Tag: Microsoft

Xbox’s leadership shakeup and Samsung’s Galaxy S26

Posted on by faz_business


This week, we’re diving into the big changes at Xbox and what it all means for Microsoft’s gaming future. Phil Spencer, the longtime face of Xbox, announced he’s retiring last week. He’ll be replaced by Microsoft’s former CoreAI CEO Asha Sharma, instead of his longtime deputy Sarah Bond, who plans to leave the company. Will this change actually help the beleaguered Xbox division, or is it another example of Microsoft shoving AI into everything?

Also, Samsung held its latest Unpacked event this week to announce its new Galaxy S26 family. They look pretty much the same as last year, but the Ultra model includes a unique privacy feature that can instantly make the screen unreadable to bystanders. It’s one of those features we expect to see in every phone eventually.

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Topic

  • Xbox leadership falls apart. what happens next with Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond out? – 1:53

  • Samsung Unpacked: Privacy display on the S26 Ultra looks amazing – 27:27

  • U.S. Defense leadership gives Anthropic a Friday deadline to let it use Claude as it sees fit – 42:38

  • MrBeast editor accused of insider trading on Kalshi – 50:40

  • Discord delays age verification program after user revolt – 54:09

  • Around Engadget – 1:04:04

  • Pop culture picks – 1:08:21

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New study shows AI isn’t ready for office work

Posted on by faz_business



It has been nearly two years since Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella predicted that generative AI would take over knowledge work, but if you look around a typical law firm or investment bank today, the human workforce is still very much in charge. Despite all the hype about “reasoning” and “planning,” a new study from training-data company Mercor explains exactly why the robot revolution is stalled: AI just can’t handle the messiness of real work.

A reality check for the “replacement” theory

Mercor released a new benchmark called APEX-Agents, and it is brutal. unlike the usual tests that ask AI to write a poem or solve a math problem, this one uses actual queries from lawyers, consultants, and bankers. It asks the models to do complete, multi-step tasks that require jumping between different types of information.

The results? Even the absolute best models on the market—we are talking about Gemini 3 Flash and GPT-5.2—couldn’t crack a 25% accuracy rate. Gemini led the pack at 24%, with GPT-5.2 right behind it at 23%. Most others were stuck in the teens.

Why AI is failing the “office test”

Mercor CEO Brendan Foody points out that the issue isn’t raw intelligence; it’s context. In the real world, answers aren’t served up on a silver platter. A lawyer has to check a Slack thread, read a PDF policy, look at a spreadsheet, and then synthesize all that to answer a question about GDPR compliance.

Humans do this context-switching naturally. AI, it turns out, is terrible at it. When you force these models to hunt for information across “scattered” sources, they either get confused, give the wrong answer, or just give up entirely.

The “Unreliable Intern”

For anyone worried about their job security, this is a bit of a relief. The study suggests that right now, AI functions less like a seasoned professional and more like an unreliable intern who gets things right about a quarter of the time.

That said, the progress is terrifyingly fast. Foody noted that just a year ago, these models were scoring between 5% and 10%. Now they are hitting 24%. So, while they aren’t ready to take the wheel yet, they are learning to drive much faster than we expected. For now, though, the “knowledge work” revolution is on hold until the bots learn how to multitask p

Document Disclosures Reveal Microsoft’s Influence as OpenAI Became a Revenue-Crazed Behemoth

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Way back in March of 2019, this weird thing happened where a relatively insignificant tech nonprofit called OpenAI became a “capped” for-profit company—whatever that is. The month earlier, OpenAI had announced the creation of an uncanny, über-powerful language model called GPT-2 that was supposedly just too dangerous to release. Then in November, OpenAI seemingly changed its mind and GPT-2 was released after all.

OpenAI said in the blog post about the release that it saw, “no strong evidence of misuse so far,” but added that it was impossible to “be aware of all threats.” Most people never used GPT-2, because OpenAI never injected it into a viral chatbot.

