While Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says he likes podcasts, he might not actually be listening to them anymore. That tidbit comes towards the end of a longer Bloomberg profile of Nadella, with a focus on Microsoft’s AI strategy and its complicated relationship with OpenAI. To illustrate how much he uses the company’s Copilot AI assistant […]
Microsoft’s Satya Nadella is choosing chatbots over podcasts Read More »
Welcome back to Week in Review! We’ve got tons of news for you this week, including a hack at Coinbase; YC thinks Google is a ‘monopolist’; layoffs at Microsoft; and much more. Have a great weekend! Uh-oh: Coinbase says that customers’ personal information, including government-issued IDs, was stolen in a data breach. The hackers demanded
TechCrunch Week in Review: Coinbase gets hacked Read More »
Coders were hit hardest among Microsoft’s 2,000-person layoff in its home state of Washington, Bloomberg reports. Over 40% of the people laid off were in software engineering, making it by far the largest category, Bloomberg found based on state filings. Relatively few sales or marketing positions were affected, Bloomberg added. To be fair, coders are
WizardLM, a Beijing-based Microsoft AI research group, appears to have joined Tencent, the Chinese company that owns WeChat and blockbuster games like PUBG Mobile. In a post on X on Tuesday, Can Xu, a senior AI researcher who led a number of projects within WizardLM, said that he and the team left Microsoft to join
Tencent hires WizardLM team, a Microsoft AI group with an odd history Read More »
Microsoft is about to trim its worldwide workforce by 3%, CNBC reports. The company had around 228,000 employees worldwide as of June, it says, meaning more than 6,500 could be affected by the cuts. It would be one of the company’s largest staff reductions since it cut 10,000 people in 2023. A Microsoft spokesperson told
Microsoft is reportedly about to lay off 3% of its workforce Read More »
Microsoft is hosting its annual Build developer conference next week from May 19 to 22. The event is guaranteed to include announcements regarding new AI integrations, services, and apps, including for Windows. At last year’s Build, Microsoft announced an integration of Copilot into Microsoft Teams, Copilot+ AI-powered PCs, Windows Volumetric Apps for Meta Quest headsets,
Microsoft Build 2025: What to expect, from Azure to Copilot upgrades Read More »
OpenAI is currently in “a tough negotiation” with its biggest investor and partner, Microsoft, according to the Financial Times. The AI startup recently announced a major change to its corporate restructuring plans — while it still aims to convert its business arm into a for-profit public benefit corporation, its nonprofit board will still be in
Microsoft and OpenAI may be renegotiating their partnership Read More »
Microsoft Build, Microsoft’s biggest event of the year, is on the horizon. It’s scheduled to start May 19 at the Seattle Convention Center, and it’ll run through May 22. The keynote address featuring Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and CTO Kevin Scott will take place May 19 at 9:05 a.m. PT. That’ll be followed by a
Microsoft Build 2025: How to watch this year’s conference Read More »
Microsoft employees aren’t allowed to use DeepSeek due to data security and propaganda concerns, Microsoft vice chairman and president Brad Smith said in a Senate hearing today. “At Microsoft we don’t allow our employees to use the DeepSeek app,” Smith said, referring to DeepSeek’s application service (which is available on both desktop and mobile.) Smith
Microsoft employees are banned from using DeepSeek app, president says Read More »
Microsoft says that it’s embracing Google’s recently launched open protocol for allowing AI “agents” to communicate with each other. On Wednesday, Microsoft announced that it would bring support for Google’s Agent2Agent (A2A) spec to two of its AI development platforms, Azure AI Foundry and Copilot Studio. Microsoft has also joined the A2A working group on
Microsoft adopts Google’s standard for linking up AI agents Read More »
