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Thursday, February 9, 2023

Microsoft to enhance search engine, browser

Microsoft is rolling out an intelligent chatbot to live alongside Bing’s search results, putting AI that can summarise web pages, synthesise disparate sources, even compose emails and translate them into more consumers’ hands. — Reuters

REDMOND: Microsoft Corp is revamping its Bing search engine and Edge Web browser with artificial intelligence (AI), the company says, signalling its ambition to retake the lead in consumer technology markets where it has fallen behind.

The maker of the Windows operating system is staking its future on AI through billions of dollars of investment as it directly challenges Alphabet Inc’s Google, which for years has outpaced Microsoft in search and browser technology.

Now, Microsoft is rolling out an intelligent chatbot to live alongside Bing’s search results, putting AI that can summarise web pages, synthesise disparate sources, even compose emails and translate them into more consumers’ hands.

Microsoft expects every percentage point of share it gains will bring in another US$2bil (RM8.6bil) in search advertising revenue.

Working with the startup OpenAI, Microsoft is aiming to leapfrog its Silicon Valley rival and potentially claim vast returns from tools that generally speed up content creation by automating tasks, if not jobs themselves.

That would affect products for businesses, such as the cloud computing and collaboration tools Microsoft sells, as well as the consumer Internet.

“This technology is going to reshape pretty much every software category,” Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella told reporters in a briefing at the company’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

The company’s share of search so far is about an estimated 10th of the market. Still, many investors see new technology as a win for all players. Microsoft’s stock closed 4.2% higher on Tuesday, while Alphabet gained 4.6%.

The power of so-called “generative AI” that can create virtually any text or image dawned on the public last year with the release of ChatGPT, the chatbot sensation from OpenAI.

Its human-like responses to any prompt have given people new ways to think about the possibilities of marketing, writing term papers, disseminating news or querying information online.

Microsoft’s new Bing search engine is live in limited preview on desktop computers and will be available for mobile devices in the coming weeks.

The company hopes user feedback will improve its AI, which Microsoft officials said may still produce factually inaccurate information known as hallucinations. Meanwhile, it has worked to prevent the misuse of its technology.

Underpinning the new Bing is what Microsoft is calling the Prometheus model - OpenAI’s most powerful technology, informed as needed by real-time web data from Bing.

That means Bing’s chatbot can brief consumers on current events, a step beyond ChatGPT’s answers that are currently limited to data as of 2021.

Jordi Ribas, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for search and AI, told Reuters the tech advances his team witnessed last summer emboldened the company to move ahead with an AI-infused Bing.

Microsoft’s chief financial officer also said OpenAI’s “new, next-generation” technology is powering its search engine, though officials declined to specify if this entailed the startup’s highly anticipated upgrade known as GPT-4.

Microsoft is aiming to market OpenAI’s technology, including ChatGPT, to its cloud customers and add the same power to its entire suite of products, not just search.

In the near term, Gartner analyst Jason Wong said Microsoft’s “partnership with OpenAI is more relevant for its business customers.

It could offer “disruptive opportunities” in consumer businesses as well.

“Except for gaming, Microsoft has not been a leader in key consumer technologies, such as search, mobile and social media,” he added.

Google has nonetheless taken note of Microsoft’s challenge.

On Monday, it unveiled a chatbot of its own called Bard, and it is planning to release its own AI in search that can synthesise material when no simple answer exists online.

Microsoft’s decision to update its Edge browser will likewise intensify competition – with Google’s Chrome competitor.

However, the Redmond-based company expects to roll out the updated Bing to other browsers eventually. — Reuters

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Wednesday, August 5, 2020

US president’s move to get a cut from TikTok as an ‘extortion threat’ and ‘mafia deal’

Washington robs TikTok by treading upon rules

TikTok for Business: What is TikTok Anyway?

ByteDance investors value TikTok at $50 billion in ...

Countries mull reducing reliance on US tech in wake of TikTok drama

As the US shocked the free world with its mafia-style forced sale of Chinese-owned short-form video platform TikTok, Chinese experts said that US extortion and looting have left a deep impression on the minds of the nations of the world, and pointed out that many of the countries are already striving to boost self-reliance in terms of security, industrial independence and technological ownership.

Expert slams US president’s move to get a cut from TikTok as an ‘extortion threat’ and ‘mafia deal’.

https://youtu.be/cOgQnIJJRZs

https://youtu.be/j7Zi1CCtQIQ

Controversial: Trump has said he would approve TikTok’s sale to Microsoft only if the US government gets a cut from the deal. — Reuters

TikTok's roller-coaster ride in the United States continued on Monday as President Donald Trump said he would approve the video-sharing app's sale to Microsoft only if the US government gets a cut, a condition that one expert called a "mafia" deal.

The president also gave Microsoft and TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance, a deadline of Sept 15 to complete the deal, or the app will be banned in the US.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular media briefing in Beijing on Tuesday that the US treatment of TikTok is "outright bullying", and the US only uses a "national security risk" as an excuse to suppress Chinese tech enterprises.

