Sam Altman has wasted no time since being rehired as CEO of OpenAI on November 22, four days after being fired. This week, the 38-year-old leader of one of the most influential artificial intelligence firms outlined his “immediate priorities” and announced a newly constituted “initial board” that includes a non-voting seat for investor Microsoft. The three voting members thus far include former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor as chairman and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers — both newcomers — and sophomore Adam D’Angelo, CEO of Quora. Mira Murati, interim CEO during Altman’s brief absence, returns to her role as CTO. Continue reading Altman Reinstated as CEO of OpenAI, Microsoft Joins Board

The U.S. saw record Cyber Monday sales, with shoppers dropping $12.4 billion, according to Adobe Analytics, which tracked roughly 1 trillion retail website visits resulting in purchases of more than 100 million products. Top-selling items included Hot Wheels toys, Microsoft’s Xbox Series X game console, televisions and small kitchen appliances. Spending was up by 9.6 percent over last year’s event, according to Adobe, which crowned Cyber Monday 2023 “the biggest online shopping day of all time.” Although consumers continue to fret about the economy, sales were propelled by discounts and offers to “buy now, pay later.” Continue reading Cyber Monday Marks Biggest U.S. Online Shopping Day Ever

Nvidia logged another record quarter, with Q3 revenue of $18.12 billion, up 206 percent from a year ago and a 34 percent increase from Q2 that exceeded both its own and analyst projections. The surge, attributed to increasing demand for the chips that drive artificial intelligence, logged primarily under Nvidia’s data center results a record $14.51 billion, up 279 percent from the prior year and 41 percent from Q2. Profits swelled to $9.2 billion, a stunning 1,259 percent increase from 2022’s $680 million. The results for Nvidia’s Q3 were for the three-month period ending October 31. Continue reading Nvidia Sales Surge as Rivals Circle and China Sanctions Loom

Just four days after being pushed out by the OpenAI board, Sam Altman will be reinstated as CEO of the company he co-founded. His return as chief executive was announced in a series of online posts. In addition, most of the company’s board members will be replaced. Following Altman’s firing, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella had announced Altman would lead a new advanced AI research team to run independently within Microsoft. However, hundreds of OpenAI employees, including co-founder and board member Ilya Sutskever, continued to push for Altman’s return, threatening to quit if he was not reinstated. Continue reading In Latest Twist, Sam Altman Is Reinstated as CEO of OpenAI

GitHub Copilot Chat for enterprise becomes generally available in December, and the GitHub site is integrating the artificial intelligence assistant across its entire platform, promising that AI will infuse every step of the developer lifecycle. “Just as GitHub was founded on Git, today we are re-founded on Copilot,” the Microsoft-owned company announced this month. Powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4, the new configuration will offer inline Copilot Chat for code questions, contextual guidance and “slash commands” for /fix and /test. The AI tool is designed to assist coders with their everyday workflows with a series of “one-click” assists and other shortcuts. Continue reading GitHub Copilot Brings AI-Powered Coding Tool to Enterprise

Microsoft is previewing a new cloud-based Windows App that lets users securely stream Windows remotely using Azure Virtual Desktop, Windows 365, Microsoft Dev Box, Remote Desktop Services or remote PCs. The new Windows App also works with iOS, iPadOS, macOS, Windows, and web browsers. “When using a web browser on a desktop or laptop, you can connect without having to download and install any software,” Microsoft explains. Smartphones and tablets are also supported, but at the moment the preview does not offer dedicated Android support. Continue reading New Windows App Allows Remote Workflow Using the Cloud

Rumors were running rampant over the weekend as an unanticipated executive shuffle played out at OpenAI. It began on Friday when CEO Sam Altman was pushed out by the OpenAI board. President and co-founder Greg Brockman quickly resigned in solidarity, followed by several top researchers. Reports circulated the following day that investors were pressuring the board into reconsidering its decision, but by Sunday evening, OpenAI announced that former Twitch leader Emmett Shear would serve as the new interim chief. Shortly after, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said Altman, Brockman and other OpenAI employees would join Microsoft to lead an advanced AI research unit. Continue reading Sam Altman Joins Microsoft After Abruptly Ousted by OpenAI

