However, entrepreneurs can choose to opt out during this temporary phase, as the bigger headache will be adjusting their businesses to the update rolling out seamlessly.

Stating that the extended deadline will give customers more time, while the Satya Nadella-venture continues to add missing features and various other improvements to the update, Microsoft also noted witnessing “strong and accelerating adoption” of the new Outlook.

“We continue to invest heavily in expanding capabilities and addressing feedback from customers who want to go further with new Outlook,” the company added.

However, when it comes to Microsoft rolling out the new Outlook, things haven’t gone smoothly. In early 2025, the tech venture confirmed that in April 2026, it would begin forcing enterprise users to use the new Outlook, with an opt-out option. The delay now pushes the next deadline to March 2027.

According to the Satya Nadella-led Silicon Valley giant’s original plan, if enterprises opened “Outlook Classic” in April 2026 or later, they would have been automatically upgraded to the new Outlook. This also means the new Outlook would auto-download and open on PCs, but the users still had the option to go back to Outlook Classic.

“Users will be toggled into new Outlook once with this roll-out, with the potential to be toggled again in the future. Users will maintain the ability to go back to and use classic Outlook,” Microsoft previously stated in a roadmap update.

While the new Outlook offers a streamlined, modern user interface characterised by larger icons and increased white space to enhance focus and productivity, it represents a significant shift from the traditional desktop experience. The new version is built on a web-based, cloud-centric architecture that provides superior integration with Microsoft 365 services such as Teams and OneDrive, making it ideal for users who prioritise a unified ecosystem.

In contrast, the classic Outlook remains the preferred choice for power users who rely on its extensive customisation options and ribbon-based toolbars. A critical distinction between the two lies in their extensibility: The classic version supports robust third-party tools such as COM-based extensions and VBA macros, whereas the new Outlook currently offers more limited add-on capabilities, prioritising a cleaner but less flexible environment.

The company claims it is experiencing massive adoption by clients for its new Outlook software. An end-of-support date hasn’t been officially announced for the Classic Outlook, but existing clients can expect support until 2029 at the minimum. New clients can switch to Classic Outlook if they so prefer, but the company is encouraging users to proactively transition as quickly as possible rather than waiting for the deadline.

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The Nadella renaissance

Nadella, a Microsoft veteran with 22 years at the company, was chosen as CEO because of his intimate understanding of the company and his vision for change. One of his earliest moves was a cultural overhaul, breaking away from the cutthroat, competitive “know-it-all” culture that characterised the company during the Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates eras. Instead, Nadella introduced a culture focused on learning, collaboration, and empathy, which emphasised the value of shared knowledge and growth.

Nadella made it clear that his goal was not simply to continue the old ways of working but to fundamentally transform how the company approached its business and culture. This meant redefining success, not by market dominance, but by the depth and breadth of partnerships, creativity, and a willingness to adapt. He famously shifted Azure, the company’s cloud platform, to embrace open-source software—a significant departure from Microsoft’s historically proprietary approach.

He also brought a fresh empathetic approach, emphasising transparency and openness.

“Come with your brain. Be sharp, and let’s talk about it,” he encouraged employees, transforming Microsoft’s internal atmosphere into one that promoted ideation without fear of mistakes.

Under his leadership, the company began celebrating a “growth mindset,” where learning from failure was prioritised over simply proving oneself. This transformation laid the foundation for Microsoft’s reemergence as an industry leader.

Nadella’s cultural transformation at Microsoft focused not only on leadership style but also on diversity and inclusivity, which laid the groundwork for innovation. He introduced various initiatives that aimed to break down silos and promote a more open and collaborative work environment.

For instance, he focused on increasing diversity in the workforce, seeing diverse perspectives as key to fostering a more creative and innovative company. Nadella’s efforts towards inclusivity also meant that employees felt more empowered to contribute, which fostered a sense of collective ownership and pride in Microsoft’s products and services.

Nadella also implemented a major internal shift in how success was measured at Microsoft. Rather than traditional metrics like market share or profitability, the company began focusing on customer satisfaction and user engagement. This new focus influenced every department, from engineering to sales. By aligning success metrics with customer happiness, Nadella ensured that the company stayed true to the goal of creating value for its users, not just profits.

Crucial strategic acquisitions

Nadella understood the value of adding new assets to Microsoft’s ecosystem—but not by assimilating them into its traditional architecture. He acquired Minecraft in 2014, noting that the game provided a unique opportunity to build relationships with younger generations who may not have had a strong connection to Microsoft. Instead of bringing Minecraft into the Windows family, he decided to keep it largely independent, allowing it to continue to thrive and innovate.