As someone who wrote about this at the time, it was puzzling to watch it all play out. OpenAI seemed like small potatoes, but it was also building creepy AI tech, and shifting in public image from being a do-gooder computer lab advertising its trepidation about harming a hair on anyone’s head to an enterprise that needed to ship something asap because it was clearly promising someone, somewhere, that they were going to get rich.

Document discovery from Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft has provided a tiny window into what was actually happening inside Microsoft during this bizarre time for this bizarre company, and how the transition may have turned OpenAI into the money-hungry beast it is today, with revenues growing tenfold between 2023 and 2025.

GeekWire’s Todd Bishop dug through the cache of emails, memos, texts and the like from Microsoft and OpenAI, and what he found was revealing. Microsoft, and CEO Satya Nadella in particular, had invested heavily in OpenAI by then, and were not quiet during OpenAI’s uneasy transition to for-profit status. Nor were they shy about the need to make money as soon as possible. Absolutely none of this should come as a surprise, but it makes for fascinating reading anyway.

During that gap where GPT-2 was sitting there unreleased and OpenAI had recently become a capped nonprofit, Microsoft’s chief financial officer, Amy Hood, weighed in about the company’s concerns about that “capped” part. She wrote in a July 14 email to a group including Nadella, “Given the cap is actually larger than 90% of public companies, I am not sure it is terribly constraining nor terribly altruistic but that is Sam’s call on his cap.”

GPT-3, which was even more exciting than GPT-2 was released in 2020, and the first version of OpenAI’s language model, Dall-E was released in January 2021. The next month, Microsoft and OpenAI were negotiating an additional injection of money from Microsoft, and Sam Altman wrote an email to Microsoft, saying “We want to do everything we can to make you all commercially successful and are happy to move significantly from the term sheet,” and he added that he wanted “to make you all a bunch of money as quickly as we can and for you to be enthusiastic about making this additional investment soon.”

In November of 2022, ChatGPT was released, and as you know, all hell broke loose. In January of 2023, Nadella sent a text message to Altman, saying “when do you think you will activate your paid subscription for ChatGPT?”

Altman said he was “hoping to be ready by end of jan, but we can be flexible beyond that. the only real reason for rushing it is we are just so out of capacity and delivering a bad user experience,” and asked “any preference on when we do it?”

“Let me think about it and weigh in. Overall getting this in place sooner is best,” Nadella replied. Two weeks later, he followed up and asked “how many subs have you guys added to ChatGPT?”

Three days later, the paid version of ChatGPT launched.

CoreWeave CEO defends AI circular deals as ‘working together’

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It’s been quite the year for CoreWeave. In March, the AI cloud infrastructure provider went public in one of the biggest and most anticipated IPOs of the year that didn’t live up to its hype.

Another setback took place in October, when a planned acquisition of the cloud provider’s business partner, Core Scientific, faltered due to skepticism from the acquisition target’s shareholders. 

In the meantime, the firm has acquired a number of different companies, its stock has gone up and down, and it’s been both criticized and lauded for its role in the booming AI data center market. 

In an interview at the Fortune Brainstorm AI summit in San Francisco on Tuesday, CoreWeave’s co-founder and CEO, Michael Intrator, defended his company’s performance from critics, noting that it was in the midst of creating a “new business model” for how cloud computing can be built and run. Their collection of Nvidia GPUs is so valuable, they borrow against it to help finance their business. The executive seemed to imply: If you’re charting a new path, you’re destined to encounter some road bumps along the way.  

“I think people are myopic a lot of times,” Intrator said when questioned about his company’s occasionally unstable stock price. “Yes, it is seesawing,” he admitted, while noting that the CoreWeave IPO took place not long before President Trump’s tariffs went into effect — a notably uncertain moment for the overall economy. 

