Microsoft Joins Thorn and All Tech Is Human to enact strong child safety commitments for generative AI

While millions of people use AI to supercharge their productivity and expression, there is the risk that these technologies are abused. Building on our longstanding commitment to online safety, Microsoft has joined Thorn, All Tech is Human, and other leading companies in their effort to prevent the misuse of generative AI technologies to perpetrate, proliferate, and further sexual harms against children. Today, Microsoft is committing to implementing preventative and proactive principles into our generative AI technologies and products.

This initiative, led by Thorn, a nonprofit dedicated to defending children from sexual abuse, and All Tech Is Human, an organization dedicated to collectively tackling tech and society’s complex problems read more..

A new way to find AI-ready Microsoft Training Services Partners

If you feel like the pace of change is making it harder to maintain a staff with the right skills, you’re among the 66% of IT decision-makers who reported dealing with skills gaps on their teams in 2023.1 With AI and Microsoft Copilot advancing every day, you and your team members need a trusted source for fast, targeted, and effective training with the expertise to deliver the latest up-to-the-minute skills. There’s no source better prepared than Microsoft Training Services Partners (TSP). In as little as under a week, TSPs can get team members trained in a new skill or role to maximize on emerging technologies such as AI engineering and other roles.

Filling skills gaps in an accelerated world with new TSP designation   

We are excited to announce the Solutions Partner for Training Services designation for organizations delivering technical training on Microsoft Cloud technologies. Qualified partners receive designation-specific badges distinguishing their services from other partner types within the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program. These badges greatly enhance discoverability, making it easier for you to identify partners with unique expertise and a proven track record of delivering quality training. These new badges reflect updated accreditations a TSP has earned to validate their ability to impart necessary skills. The badges mean that this TSP can deliver the right training and credentials to ensure everyone in your organization is ready for tomorrow’s advances read more…

AI study guide: The no-cost tools from Microsoft to jump start your generative AI journey

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The world of AI is constantly changing. Every day it seems there are new ways we can work with generative AI and large language models. It can be hard to know where to start your own learning journey when it comes to AI. Microsoft has put together several resources to help you get started. Whether you are ready to build your own copilot or you’re at the very beginning of your learning journey, read on to find the best and free resources from Microsoft on generative AI training read more…

Microsoft and G42 partner to accelerate AI innovation in UAE and beyond

Strategic partnership highlights:

• Expansion of partnership between Microsoft and G42 to deliver advanced AI solutions with Microsoft Azure across various industries and markets.
• Microsoft will invest $1.5 billion in G42 for a minority stake and join its board of directors.
• Companies will support the establishment of a $1 billion fund for developers to boost AI skills in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the broader region.

Expanded strategic partnership:

Today, we announced a strategic investment in G42, a leading AI company in the UAE, to co-innovate and deliver advanced AI solutions with Microsoft Azure for various industries and markets across the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa read more…

How Microsoft discovers and mitigates evolving attacks against AI guardrails

As we continue to integrate generative AI into our daily lives, it’s important to understand the potential harms that can arise from its use. Our ongoing commitment to advancing safe, secure, and trustworthy AI includes transparency about the capabilities and limitations of large language models (LLMs). We prioritize research on societal risks and building secure, safe AI, and focus on developing and deploying AI systems for the public good. You can read more about Microsoft’s approach to securing generative AI with new tools we recently announced as available or coming soon to Microsoft Azure AI Studio for generative AI app developers.

We also made a commitment to identify and mitigate risks and share information on novel, potential threats. For example, earlier this year Microsoft shared the principles shaping Microsoft’s policy and actions blocking the nation-state advanced persistent threats (APTs), advanced persistent manipulators (APMs), and cybercriminal syndicates we track from using our AI tools and APIs.

In this blog post, we will discuss some of the key issues surrounding AI harms and vulnerabilities, and the steps we are taking to address the risk read more..

Microsoft at the 2024 NAB Show: Reimagining media with data and AI

NAB Show stands as a transformative crossroads, where the past, present, and future of media converge. Since its inception in 1923, the National Association of Broadcasters’ flagship event has been a cornerstone of the industry, uniquely blending content and technology. 

Today, we are witnessing an extraordinary evolution, where AI is revolutionizing every aspect of content creation, distribution, viewer engagement, and monetization. The show serves as a powerful stage to witness firsthand the profound impact of AI on the industry. At Microsoft, we are bringing these elements to life across our platform and ecosystem. Attendees will see that we have moved beyond hype and are deploying this technology at scale powered by data and the Microsoft Cloud read more…

Announcing the new Microsoft AI Hub in London

Microsoft recently announced the creation of Microsoft AI, a newly formed organization to help advance our consumer AI products and research, including Copilot. Building on that news, I’m thrilled to share that Microsoft AI is opening a new AI hub in the heart of London. Microsoft AI London will drive pioneering work to advance state-of-the-art language models and their supporting infrastructure, and to create world-class tooling for foundation models, collaborating closely with our AI teams across Microsoft and with our partners, including OpenAI. 

The new AI hub will be led by Jordan Hoffmann, an exceptional AI scientist and engineer. Before joining Microsoft AI, Hoffmann distinguished himself as an AI pioneer at Inflection and DeepMind, based in London. Hoffmann will be joined by a talented group of Microsoft AI team members based in our London Paddington office read more…

Sustainable by design: Advancing the sustainability of AI

During the past year, the pace of AI adoption has accelerated significantly, ushering in groundbreaking advances, discoveries and solutions with the potential to help address humanity’s biggest problems. We see this as a massive platform shift, akin to the printing press, which was not just an invention, but a technology that shaped a new economy. Alongside the incredible promise and benefits of AI, we recognize the resource intensity of these applications and the need to address the environmental impact from every angle.

In line with our commitment to responsible AI and our ambitious sustainability commitments, we’re determined to tackle this challenge so the world can harness the full benefits of AI. There are three areas where we’re deeply invested and increasing our focus. The first is optimizing datacenter energy and water efficiency. The second is advancing low-carbon materials, creating global markets to help advance sustainability across industries. And the third is improving the energy efficiency of AI and cloud services, empowering our customers and partners with tools for collective progress read more…

Sustainable by design: Advancing the sustainability of AI

During the past year, the pace of AI adoption has accelerated significantly, ushering in groundbreaking advances, discoveries, and solutions with the potential to help address humanity’s biggest problems. We see this as a massive platform shift, akin to the printing press, which was not just an invention, but a technology that shaped a new economy. Alongside the incredible promise and benefits of AI, we recognize the resource intensity of these applications and the need to address the environmental impact from every angle read more…

Microsoft Priva announces new solutions to help modernize your privacy program

We know managing privacy is harder than ever. The increasing complexity of regulatory requirements and constantly changing regulations make day-to-day privacy management a challenge. Manual, inefficient processes and inflexible tools can make it difficult for organizations to know where data is located and how it’s being used. The Microsoft Priva product portfolio helps organizations meet these challenges and their existing and emerging regulatory obligations read more…