Minecraft was more than just a game; it was a community and a platform for creativity that connected with younger audiences, educators, and developers. Nadella saw the potential of a generation growing up with Minecraft, not just as a game but as a tool that taught kids the basics of coding, architecture, and teamwork.

By promoting the Minecraft community without altering its DNA, Nadella ensured that the franchise would remain popular while also showcasing Microsoft’s ability to nurture different types of digital experiences.

This approach was also evident when Microsoft purchased LinkedIn in 2016 for $26 billion. LinkedIn provided a unique professional network that complemented Microsoft’s product offerings, particularly those aimed at enterprise customers.

Nadella’s emphasis on “reverse acquisitions” encouraged these acquired brands to utilise Microsoft’s vast resources without becoming stifled by its bureaucracy. In LinkedIn’s case, this meant leveraging Microsoft’s cloud services while retaining LinkedIn’s independent operations. It was a different approach to integration—one that prioritised innovation over control.

LinkedIn’s acquisition was more than just a strategic move to expand Microsoft’s enterprise offerings; it provided deeper insights into how professionals were using technology. Microsoft integrated LinkedIn data with its Dynamics 365 CRM, making it possible for businesses to better understand their customers.

This synergy between LinkedIn and Microsoft’s cloud services became a powerful tool, reinforcing Microsoft’s status as a critical player in enterprise productivity and customer relationship management.

In 2018, the acquisition of GitHub for $7.5 billion brought the open-source community into Microsoft’s sphere of influence. This acquisition was particularly symbolic given Microsoft’s historically antagonistic stance towards open source. By allowing GitHub to function independently, Nadella fostered positive relationships with the global developer community—a group Microsoft had previously alienated. It wasn’t just about the technology; it was about winning back the hearts and minds of the developers who drive the tech ecosystem.

These acquisitions were crucial in transforming Microsoft’s image from a lumbering tech giant to a company willing to embrace and nurture community-driven platforms. They were not just business deals; they were commitments to engage with diverse audiences in new and respectful ways.

Nadella’s strategy was to provide support without imposing Microsoft’s bureaucracy, thereby ensuring that acquired companies retained their unique culture and strengths, which allowed them to thrive within Microsoft’s ecosystem.

The game-changing OpenAI partnership

The 2019 partnership with OpenAI, led by Sam Altman, involved a bold $1 billion investment from Microsoft in artificial intelligence. While many in the industry doubted AI’s immediate potential, Nadella saw an opportunity for growth that extended beyond the immediate bottom line. He envisioned AI as a fundamental force that would redefine productivity and creativity.

OpenAI’s work on GPT-3 and GPT-4 quickly bore fruit, with early demos proving that the technology could change the software landscape.

Kevin Scott, Microsoft’s CTO, recognised that AI’s coding abilities could expedite and automate programming tasks—a vision that eventually materialised as GitHub Copilot. The Copilot tool allowed developers to leverage AI for code suggestions, dramatically improving coding speed and accuracy, which hinted at how AI could augment human creativity rather than replace it.

The OpenAI partnership was more than just a financial investment; it represented a philosophical alignment. Both organisations shared a belief that AI, if developed responsibly, could transform human productivity and create new growth opportunities.

Microsoft’s $1 billion investment was followed by additional funding, and the relationship evolved into a strategic partnership where Microsoft provided the infrastructure for OpenAI’s ambitious models. This gave Microsoft early access to groundbreaking AI technologies and positioned Azure as the go-to cloud platform for AI research and applications.

Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI gave it a significant edge, leading to an exclusive agreement allowing Microsoft to incorporate OpenAI’s language models into its suite of products.

This exclusive partnership also helped Microsoft integrate AI into Azure, making it a preferred platform for developers using AI models. This move signalled Microsoft’s shift from being a builder of AI tools to a platform enabler for global AI innovation. Nadella aimed to position Microsoft at the centre of the next big platform—the AI Copilot.

AI integration across products

Scott declared 2023 “The Era of the AI Copilot.” Microsoft launched AI-driven features across its offerings, from Microsoft 365 tools to its Windows operating system. The flagship was the integration of GPT-4 into Bing, making Microsoft’s search engine a viable contender against Google for the first time in over a decade. Nadella saw this as a moment of reckoning: after years of being a runner-up in search, Microsoft could finally force Google to respond.