“We came out into one of the most challenging environments, right around Liberation Day and, in spite of the incredible headwinds, were able to launch a successful IPO,” the CEO told Brainstorm editorial director Andrew Nusca. “I couldn’t be prouder of what the company has accomplished,” he added. 

CoreWeave’s stock may have debuted amid the economic doldrums of March but its price has gone on quite the journey since then. It debuted at $40 and, over the past eight months, has climbed to well over $150, but currently rests at around $90. Its more wary critics have compared it to a meme stock due to its penchant for going up and down. 

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Some of the uncertainty around CoreWeave’s stock has been credited to the company’s hefty level of debt. Not long after CoreWeave announced a deal on Monday to issue even more debt to finance its data center buildout, its stock dropped some 8%.

Intrator seems to see his company as a disruptor, one whose unconventional tactics may take some getting used to. “When you introduce a new model, when you introduce a new way of doing business, when you disrupt what has been a static environment, it’s going to take some people some time,” he said during his appearance Tuesday. 

CoreWeave actually started its corporate life as a crypto miner but in short order built itself into a pivotal provider of “AI infrastructure” to some of the tech industry’s most major players. In that role, it provides GPUs to AI developers and has made major partnerships with Microsoft, OpenAI, Nvidia, Meta, and other tech titans.  

Another topic broached Tuesday was the notion of “circularity” within the AI industry. “Circular” business deals, in which a small number of powerful AI companies invest in one another, have frequently been criticized and have raised questions about the industry’s long-term economic stability. Perhaps not surprisingly, since Nvidia is one of its investors and its supplier of GPUs, Intrator swatted away such concerns. “Companies are trying to address a violent change in supply and demand,” he said. “You do that by working together.”
 
Since the IPO, CoreWeave has continued to make efforts to expand its business. After it acquired Weights & Biases, an AI developer platform, in March, it went on to acquire OpenPipe, a startup that helps companies create and deploy AI agents through reinforcement learning. In October, it also made deals to acquire Marimo (the creator of an open source notebook) and Monolith, another AI company. It also recently announced an expansion of its cloud partnership with OpenAI and said it has plans to move into the federal market, where it wants to provide cloud infrastructure to U.S. government agencies and the defense industrial base. 

Is Wall Street losing faith in AI?

Posted on by faz_business


A rough week for tech stocks might signal a loss of investor confidence in artificial intelligence.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Nasdaq Composite Index was down 3% — making this its worst week since President Donald Trump announced his sweeping tariff plan in April.

Tech companies that have otherwise performed well this year were among those hardest hit, with Palantir’s stock price falling 11% this week, Oracle declining by 9%, and Nvidia losing 7%. These drops also come after earnings reports in which Meta and Microsoft indicated that they plan to continue spending heavily on AI (both companies were down about 4%). 

“Valuations are stretched,” Cresset Capital’s Jack Ablin told the WSJ. “Just the slightest bit of bad news gets exaggerated … and good news is just not enough to move the needle because expectations are already pretty high.”

Economic factors like the ongoing government shutdown, declining consumer sentiment, and widespread layoffs are also likely dragging down the stock market. But the less tech-heavy S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average didn’t do quite as badly, with declines of 1.6% and 1.2%, respectively.

Opera takes its browser beef with Microsoft to Brazil in antitrust complaint

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Opera is filing an antitrust complaint against Microsoft in Brazil, alleging it creates an unfair environment for alternate browsers to compete with Edge. The Norway-based company claims Microsoft’s deals to make Edge the exclusive pre-installed browser on Windows machines creates an unfair environment for alternate browsers to compete. Opera also argued that Microsoft uses design tactics and dark patterns to further discourage people from downloading and using rival products. It is asking Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) to pursue remedies against Microsoft.

“Microsoft thwarts browser competition on Windows at every turn. First, browsers like Opera are locked out of important pre-installation opportunities,” Aaron McParlan, general counsel for Opera, said in a statement. “And then Microsoft frustrates users’ ability to download and use alternative browsers.”

