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Microsoft renames Bing Chat as Copilot and adds new AI tools for services

Microsoft renames Bing Chat as Copilot and adds new AI tools for services

by | Nov 16, 2023 | Technology



Microsoft has announced that the company’s AI-powered Bing Chat and Bing Chat for Enterprise will be renamed “Copilot” at the Ignite developers conference on November 15. In addition to the name change, the American technology giant said that the Copilot experience will also be available on a standalone web page similar to ChatGPT. Users will still be able to access the chatbot from Bing and Windows. However, the site will make it more accessible as it can be accessed from any browser, not just through Bing.


Users need to sign in or create a Microsoft account to use the chatbot, while Bing Chat enterprise customers can use their Microsoft Entra ID to log in.


To further expand the reach of AI, Microsoft has announced an array of new features for services such as Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365, and Azure cloud service. Here are the details:


Copilot Studio

The Microsoft Copilot Studio is a low-code tool to customise Copilot for Microsoft 365 and build standalone copilots. It will allow users to create tailored versions of Copilot for specific tasks. The company said that the Copilot Studio brings together a set of powerful conversational capabilities—from custom GPTs, generative AI plugins, and manual topics.


Recently, OpenAI announced a similar tool for users to create their own tailored versions of the ChatGPT chatbot. OpenAI said that its custom version of the chatbot would be able to combine instructions, information, and a combination of skills for a specific use case.


Microsoft Teams


At the Ignite conference, Microsoft announced a slew of updates for its messaging service—Teams. The company has introduced an AI-driven noise reduction feature for video calls, reducing unwanted background noises and repetitive sounds. A new ‘Decorate your Background’ feature has also been introduced, allowing users AI-generated background enhancements.


Microsoft has also announced Teams immersive spaces, which will allow Teams users to create avatars to attend meetings within various 3D environments. This feature will be available on Teams starting January next year.


Other notable features coming to Microsoft Teams include customisable emoji reactions, group chat profile pictures, and the ability to forward chats.


Azure AI Speech

The company has announced a new Azure AI speech feature that enables users to create photorealistic talking avatar videos with text input. Microsoft said that the Neural text-to-speech Avatar models are trained by deep neural networks based on human video recording samples, and a text-to-speech voice model provides the voice of the avatar.

Also Read: Google, Microsoft bet on Stanford alum to make AI work for billion users


The new feature is available in public preview as of today. It lets users generate videos of an avatar speaking by uploading images of a person they wish the avatar to resemble and writing a script.



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Microsoft introduces two custom AI chips to power Azure services: Details

Microsoft introduces two custom AI chips to power Azure services: Details

by | Nov 16, 2023 | Technology


At its Ignite developers conference on November 15, Microsoft introduced a duo of custom AI chips- Azure Maia 100 and Azure Cobalt 100 CPU- to speed up its in-house AI computing tasks. 


The Mia 100 chip is designed to run large language models and can be used to train AI models, while Cobalt, a custom Arm-based CPU, is designed to handle general computing workload.


“Microsoft is building the infrastructure to support AI innovation, and we are reimagining every aspect of our data centres to meet the needs of our customers,” said Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of Microsoft’s Cloud + AI Group


Microsoft said the Maia 100 is based on a 5 nm architecture engineered explicitly for the Azure hardware stack. The company said the AI accelerator chip will power some of the largest internal AI workloads running on Microsoft Azure cloud computing service, including Bing, Microsoft 365, and the OpenAI service.


Microsoft said the Cobalt 100 chipset has 128 cores and is based on an Arm Neoverse CSS architecture for “delivering greater efficiency and performance in cloud native offerings”. 


Both custom chipsets will roll out to Azure data centres early next year. The American tech giant does not intend to sell the chips but use them internally to power its in-house AI services. 


Alongside its own custom-based AI chips, Microsoft also has plans to add the NVIDIA H200 Tensor Core GPU to its Azure fleet next year to support larger language models. The company has partnered with NVIDIA to train mid-sized gen-AI models on NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs.

First Published: Nov 16 2023 | 11:01 AM IST



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CAG expresses concern about security, integrity of data due to AI malware

CAG expresses concern about security, integrity of data due to AI malware

by | Nov 15, 2023 | Technology



The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has expressed concern about the security and integrity of data as it can be manipulated by AI-generated malware.


In a press release issued today, the CAG said that it has been following the developments in artificial intelligence (AI) closely and is concerned about the potential risks associated with the use of AI, such as the manipulation of data by AI-generated malware.