Despite some initial embarrassments—like Bing’s chatbot confessing love for a reporter during its early rollout—Microsoft pushed forward, refining the technology. The Bing Copilot wasn’t just about search—it was a demonstration of the integration of AI into everyday tasks.

It could summarise information, provide direct answers, and even assist in creative writing. This “Copilot” branding represented the next wave of software development: tools that worked alongside users, improving efficiency and productivity.

The broader goal was to introduce Copilot across all major Microsoft products. Office tools like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint were enhanced with AI capabilities that could draft emails, summarise data, and create slide decks with minimal input from the user. This was a significant redefinition of productivity software, where the user wasn’t just interacting with static tools but collaborating with an intelligent system.

Copilot in Microsoft Teams revolutionised how virtual collaboration took place. Users could rely on AI to transcribe meetings, summarise discussions, and even suggest action items. This changed the dynamics of remote work, making virtual interactions more efficient and actionable. By making AI an integral part of communication, Microsoft helped its customers save time and focus on strategic decision-making rather than administrative tasks.

By the end of 2023, Copilot had also made its way into Microsoft Teams, Azure, and the Windows operating system itself, bringing a new level of personal assistance to digital work environments.

Nadella’s vision of AI was not as a replacement but as an augmentation—a Copilot to help users navigate through the complexity of their digital tasks and make sense of vast amounts of information.

The integration of Copilot into Azure also enabled developers to create smarter applications more easily. Azure AI services became more user-friendly, offering pre-built models and customisation options that allowed businesses of all sizes to incorporate AI capabilities without needing extensive expertise.

This democratisation of AI meant that even small startups could harness the power of machine learning, thus expanding Azure’s user base and solidifying Microsoft’s position as a leader in cloud computing and AI services.

Antitrust and competitive tactics: Old habits die hard

The “Copilot” success wasn’t without controversy. Microsoft’s expansion plans, including its integration of Teams into Office 365, faced scrutiny from regulatory bodies, particularly in the EU. Slack’s founders argued that Microsoft’s bundling strategy stifled competition by making Teams a default product for millions of Office users. The European Commission launched an investigation, eventually forcing Microsoft to unbundle Teams from its Office products.

Additionally, Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $69 billion brought scrutiny from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Critics argued that Microsoft’s moves risked monopolising sectors of the gaming industry, similar to its earlier battles over Internet Explorer’s dominance. Nadella maintains that these moves are part of Microsoft’s strategy to extend into mobile gaming and grow Xbox’s reach, rather than squelch competition.

The broader debate over Microsoft’s practices touched on the issue of market influence and whether the company’s massive acquisitions were about strengthening innovation or eliminating competition.

This scrutiny highlighted the tightrope that Nadella had to walk—balancing aggressive growth with the perception of fair competition. It was a reminder that even as Microsoft embraced new ideals, its size and influence would always invite careful examination from regulators.

Nadella’s defence of Microsoft’s strategies also included emphasising how acquisitions like Activision would benefit consumers by accelerating innovation. He argued that bringing Activision’s capabilities into Microsoft’s ecosystem would create new opportunities for cross-platform experiences, thereby benefiting gamers.

Nadella made a point of outlining how increased investment in game studios could lead to more diverse and inclusive gaming experiences, which in turn could open up new markets for Microsoft.

Turning adversaries into allies

One of Nadella’s most effective shifts was embracing open-source technologies, a stark contrast from Microsoft’s earlier era, which saw Linux as a threat. Nadella and Scott Guthrie, who led the Azure cloud services division, understood that for Azure to grow, it needed to support Linux, which had become the operating system of choice for startups and developers. Nadella made the decision swiftly, ignoring years of anti-Linux sentiment at Microsoft.

This was emblematic of the change Nadella brought: instead of protecting old revenue streams at the cost of stifling innovation, he shifted Microsoft’s vision towards embracing the wider tech ecosystem. By integrating Linux into Azure and acquiring GitHub, Microsoft built credibility with the very developers it had once alienated.

The impact of this change went beyond public relations. By embracing open source, Microsoft found itself contributing to projects that it once saw as a threat. This change allowed Azure to become the backbone for many of the world’s most innovative startups and enterprises. The company also encouraged collaboration within the developer community, which was vital for the adoption of new technologies, especially AI.

