marketplace. DeepSeek did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

The hearing underscored Washington’s growing unease over Beijing-linked AI tools that operate beyond U.S. export controls yet harvest American data. DeepSeek rocketed to the top of Apple’s and Google’s app charts this winter by offering ChatGPT Plus-level performance for free. At the same time, DeepSeek admits it “directly collects, processes and stores your Personal Data in the People’s Republic of China.” (Read more from “Microsoft Bans Employees From Using ‘Chinese Propaganda’ Chatbot” HERE)

Microsoft Adds ChatGPT Technology to Word, Excel, Office Software

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Microsoft on Thursday trumpeted its latest plans to put artificial intelligence into the hands of more users, answering a spate of unveilings this week by its rival Google with upgrades to its own widely used office software.

The technology company previewed a new AI “copilot” for Microsoft 365, its product suite that includes Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations and Outlook emails.

First open to select business customers for testing, AI will offer a draft in these applications, speeding up content creation and freeing up workers’ time, Microsoft said.

The Redmond, Washington-based company, outpacing peers through investments in ChatGPT’s creator OpenAI, also showcased a new “business chat” experience that can pull data and perform tasks across applications on a user’s written command. (Read more from “Microsoft Adds ChatGPT Technology to Word, Excel, Office Software” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

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Whistleblower Document Appears to Show Microsoft Helped Write Big Tech Bills

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Microsoft was given an advance copy of major antitrust legislation, a document given to Republican Rep. Thomas Massie by a whistleblower appeared to show.

The document is the original version of the Platform Competition and Opportunity Act, one of Democrats’ six pending antitrust bills targeting Big Tech, according to Rep. Thomas Massie. Every page of the document, which the Daily Caller News Foundation obtained on Wednesday, is watermarked with the text “CONFIDENTIAL – Microsoft.”

“I just came into possession of a document that everyone needs to know about,” Massie said during the Judiciary Committee markup of the legislation on Wednesday. “It’s marked ‘CONFIDENTIAL – Microsoft.’ A whistleblower provided this. It’s the first draft of one of these bills that would’ve covered Microsoft. This begs the question: did Microsoft have this bill and the other bills that we are voting on today before I had this bill?”

“Why would you have to mark it ‘CONFIDENTIAL – Microsoft’ if they found it on the website for Congress,” he said. (Read more from “Whistleblower Document Appears to Show Microsoft Helped Write Big Tech Bills” HERE)

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Report: Another Bill Gates Affair With Microsoft Employee Revealed

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Bill Gates allegedly had an affair with a Microsoft employee — and the tryst was being probed by the company’s board last year when Gates stepped down, a report said Sunday.

The company’s board became aware in 2019 that a Microsoft engineer penned a letter alleging that she and Gates had a sexual relationship over the years, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The woman demanded changes to her Microsoft job and also asked that Gates’ now-estranged wife, Melinda, read her letter — though it’s unclear if that happened.

Board members hired a law firm to conduct an investigation into the relationship, the Journal said.

During the probe, some members grew concerned about the allegation and decided that Gates, who founded the tech firm in 1975, should step down as director of the board. (Read more from “Report: Another Bill Gates Affair With Microsoft Employee Revealed” HERE)

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Microsoft Patents Plans to Revive Dead Loved Ones as Chatbots

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Here we are yet again, faced with another situation where super smart people are doing something, in the name of science, that is only going to hasten the human race’s increasingly inevitable demise.

Now we’ve got the wizards over at Microsoft not only applying for, but receiving a patent that will allow them to create a chatbot using personal information about dead people, including things like their images, voices, social media posts, and electronic messages.

According to the patent…

The specific person [who the chat bot represents] may correspond to a past or present entity (or a version thereof), such as a friend, a relative, an acquaintance, a celebrity, a fictional character, a historical figure, a random entity etc.

It also adds, “The specific person may also correspond to oneself (e.g., the user creating/training the chat bot).” (Read more from “Microsoft Patents Plans to Revive Dead Loved Ones as Chatbots” HERE)

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Microsoft Warns Customers: Watch What You Say When Using Our Products – or Else

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We can now add a new Microsoft policy of punishing account users who use “offensive language” while logged into one of their products or services to the growing list of draconian measures employed by tech companies to police online content.

In a release summarizing the new policy, which will go into effect May 1, Microsoft stated:

In the Code of Conduct section, we’ve clarified that use of offensive language and fraudulent activity is prohibited.

Microsoft stated that they may temporarily suspend or boot offending users permanently from their products. They also reserve the right to search through user content.

The company’s code of conduct was written to crack down on spam, the transmission of malware, child exploitation, and illegal activity. So far, Microsoft has not been explicit about what will constitute offensive language.

Users expect the policy to have the biggest effect on Xbox Live players, who are known to troll each other during games. But other Microsoft customers worry the new code of conduct could restrict free speech on platforms like Skype and OneDrive.

Civil rights activist Jonathan Corbett challenged the company in a blog post, writing:

So wait a sec: I can’t use Skype to have an adult video call with my girlfriend? I can’t use OneDrive to back up a document that says ‘f–k’ in it? What’s clear here is that Microsoft is reserving the right to cancel your account whenever they feel like it.

