Microsoft’s Ignite 2023 occasion got here with a variety of updates, and AI product reveals and expansions have been entrance and heart as the corporate laid out its up to date imaginative and prescient for IT professionals.
As our personal Devin Coldewey wrote in October, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has made it clear that the corporate is all-in on AI, and Ignite was proof of that. From rebranding its ChatGPT competitor Bing Chat to be underneath the Copilot umbrella, to the extremely anticipated {custom} AI chips to compete with Nvidia and methods to generate text-to-speech avatars, there have been a variety of AI-centered reveals on the Wednesday occasion.
We compiled the assorted bulletins from our respective Microsoft and AI specialists Frederic Lardinois and Kyle Wiggers multi functional spot in case you missed it.
ChatGPT competitor Bing Chat is now Copilot
Picture Credit: Microsoft
Microsoft renamed Bing Chat, the AI-powered chatbot it launched on Bing earlier this 12 months, to Copilot in Bing. Bing Chat Enterprise has additionally been rebranded to Copilot.
As Kyle notes, the change is probably going as a consequence of the truth that Bing Chat didn’t transfer the needle a lot for Bing. Now it appears the corporate is trying to divorce the tech from the search engine to raised compete with ChatGPT and different well-liked chatbots.
Copilot is now accessible in Home windows along with Copilot.Microsoft.com and Bing, transport in vary of Microsoft’s enterprise subscription plans at no further price. Copilot will probably be included in Microsoft 365 F3 beginning December 1, and will probably be obtainable for $5 per thirty days for all different clients.
Customized chips with an emphasis on AI
Picture Credit: Microsoft
Microsoft is trying to free itself from GPU dependency with two custom-designed, in-house and information center-bound AI chips: the Azure Maia 100 AI Accelerator and the Azure Cobalt 100 CPU.
Maia 100 can be utilized to coach and run AI fashions, whereas Cobalt 100 is designed to run normal function workloads.
Each Maia 100 and Cobalt 100 will begin to roll out early subsequent 12 months to Azure information facilities, Microsoft says. It should first energy Microsoft AI providers like Copilot and Azure OpenAI Service.
New AI instruments Copilot Azure, Copilot for Service and Copilot Studio
Microsoft unveiled new AI instruments in Copilot, the corporate’s model of generative AI applied sciences: Copilot for Azure, Copilot for Service, Copilot Studio and Copilot in Dynamics 365 Guides.
Copilot for Azure is Microsoft’s reply to the lately introduced Duet AI in Google Cloud, taking the type of a chat-driven assistant for cloud clients. Azure’s Copilot is at present obtainable in preview.
Copilot for Service, a software for customer support wants, can reply commonly-asked questions from customer support brokers by drawing on an organization’s web sites, information articles, offline databases and extra.
Copilot in Dynamics 365 Guides faucets generative AI to summarize data doubtlessly helpful to frontline employees and overlays them on the tools they’re sustaining. Copilot in Dynamics 365 Guides will first launch in non-public preview with “a restricted set of consumers and capabilities.”
Copilot Studio can be utilized to create a {custom} copilot — like a chatbot for expense administration, for instance — by describing it in pure language. Copilot Studio is now obtainable in public preview for present Copilot for Microsoft 365 subscribers.
Microsoft Groups will get an AI-powered dwelling decorator and voice isolation
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Microsoft Groups’ new “beautify your background” characteristic means you may by no means have to wash your messy dwelling workplace once more. The video name characteristic can have a look at your room and clear up litter, and add crops and even decorations to your background.
Microsoft additionally introduced an AI-driven noise discount characteristic for Groups that may scale back repetitive background noise in addition to different folks’s voices.
The voice isolation characteristic is rolling out now and will probably be typically obtainable in early 2024, whereas “beautify your background” will probably be obtainable early subsequent 12 months in Groups Premium.
Microsoft To Do, Planner and Challenge grow to be a singular product
Microsoft is making its challenge administration instruments rather less complicated. The corporate introduced it’s consolidating its vary of planning instruments — Microsoft To Do, Microsoft Planner and Microsoft Challenge — into one new product for a extra “unified expertise.”
There will even be a copilot in Planner which is able to have the ability to assist customers plan issues quicker and recommend new duties.
The brand new Microsoft Planner will first be obtainable in Microsoft Groups within the spring of 2024, with the net model launching later in 2024.
Generative AI copyright protections for extra clients
Microsoft introduced extra clients will be defended and compensated for any “opposed judgements” in the event that they’re sued for copyright infringement because of outputs from utilization of Axure’s OpenAI Service.
This coverage won’t apply to each Azure OpenAI Service buyer by default. Subscribers should first implement “technical measures” and adjust to danger mitigation documentation to be thought of for eligibility.
Home windows AI Studio makes it simpler to run AI domestically on Home windows
Picture Credit: Microsoft
In an effort to push generative AI experiences from the cloud to Home windows units, Microsoft introduced Home windows AI Studio. The toolkit brings collectively AI instruments and a catalog of generative AI fashions that builders can fine-tune, customise and deploy for native, offline use of their Home windows apps.
Home windows AI Studio will achieve extra succesful native fashions together with Meta’s text-generating Llama 2 and Stability AI’s text-to-image mannequin Steady Diffusion XL.
Azure AI Speech to create text-to-speech avatars
Microsoft introduced a software that may create what is actually a deepfake. Azure AI Speech text-to-speech avatar generates a photorealistic avatar of an individual and animates that avatar to say issues that the individual didn’t essentially say.
Microsoft famous the numerous apparent methods this software might be abused, and they’re placing limits on it. For now, most Azure subscribers will solely have the ability to entry prebuilt avatars at launch. Microsoft says {custom} avatars are at present a “restricted entry” functionality obtainable by registration solely and “just for sure use circumstances.”
Recap the complete Microsoft Ignite 2023 occasion
If you wish to expertise the Ignite occasion yet again or for the primary time, you’ll be able to watch highlights from the keynote on Microsoft’s website.