This isn’t the first time these two companies have clashed. Opera sued Microsoft in the EU with a similar argument that bundling Internet Explorer was anticompetitive. , it also argued (albeit unsuccessfully) that Microsoft should have gatekeeper designation for the Edge browser under the EU’s Digital Markets Act.

If you’re using Microsoft Authenticator to store your passwords, don’t

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Microsoft Authenticator is sunsetting its ability to store your passwords. This month, the service stopped allowing users to add or import new passwords. Beginning in July 2025, users will no longer be able to use autofill with Authenticator, and in August 2025, passwords will no longer be available at all. Payment information stored in Authenticator will be deleted after July, and after the following month, all unsaved generated passwords will be deleted. Passkeys will still be supported in Authenticator.

People who want to stay within the Microsoft ecosystem do have the option to use access their saved passwords when using the Edge browser. But if you’re not interested in Edge, that means Authenticator users may want to peruse their options for a different password manager. Fortunately, there are several excellent choices for that aren’t tied to a particular hardware provider.

European leaders worry they’re too reliant on U.S. tech

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European governments may be reconsidering their use of American technology and services, according to a new report in The New York Times.

The flashpoint seems to come after President Donald Trump sanctioned Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, over the ICC’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.

In response, Microsoft turned off Khan’s email address. Casper Klynge, a former diplomat who has also worked for Microsoft, told the NYT that Microsoft’s action became “the smoking gun that many Europeans had been looking for,” pushing them to look at alternative options. (Some ICC workers have reportedly switched over to Swiss email service Proton, for example.)

“If the U.S. administration goes after certain organizations, countries or individuals, the fear is American companies are obligated to comply,” Klynge said.

For its part, Microsoft said it has subsequently made policy changes to protect customers similar situations, and it noted that it did not shut down the email accounts of four ICC judges who Trump sanctioned earlier this month. In addition, just this week, CEO Satya Nadella announced new “sovereign solutions” to protect European institutions.

ZeniMax and Microsoft ratify union agreement

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Members of the ZeniMax Workers United-CWA union have ratified the contract agreement with parent company Microsoft. This agreement with the union representing the video game studio’s quality assurance employees marks the first time Microsoft has entered into any union contract in the US. ZeniMax Studios is probably best known for its work on The Elder Scrolls Online. Stephen Totilo first reported on this news; we’ve reached out to Microsoft and the Communications Workers of America for additional comment.

As with many organizing efforts, this step has been a long time coming. The group of employees to unionize in 2023, and Microsoft immediately recognized ZeniMax Workers United-CWA following the vote results. Microsoft also made its policy of neutrality toward union organizing at ZeniMax in 2024. The QA workers from ZeniMax and Microsoft reached a this May.

The contract includes provisions for wage increases and minimum salaries, as well as industry-specific content such as a clearer crediting policy recognizing the role of QA and protections for the employees regarding use of AI.

The cracks in the OpenAI-Microsoft relationship are reportedly widening

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OpenAI and Microsoft may be reaching an inflection point in their relationship, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

The report, citing anonymous sources, says OpenAI executives have considered publicly accusing Microsoft of anticompetitive behavior throughout their partnership. OpenAI executives also mulled whether to seek a federal regulatory review of their contract with Microsoft.

OpenAI is trying to loosen Microsoft’s grip on its intellectual property and computing resources, but the startup also needs the tech giant’s approval to complete its for-profit conversion.

The two companies are in a standoff over OpenAI’s $3 billion acquisition of the AI coding startup, Windsurf. OpenAI doesn’t want Microsoft to get Windsurf’s intellectual property — which could enhance the cloud provider’s own AI coding tool, GitHub Copilot — according to the report.

While Microsoft was once a major accelerant to OpenAI’s growth, the companies’ relationship has grown tense. In recent months, OpenAI has reportedly tried to reduce its reliance on Microsoft for cloud services.