While users commenting on Reddit claim the policy is really nothing new, many Microsoft customers and tech users fear the move is a pretext for censoring people. It adds to an intensifying debate regarding tech companies and social media companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Google tweaking their algorithms to control page reach and enacting measures that restrict creative expression and free speech. Some journalists claim the Big 5 tech companies — Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon — as well as other information gatekeepers, are taking censorship cues from Washington lawmakers and acting as the de facto face of repressive government. (For more from the author of “Microsoft Warns Customers: Watch What You Say When Using Our Products – or Else” please click HERE)

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Amazon, Microsoft Bosses in Sex-Trafficking Sting

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“High-level Amazon and Microsoft directors” face charges following a sex trafficking sting that was based on emails sent to brothels.

According to Engadget, Newsweek “got its hands on a slew of emails sent to brothels and pimps between 2014 and 2016 that document the industry’s patronage of brothels and purchasing of services from trafficked sex workers.”

“Among the emails, which were obtained through a public records request to the King County Prosecutor’s Office, were 67 sent from Microsoft employee email accounts, 63 from Amazon accounts and dozens more from companies like Boeing, T-Mobile, Oracle and local Seattle tech firms,” the report claims. “Some of the emails were collected during a 2015 sting operation that targeted sex worker review boards and resulted in the arrest of 18 individuals, including high-level Amazon and Microsoft directors. Two opted for a trial, which is currently set to begin in March.”

The revelation that Amazon and Microsoft directors were implicated in the sting prompted the two companies to release statements condemning sex trafficking.

“Microsoft has a long history of cooperating with law enforcement and other agencies on combating sex trafficking and related topics, and we have employees who volunteer their time and money specifically to combat this issue as well. The personal conduct of a tiny fraction of our 125,000 employees does not in any way represent our culture,” declared Microsoft. “No organization is immune to the unfortunate situation when employees act unethically or illegally. When that happens, we look into the conduct and take appropriate action. Microsoft makes it clear to our employees they have a responsibility to act with integrity and conduct themselves in a legal and ethical manner at all times. If they don’t, they risk losing their jobs.” (Read more from “Amazon, Microsoft Bosses in Sex-Trafficking Sting” HERE)

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Meet the Microsoft Billionaire Who’s Trying to Reboot U.S. Counterterrorism

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Photo Credit: FP

Photo Credit: FP

Add to Nathan Myhrvold’s already eclectic résumé — which includes ex-chief technology officer of Microsoft, co-founder of one of the world’s largest patent-holding firms, and author of a $625 cookbook — a new credit: terrorism expert.

Myhrvold, a famous autodidact, recently published a 33-page paper that he rousingly calls, “Strategic Terrorism: A Call to Action.” The core of his argument is easy enough to understand, and probably true: The United States is more focused on stopping a guy who blows up an airplane and kills 300 people than on a guy who intentionally spreads smallpox and kills 300,000.

“In my estimation, the U.S. government, although well-meaning, is unable to protect us from the greatest threats we face,” Myhrvold writes. “[M]odern technology can provide small groups of people with much greater lethality than ever before. We now have to worry that private parties might gain access to weapons that are as destructive as — or possibly even more destructive than — those held by any nation-state.”

Myhrvold to Washington: National security … you’re doin’ it wrong.

The paper is accessible to a layman, which is what Myhrvold was when he started thinking about the strategic aspects of terrorism not long after the 9/11 attacks. He wrote the piece in his spare time — apparently he does have some — and it was mostly finished in 2006. Myhrvold had no intention of publishing it until recently, when he met Benjamin Wittes, the editor of the influential national security and legal site Lawfare. Wittes thought that parts of the paper accurately described the threat posed by small actors with big weapons, and he decided that Myhrvold’s analysis deserved a wider audience. Lawfare published the paper in July.

Read more from this story HERE.

Microsoft and Yahoo Voice Alarm Over NSA’s Assault on Internet Encryption

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Photo Credit: EPA

Photo Credit: EPA

Two of the world’s biggest technology companies, Microsoft and Yahoo, expressed deep concern on Friday about widespread attempts by the US and UK intelligence services to circumvent the online security systems that protect the privacy of millions of people online.

Microsoft said it had “significant concerns” about reports that the National Security Agency and its British counterpart, GCHQ, had succeeded in cracking most of the codes that protect the privacy of internet users. Yahoo said it feared “substantial potential for abuse”.

Google said it was not aware of any covert attempts to compromise its systems. However, according to a report in the Washington Post on Saturday, the company said that it had accelerated the encryption of information in its data centres in a bid to prevent snooping by the NSA and the intelligence agencies of other governments.

Documents obtained by whistleblower Edward Snowden and published jointly by the Guardian, the New York Times and the nonprofit news organisation ProPublica on Thursday show that agents at GCHQ have been working to undermine encrypted traffic on the “big four” service providers, named as Hotmail (the Microsoft email service now known as Outlook), Google, Yahoo and Facebook.

Yahoo responded with a strongly worded statement on Friday. “We are unaware of and do not participate in such an effort, and if it exists, it offers substantial potential for abuse. Yahoo zealously defends our users’ privacy and responds to government requests for data only after considering every applicable objection and in accordance with the law,” a spokesman said.

Read more from this story HERE.