“CAG of India is the Chair of SAI20, the G20 engagement group for Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI). During India’s presidency of SAI20, CAG had chosen Responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI) as one of the focus areas. A seminar on Responsible AI was organised at CAG headquarters to acquaint the senior officials with challenges and opportunities presented by AI in February 2023. Extensive discussions on Responsible Al were held as part of the Senior Officers Meeting of SA120 at Guwahati in May 2023 and at the SAI Summit in Goa in June 2023. The discussions emphasized the importance of international collaboration, capacity building and consultation with various stakeholders to derive optimum benefits from Al,” read the CAG release.


“As a follow-up of the SA120 deliberations, a panel discussion on Responsible Artificial Intelligence was held today at the CAG office. The Panel discussion demonstrated CAG’s commitment to fulfilling the SA120 Commitment to raise awareness on the issues and concerns relating to responsible Al, to engage with stakeholders, to identify mechanisms to integrate Al in the CAG institution and to initiate the process for auditing through Al and the audit of Al.” further read the release.


CAG of India G C Murmu, while inaugurating the event, highlighted the opportunities and challenges posed by AI.


G C Murmu laid down the roadmap for panel discussion by raising several important questions to ponder – how can audit equip itself to test whether AI is responsible or not; can criterion or framework be laid out to test AI tools used by govt; how can audit help government in deriving assurance about interpretability and fairness of such AI systems. He also expressed concerns about the security and integrity of data based on which an audit is conducted since the data can be manipulated by AI-generated malware.


Earlier, Parveen Mehta, Deputy CAG of India, in her welcome address, emphasized that it is the collective duty of CAG of India and other government bodies to ensure that AI is developed, deployed, and used in a responsible and ethical manner. She also elaborated on the importance of the Compendium on AI, shared with the delegates, in auditing in a relatively unchartered domain.


During the panel discussion, speakers from diverse backgrounds spoke on different facets of responsible AI.


Abhishek Singh, Additional Secretary, MEITY, and CEO, NeGD/Digital India painted a wide canvas of activities undertaken by the Government for the rapid deployment of AI. He also spoke on how Responsible AI can be implemented in the Indian context taking into account the regional disparity.


Alok Lall, National Security Officer from Microsoft India, talked about the challenges of “AI and Cybersecurity”. He mentioned that AI should never be a pilot but can only be a co-pilot. He also talked about Microsoft six principles for Responsible AI.


Ganesh Ramamoorthy, Managing Vice President Gartner spoke on identifying apt AI solutions to solve enterprise-level challenges using a combination of Open source and proprietary tools. He remarked that with innumerable number of AI-driven tools available now, choosing the right tool to ensure security, sustainability and cost-effectiveness has gained importance. Shri Parag Singla, Professor IITD delved on the synergy between research and deployment of AI for the greater public good. He talked about Generative AI and also discussed few Gen AI use cases on which IIT Delhi is working.


Anand Mohan Bajaj, Additional Deputy CAG and Chief Technology Officer of IAAD moderated the panel discussion. While summing up, he highlighted that the panellists covered wide areas around responsible AI, such as current research and development, the use of AI in governance and improving public service delivery, current market scenarios and the journey that an organisation like SAI India can take now and in future.


Anand Mohan Bajaj, further mentioned that it becomes clear that the use of AI in audits will supplement the domain expertise of our auditors and enhance the quality and effectiveness of audits.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)



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Half of Indian IT leaders feel security missing component in data policy

Half of Indian IT leaders feel security missing component in data policy

by | Nov 15, 2023 | Technology



As many as 49 per cent of Indian IT industry leaders feel that security is a missing component in their organisation’s data policy, a study by US-based data security firm Rubrik has revealed.


As marquee brands continue to reveal the challenges of successful cyber attacks targeting their business data, the report said it has found a “stark reality”.


It says that globally, about one in every two organisations surveyed suffered a loss of sensitive data during last year.


The research was conducted in the US, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan, Australia, Singapore, and India between June 30 and July 11, 2023.


The data includes over 35 exabytes of logical storage secured and more than 24 billion sensitive data records from January 2022 through July 2023.


In fact, one of six organisations experienced multiple losses of data in the past 12 months, the report, which was released on Wednesday, said.


In the research report, ‘The State of Data Security: The Journey to Secure an Uncertain Future,’ Rubrik Zero Labs provides a timely view into the increasingly commonplace problem of cyber risks and the challenge to secure data across an organisation’s expanding surface area, it stated.