Nadella’s commitment to open source was also about community building. He emphasised that Microsoft could only grow if it helped grow the broader tech community. By launching initiatives like the Open-Source Programmes Office and contributing to significant open-source projects, Microsoft demonstrated that it was serious about being an active member of the open-source ecosystem. This approach not only helped Microsoft improve its technology but also changed perceptions of the company from a monopolistic giant to a supportive partner.

Microsoft as a platform for AI innovation

With Mustafa Suleyman, DeepMind co-founder, joining Microsoft AI in 2024, the company’s commitment to dominating the AI space became even more apparent. As Suleyman puts it, “Microsoft is a platform of platforms,” signalling that the company’s vision is not to monopolise AI but rather to facilitate a marketplace where innovation can thrive.

Yet, despite these lofty goals, the nature of Microsoft’s relationship with OpenAI remains complex, and the question of whether Microsoft will eventually launch its own AI language models remains open.

Suleyman’s arrival marked a new era for Microsoft’s AI ambitions. He brought a wealth of experience and a different perspective on how AI could evolve responsibly. Microsoft made it clear that it wanted to be the primary platform where developers could build, train, and deploy AI models. By making Azure the default home for AI development, Microsoft aimed to be at the forefront of all major AI advancements.

As Nadella drives Microsoft towards the AI future, he appears intent on balancing two imperatives: enabling an open ecosystem for developers while maintaining a competitive edge.

The emphasis on Copilot and integrated AI tools across its product lines suggests that Nadella sees Microsoft’s future less as a builder of standalone software and more as a foundational platform that users leverage to achieve more—guided by AI, of course.

In addition, Microsoft’s focus on partnerships with AI research labs and its continued investments in quantum computing demonstrate its vision of the future. Microsoft wants to ensure that it is a leader not just in current AI technology but also in the next generation of disruptive tech. This commitment to ongoing research and development positions the company as a thought leader in multiple facets of technological innovation.

Microsoft’s pursuit of quantum computing is an example of how it aims to stay ahead of the curve. Quantum technology holds the promise of solving computational problems that are currently impossible for classical computers, and Microsoft’s investments in this area highlight its ambition to not only remain relevant but to be at the cutting edge of future technological revolutions. By combining AI, quantum computing, and cloud infrastructure, Microsoft is aiming to create a technology stack that can solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges.

The balancing act

As Microsoft enters its 50th year, Nadella’s leadership has restored the company’s reputation and fuelled its most profitable years to date. From $1 billion investments in small AI labs to $69 billion gaming acquisitions, Nadella’s strategies have consistently placed Microsoft at the intersection of innovation and opportunity.

However, familiar criticisms remain. Antitrust investigations, security vulnerabilities, and competition complaints echo the old Microsoft—a corporate giant that once wielded its influence with little restraint. Nadella’s success is tempered by the realisation that the very size and influence Microsoft has regained also make it a target for regulatory scrutiny.

The story of Microsoft at 50 is one of reinvention, calculated risks, and a renewed focus on innovation. Nadella turned Microsoft from a fading tech giant into a dynamic leader in AI—but the challenge now lies in maintaining that balance: encouraging innovation, learning from failures, and avoiding the pitfalls of past hubris.

As the company aims to be the platform that shapes the next generation of technology, the question isn’t whether Microsoft is still relevant. It is whether it can stay at the forefront, ethically and responsibly, in the next wave of technological change.

The company’s ambition is clear: to be the essential platform for developers, businesses, and individuals navigating an increasingly AI-driven world. Microsoft’s trajectory will be determined not just by its technological prowess but also by its ability to adapt and learn—qualities Nadella has strived to embed into the company culture. As Microsoft looks ahead, the hope is that it can continue to innovate without repeating the mistakes of its past, maintaining its relevance by being a force for positive technological change.

By embracing change, prioritising empathy, and nurturing a culture of growth, Nadella has led Microsoft back to the forefront of technology. The lessons from this journey are profound: with the right mindset, even a company as large and seemingly set in its ways as Microsoft can transform itself. The future remains challenging, but if Nadella’s past successes are any indicator, Microsoft is well-positioned to lead the way into the next era of technological innovation.

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The goal of Microsoft’s Engineering Development Centre in Abu Dhabi, the first of its kind in the Arab world, is to develop innovative technologies locally.

“Abu Dhabi’s advanced digital and physical infrastructure, combined with the UAE’s strategic location at the heart of the world, allows us to drive positive, far-reaching impacts across industries and societies alike,” stated Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council.