Microsoft Ignite 2023 was all about the transformative change of artificial intelligence, and the event was the setting for Bing Chat’s debut as Bing Copilot. The company also introduced three additional Copilot offerings: Copilot for Azure, Copilot for Service and Copilot in Dynamics 365 Guides. The new Copilot Studio gained tools for connecting Copilots in Microsoft 365 apps — including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, the Edge browser and Windows — to third-party data. In addition, the company showcased software for client-configured chatbots, and introduced its first custom designed AI processor, the Maia 100 chip. Continue reading Microsoft Rebrands Bing as Copilot, Debuts First Custom AI

Apple Vision Pro, the $3,499 mixed reality headset announced for release in early 2024, could be getting a B2B marketing push, as evidenced by a recently published Apple post on development apps. That would make competing products in the $3,300 to $5,000 range — including the Microsoft HoloLens and headsets from Magic Leap — Apple’s competition for the Vision Pro. That would also leave Meta Platforms and its Quest line, including the $500 mixed reality Quest 3 that began shipping last month, unchallenged in the consumer space, where it currently enjoys an estimated 80 percent market share. Continue reading Apple’s Vision Pro May Compete in the AR Enterprise Space

Google has filed suit in federal district court in California to stop alleged fraudsters from leveraging public interest in artificial intelligence generally and Bard in particular to spread malware. The perpetrators, who are believed to be based in Vietnam, are said to be using Facebook to promote an “unpublished” version of Bard that when downloaded installs password-stealing malware into the host system. The suit claims the scammers are using Google’s trademark-protected intellectual property — including its name and that of Bard, its brand look and colors, and photographs of CEO Sundar Pichai to promote an illegal scheme. Continue reading Google Seeks Out Scammers Using Bard to Spread Malware

Former Apple designers Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno last week officially launched the Humane Ai Pin they’re positioning as a smartphone replacement. The $700 wearable magnetically attaches to clothing. A $24 per month T-Mobile data subscription is required for connectivity. Described as “a download device and software platform built from the ground up for AI,” it’s got an ultra-wide RGB camera, depth sensors and motion sensors, and a speaker that creates “a bubble of sound” that can be loud or soft. Preorders for the Ai Pin begin November 16, with shipments scheduled to begin in early 2024. Continue reading Humane’s $700 Ai Pin Is Positioned to Replace Smartphones

Valve’s Steam Deck OLED comes to market Thursday with an HDR OLED display that sprawls 7.4 inches, better audio, and a huge boost in battery life. Lighter, cooler, and promising faster downloads, the Steam Deck OLED comes in two storage configurations: 512GB and 1TB, priced at $549 and $649, respectively. As with its predecessor, Steam Deck OLED features a microSD card slot. A $79.95 Steam Deck Docking Station is also available to connect to external displays, wired networking, USB peripherals, and power. The release date is set for November 16. Continue reading Valve to Launch Its Overhauled Steam Deck OLED This Week

Now anyone can make their own GPT chatbot, for fun or productivity — no coding skills necessary — and soon will be able to list it on a marketplace called the GPT Store. This was among the news announcements to come out of OpenAI’s first developer conference — OpenAI DevDay in San Francisco — where a new, lower-priced model called GPT-4 Turbo with 128K context, was unveiled, along with a new Assistants API, GPT-4 Turbo with Vision and the DALL-E 3 API. Now in preview, GPT-4 Turbo “is more capable and has knowledge of world events up to April 2023,” according to OpenAI. Continue reading OpenAI Intros GPT-4 Turbo, Creator Chatbots at Dev Confab

Microsoft’s Xbox wants to help game developers harness the power of generative AI. The company has entered into a multi-year partnership with Inworld AI to build automation tools for creating game dialogue and narrative tools at scale. Inworld has expertise in working with generative AI models for character development while Microsoft will contribute cloud solutions including Azure OpenAI Service and the technical insights of Microsoft Research on the future of play. The Xbox division will oversee the initiative as part of its ongoing effort to bring responsible creator tools to its developers. Continue reading Microsoft’s Xbox Partners with Inworld AI on Game Dev Tools

Netflix is celebrating the one-year anniversary of its ad-supported tier by giving binge viewers every fourth consecutive episode ad-free. It is also making downloads available on its ad-supported plan, claiming to be the first streamer to do so in an advertising environment. While the binge perk won’t be available until 2024, downloads for both TV series and films are said to start immediately. Netflix said that in year one its bargain-priced tier with ad support has hit 15 million global monthly active users, touting its partnership with Microsoft as helping “to shape the future of advertising.” Continue reading Netflix Boosts Features After Year One of Ad-Supported Tier