New technologies — from Artificial Intelligence (AI) to cloud — continue to create opportunities for modern cybersecurity threats that capitalise on the explosion of data worldwide, according to more than 1,600 IT and security decision-makers at companies having 500 or more employees that took part in the survey spanning across the countries.


In India, the New Rubrik Data Security Report stated that 49 per cent of IT leaders feel that security is a missing component in their organisation’s data policy, while 30 per cent see their organisation as high risk of material loss of sensitive data in the next 12 months.


The report also said 54 per cent of Indian IT leaders identify malicious cybercriminal activities as the greatest risk to their organisation’s data while 34 per cent of them agree that their ability to manage risk to data security has not kept pace with their growth in data.


Similarly, 54 per cent of Indian companies believe AI adoption will positively impact their ability to secure sensitive data, while 24 per cent foresee no impact, as per the report.


“We see that left unattended, today’s data proliferation can cripple businesses. Organizations need to have the right visibility into their data to secure it, with a clear plan for cyber resilience that delivers business continuity,” Steven Stone, Head of Rubrik Zero Labs, said in the statement.


Abhilash Purushothaman, Vice-President & General Manager, Rubrik (Asia), said in the statement that the report serves as a wake-up call for Indian IT leaders.


It emphasises the crucial importance of data resilience and data security in today’s hyper-distributed environment, highlighting the elevated risks for sensitive data, particularly in the face of rapidly evolving, sophisticated ransomware attacks, he added.


The study was commissioned by Rubrik and conducted by Wakefield Research among more than 1,600 IT and security decision-makers at companies of 500 or more employees.


Half of the respondents were CIOs and CISOs, while the remaining 50 per cent were VPs and directors of IT and security.


The survey supplemented Rubrik telemetry, looking at more than 5,000 clients across 22 industries and 67 countries.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)



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Google Drive gets redesigned homepage, new Activity section showing updates

Google Drive gets redesigned homepage, new Activity section showing updates

by | Nov 15, 2023 | Technology


The new design will allow users to see more recommended files at once (Source: Google)

Google has announced design changes for its Drive app in Android and iOS devices, offering a more compact layout for uploaded files in a list format.

Google said in a recent blog post the new design will allow users to see more recommended files at once, such as those that have been recently opened, shared or edited.


The Notification log in Drive has been replaced with an Activity view section adjacent to ‘Suggested’. Google said that the Activity section will showcase items that need user attention such as pending access requests, recent comments and awaiting approvals, all in one place.


The new home tab layout is an optional feature and if the user does not opt in, the Drive app will open to the last used tab such as Shared tab or Files tab.


The new update is now available for select Google workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts and will be available for all in the coming weeks.


Recently, Google announced that it will start deleting inactive accounts from December. If a Google account has not been used or signed into for at least two years, the company may delete it and its contents, including content within Google Workspace (Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet, Calendar) and Google Photos.


Google has decided to take the step as forgotten or unattended accounts often rely on old or re-used passwords that may have been compromised, haven’t had two-factor authentication set up, and receive fewer security checks by the user.

First Published: Nov 15 2023 | 5:47 PM IST



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Telcos, chip makers oppose direct-to-mobile plan; say tech still immature

Telcos, chip makers oppose direct-to-mobile plan; say tech still immature

by | Nov 15, 2023 | Technology



Telecom companies, network providers and chip makers have opposed the Centre’s proposed decision to show TV content directly on mobile phones without data connections, The Economic Times (ET) reported on Wednesday. The industry says the technology is still immature.


The move is also likely to make smartphones in India costlier by at least Rs 2,500. Moreover, industry experts were quoted in the ET report as saying that the telcos will lose heavily on their data revenue due to the move. 


Moreover, chip makers may also face supply constraints due to the move.


The comments of several stakeholders, including the Cellular Operators Association of India, were recently submitted to the Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC). The Centre has yet to take a call on them.


The direct-to-mobile (D2M) roadmap was made by IIT Kanpur. It said that once D2M is launched, it will allow broadcasters to use it as a data pipe and deliver various applications that are a part of TV and radio. This will include educational content, disaster management updates and emergency alerts.


The users will not be required to rely on mobile broadband networks to stream the content.


Hardware makers have said that there will be problems with rolling out the service.


“The design and manufacture of mobile phones to incorporate ATSC 3.0 will adversely impact mobile manufacturing efforts,” the India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) was quoted as saying in the ET report. “The inclusion of any technology which is not proven and globally acceptable goes against the market forces and will derail the pace of domestic manufacturing and the most important exports for the exchequer.”

First Published: Nov 15 2023 | 4:56 PM IST



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