“The Abu Dhabi centre will help spur innovation that will propel economic growth and job creation for the UAE and the rest of the world,” according to Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO of Microsoft.

Microsoft and G42 announced that they would establish two centres in Abu Dhabi to work on “responsible” artificial intelligence initiatives. The centres will be used to develop, deploy, and use “generative AI models and applications” in a safe manner.

Additionally, Microsoft, BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners, and the state-backed Mubadala and G42 founded MGX, an Abu Dhabi-based technology investment company, to form an AI infrastructure investment partnership to raise USD 100 billion to advance artificial intelligence.

In the UAE, artificial intelligence might boost GDP by 13.6% by 2030, or USD 96 billion, according to a PwC Middle East report.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is planning to combine its Xbox Game Pass and Xbox mobile apps into a single application soon.

The software maker is testing a new version of the Xbox app for iOS and Android this week that includes features from the separate Xbox Game Pass app.

The new Xbox app will now include the Game Pass integration alongside party chat, text chat, access to game captures, and the ability to remote install or remote play games.

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The analysts now feel that the incident has set up an example of how a company’s corporate affairs should not be run by persons, who, apart from having a little background in business administration, can compromise their oversight duties by making decisions based on their superficial way of seeing things.

After coming back at OpenAI’s helm, Altman sacked the board. It now has Adam D’Angelo (from the previous board), CEO of Quora, ex-Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor and former US Treasury Secretary and president of Harvard University, Larry Summers.

The previous panel had Tasha McCauley (heading GeoSim Systems) and Helen Toner (an expert on AI and foreign relations at Georgetown’s Centre for Security and Emerging Technology). McCauley is one of the core heads of the United Kingdom board of Effective Ventures, a group affiliated with effective altruism, and Toner also worked for the US-based effective-altruism group Open Philanthropy.

In the new board, neither Sam Altman nor OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman will feature, and the panel will soon have six additional members.

Transparency went missing

OpenAI’s board reportedly lost confidence in Altman’s ability to lead the organisation and accused him of not being ‘candid in his conversations’. Altman wanted to transform the venture from a non-profit into a commercially viable business, which brought him into confrontation with the board. The board felt that the tech maverick was moving too quickly on the AI front, “Without sufficient concern to the safety implications of a technology that, left unchecked, could create content capable of harming the public.”

One may attempt to believe the possibility of independent directors like McCauley and Toner getting influenced by the section of sceptics who thought that OpenAI was moving away from its mission of “building safe and beneficial artificial general intelligence for the benefit of humanity” for commercial gain.

Earlier in November, tech companies and Western governments decided upon a new safety testing regime to allay concerns about AI’s growth pace and the lack of global safeguards in place to control it. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the world was “playing catch-up” in efforts to regulate AI, which had “possible long-term negative consequences on everything, from jobs to culture”.

Coming back to OpenAI, Sam Altman’s firing wasn’t due to his company’s financial, business, safety or security/privacy practises.

The directors’ duty, as written by the OpenAI’s organisational structure, was to ensure that the AI benefits the entire humanity. Did they get burdened by that responsibility, while removing Altman? Were they influenced by the ‘AI Apocalypse’ worries?

OpenAI cofounder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever recently spoke about the venture anticipating a technology breakthrough that may come with ‘safety concerns’. However, Sutskever himself quashed the possibility of the board acting out of ‘AI Apocalypse’ fears, while removing Sam Altman.

Neither Emmett Shear, co-founder of video streaming site Twitch, who took over the AI venture’s leadership duty briefly, nor Satya Nadella, the man leading the tech biggie Microsoft (which also holds a 49% stake in the OpenAI) were informed about the actual reason behind Altman’s removal.

In 2019, Altman transformed OpenAI into a for-profit unit to draw commercial investors, before launching ChatGPT in 20222-end. What started as a research lab became a professional tech company.

In November 2023, OpenAI hosted its first developer conference, where Sam Altman announced an app store for chatbots.

The old OpenAI board functioned as an entity independent of the for-profit company. Ilya and the three independent directors formed the majority needed to make the leadership changes, while following the organisational bylaw which allows for the removal of any director, including the chair, with/without a cause.

Ilya’s behaviour makes him a contradictory person. After removing Sam Altman, he “deeply regretted” his role in the board’s actions, thereby taking a U-turn from his earlier concern, where he spoke about OpenAI’s fast-paced commercialisation of its technologies compromising on the safety front.