"The relevant enterprises carry out business activities in the US following market principles and international rules and abiding by local laws and regulations," he said. "However, the US has set restrictions and suppressed them with unwarranted charges, which is political manipulation."

Wang said that if the wrongdoing by the US continues, then any country could take similar measures against any American enterprise on the grounds of national security.

"The US side must not open this Pandora's box, otherwise it will suffer its consequences," he said.

The increased scrutiny of TikTok culminated on Friday when Trump threatened to ban the app from operating in the US due to a "national security risk". The negotiations between the two companies were then halted.

But after a weekend phone call with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Trump reversed his stance and reportedly gave the two companies 45 days to close the deal. This was confirmed by Microsoft on Sunday, which said in a statement it "will move quickly to pursue discussions" with ByteDance and complete the talks "no later than" Sept 15.

The president added a condition to the potential purchase on Monday: Microsoft should buy TikTok outright, and the US Treasury Department should be paid because the government made the deal possible.

"It's a little bit like the landlord/tenant; without a lease the tenant has nothing, so they pay what's called 'key money', or they pay something," Trump told reporters in the Cabinet Room at the White House on Monday. "But the United States should be reimbursed or should be paid a substantial amount of money, because, without the United States, they don't have anything."

Investors in privately owned Byte-Dance valued TikTok at $50 billion, according to a Reuters report.

Kai-Fu Lee, former chairman of Google China, said the US treatment of TikTok, including "forced acquisition, plus only 45 days, plus finder's fees", is "incredible".

Lee said that China has set clear rules for internet companies that want to operate in the country, and Google had decided to exit as it didn't want to comply with Chinese laws and regulations.

"The US didn't give any parameters that TikTok could work with, and didn't provide any evidence for their claims that TikTok had caused national security risks to the US," he said.

The legal basis of Trump's requirement that some of the money from the deal go to the US Treasury was immediately questioned by experts.

"This is quite unusual; this is out of the norm," Gene Kimmelman, a former chief counsel for the US Department of Justice's Antitrust Division, told CNN.

"It's actually quite hard to understand what the president is actually talking about here.... It's not unheard of for transactions to have broader geopolitical implications between countries, but it's quite remarkable to think about some kind of money being on the table in connection with a transaction," said Kimmelman, a senior adviser to the policy group Public Knowledge.

Julian Sanchez, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a think tank based in Washington, D.C., said Trump's "extortion threat" is a "mafia business model".

"Trump's full explanation of why the Treasury should get a 'cut' of a Microsoft/TikTok deal is, somehow, even more grotesque and shameless than I had anticipated," said Sanchez.

"As with his tariff policy, there doesn't seem to be any consideration of whether this sets a dangerous precedent for other countries to engage in similar pretextual protectionism against us, or how whimsically compelling divestment might affect international investment," he said.

Samm Sacks, a senior fellow at Yale Law School's Paul Tsai China Center, also warned that shutting down the app altogether would set "a dangerous precedent in which the US government can blacklist companies based on country of origin using blanket national security as justification".

The Trump administration has been scrutinizing TikTok for several months, claiming that the platform shares the data of US users with the Chinese government. The company has repeatedly denied the accusations, maintaining that all the users' information is stored in the US.

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Related:

International community needs to break its silence on US highway robbery of TikTok: Global Times editorial

US' highway robbery of TikTok completely violates market principles and the spirit of the rule of law. It is a distorted hegemonic behavior under the forced intervention of the US government.

US degrades from innovator to digital rogue

While China is busy innovating, the US is guarding against an innovative China. This twisted behavior has prevented the US from continuing to innovate and reform. The dominant position it acquired, or its hegemony, is becoming a self-inflicted fetter for its progress.

Hard to say who will surprise you in the future, US or TikTok

In addition to power, there exist rules and morals in this world. Although Trump's power can overwhelm rules and ethics, he has only fewer than three months left before the presidential election. People have a subtle perception of rules and ethics in their minds. Trump could thus lose votes due to any most slightly careless move.

TikTok ban demonstrates barbaric act of rogue US: Global Times editorial

In the most barbaric way, the US is trying to solidify a high-tech world order in which it is the absolute center. Whether it ends up "killing" TikTok or forcibly taking the child out of Bytedance's arms, it is one of the ugliest scenes of the 21st century in the high-tech competition

Trump wants to kill TikTok

Zuckerberg tears away last piece of camouflage

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of US technology giant Facebook, is reportedly the one who has stoked US fears over Chinese competitor TikTok, after claiming there is "ample evidence" that China stole US technology. But ironically years ago, he praised "great Chinese companies," called China's history "a story of innovation," and wished the Chinese people a Happy Chinese New Year in Mandarin.

We are not the enemy: TikTok chief

https://youtu.be/4bS5ukQGa_Y

TikTok users take on Trump

https://youtu.be/Jo6LHELhhnM

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