Ilya Sutskever faces the heat

From November 17-21, OpenAI faced a massive internal backlash over Altman’s firing, with 743 out of 770 of its staff threatening to quit the company and join Microsoft en masse. Their condition was simple, the removal of the board, including Sutskever, who, as per The Atlantic, “likes to burn effigies and lead ritualistic chants at the company, and appears to have been one of the main drivers behind Altman’s ousting.”

As Sam Altman briefly joined Microsoft, a perplexed Ilya Sutskever wrote in his X account, “I never intended to harm OpenAI.” The crisis came for OpenAI at the time when it was eyeing to achieve the USD 90 billion valuation target.

“Sutskever has established himself as an esoteric ‘spiritual leader’ at the company, cheering on the company’s efforts to realise artificial general intelligence (AGI), a hazy and ill-defined state when AI models have become as or more capable than humans, or maybe, according to some, even godlike,” The Atlantic commented. Altman too championed attaining AGI as OpenAI’s number one goal.

As per the reports, Ilya Sutskever, apart from making the employees chant, “Feel the AGI! Feel the AGI!”, even commissioned a wooden effigy to represent an “unaligned” AI that works against the interest of humanity, only to set it on fire.

Now imagine, such a volatile personality, with three other independent directors (with two of them coming from philanthropic backgrounds), deciding to fire Altman, who himself stresses about AI being governed, so that the tool acts responsibly towards humanity.

“Instead of focusing on meaningfully advancing AI tech in a scientifically sound way, some board members sound like they’re engaging in weird spiritual claims,” this is how The Atlantic summed up the situation, which also justifies the reason why Sam Altman wanted to fire the board so desperately.

A delusional board

In 2015, OpenAI began as a nonprofit research lab, with the mission of developing artificial intelligence on par or beyond the human level—termed artificial general intelligence or AGI, in a safe way.

As per Sutskever, the tech venture found a promising path in large language models (LLMs), as the latter started generating strikingly fluid text. However, developing and implementing those models required huge amounts of computing infrastructure and capital. So, OpenAI created its commercial arm to draw outside investors. Sensing the opportunity, Microsoft jumped into the fray. Apart from helping OpenAI to develop and launch ChatGPT, the Satya Nadella-led venture is also using the start-up’s solutions like Bing Chat and Co-pilot to improve its products.

“Virtually everyone in the company worked for this new for-profit arm. But limits were placed on the company’s commercial life. The profit delivered to investors was to be capped—for the first backers at 100 times what they put in—after which OpenAI would revert to a pure non-profit. The whole shebang was governed by the original non-profit’s board, which answered only to the goals of the original mission and maybe God,” Wired commented.

“We are the only company in the world which has a capped profit structure. Here is the reason it makes sense: If you believe, like we do, that if we succeed well, then these GPUs are going to take my job and your job and everyone’s jobs, it seems nice if that company would not make truly unlimited amounts of returns,” Ilya Sutskever told the media outlet.

So the picture is clear now. While profit-seeking was a must for OpenAI to carry on research activities, the board’s responsibility was to ensure that “AI doesn’t get out of control.”

The board was playing the holy role of “Guardian of Humanity”. Now reports are suggesting that through ‘Porject Q’, Altman got a breakthrough in OpenAI’s long search for AGI, as the new model solved math problems. However, unlike a calculator, AGI can generalise, learn, and comprehend.

OpenAI describes AGI as ‘autonomous systems that surpass humans in most economically valuable tasks.’ While the venture’s Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati had acknowledged the existence of ‘Project Q’ in an internal email to employees, she also alerted them to ‘certain media stories’ without commenting on their accuracy.

The board was warned about the potential dangers which the model could bring. However, there was no clarity on what those dangers were.

What is even more perplexing is the fact that Altman himself warned about the AGI’s cons, as he wrote in one of his blogs, “AGI would also come with serious risk of misuse, drastic accidents, and societal disruption. Because the upside of AGI is so great, we do not believe it is possible or desirable for society to stop its development forever; instead, society and the developers of AGI have to figure out how to get it right.”

As Wired spoke with a source familiar with the OpenAI board’s thinking, it emerged that the decision makers through the firing of Sam Altman would make sure that the company developed powerful AI safely.

“Increasing profits or ChatGPT usage, maintaining workplace comity, and keeping Microsoft and other investors happy were not of their concern. In the view of directors Adam D’Angelo, Helen Toner, and Tasha McCauley—and Sutskever—Altman didn’t deal straight with them. Bottom line: The board no longer trusted Altman to pursue OpenAI’s mission. If the board can’t trust the CEO, how can it protect or even monitor progress on the mission?” the report commented further.

Instead of initiating a discussion with Sam Altman on ‘Project Q’, the board decided to arm-twist the tech maverick and force him to leave his own company. The result was completely the opposite. There is no doubt in the fact that, when it comes to generative AI, Altman is a cult hero, A persona who is the pioneer of the 21st century AI revolution and at the same point of time, talks about the tool’s responsible and regulated usage.

Microsoft hiring him for a brief period proved the above point right. If Satya Nadella doesn’t maintain high regard for you, no one else will, in Silicon Valley.

“Altman did little or nothing to dissuade the outcry that followed. To the board, Altman’s effort to reclaim his post, and the employee revolt of the past few days, was kind of a vindication that it was right to dismiss him. Clever Sam is still up to something! Meanwhile, all of Silicon Valley blew up, tarnishing OpenAI’s status, maybe permanently,” Wired commented further.

While the instance of 743 out of 770 OpenAI staffers, in their open letter, asking the board to quit and accusing the members of being “incapable of overseeing OpenAI,” might sound unprecedented, these aggrieved professionals were correct from their standpoint.

As per the Wired report, the board compared the staff outburst similar like negotiating with terrorists. Isn’t it a prime example of being in delusion? If the board members felt Sam Altman was not being honest in his communication with them, they should have talked the matter out, rather than jumping the gun and forcing the OpenAI CEO to leave his venture, thereby opening the Pandora’s Box called ‘chaos’.

“Having deleted his distrust of Altman, Sutskever and Altman have been sending love notes to each other on X, the platform owned by Elon Musk, another fellow OpenAI cofounder, now estranged from the project,” the report noted.

In fact, in the worst-case scenario, had Sam Altman stayed in Microsoft’s AI division, OpenAI staffers have joined him too, thereby orchestrating the death of the tech sector’s most happening start-up.

A New York Times report even claimed that OpenAI leaders thought that allowing the company to be destroyed “would be consistent with the venture’s mission.”

However, things changed, as the board came to its senses and agreed to Altman’s return as OpenAI CEO. Two of the directors resigned, leaving only D’Angelo on the board. The latter was joined by Bret Taylor and Lawrence Summers. The new board and Sam Altman need to decide upon a couple of things. Should the venture continue as a non-profit one with a for-profit arm? In case a ‘Project Q’ like situation breaks out again, how to handle it without forcing important officials to resign?

Had OpenAI been dissolved, Microsoft would have gained immensely. OpenAI is known for pioneering the 21st century’s AI revolution and gaining the venture’s talent pool would have been the best coup in Silicon Valley’s history.

It would have been the best example of a venture like OpenAI, formed intending to thwart Silicon Valley biggies from dominating AI technology, delivering its talent and research infrastructure to a multi-trillion-dollar giant.

“Microsoft would have no qualms whatsoever about pocketing truly unlimited amounts of returns from future breakthroughs from the ex-OpenAI staff—something that anyone who was thinking of following Altman over there might have pondered, in light of their previous time at a company with different founding principles,” Wired summed the hypothesis up further.

However, OpenAI will continue to exist and as per reports, is now working on PPO (Proximal Policy Optimisation), which is a reinforcement learning algorithm used to train AI models to make decisions in complex, or simulated environments. While PPO’s versatility allows it to excel in scenarios like robotics, autonomous systems, and algorithmic trading, the venture has adopted PPO in a variety of use cases, from training agents in simulated environments to mastering complex games. The latest buzz is that OpenAI is now aiming to achieve AGI through gaming and simulated environments with PPO’s help.

Both the tech industry and OpenAI need each other, given the fact that ‘Innovation’ and ‘Positive Disruption’ keep the sector moving. ChatGPT, Microsoft 365 Copilot, and CoAssit are all being built and run on NVIDIA’s AI supercomputer and data centre infrastructures. Add Microsoft’s stable backing towards OpenAI. What we are witnessing right now is the formation of an ecosystem, which is set to change the industry forever.

Therefore, a stable corporate boardroom is a necessary one, both for OpenAI and this ecosystem.

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Emmett Shear, co-founder of video streaming site Twitch, will take over as OpenAI’s new CEO, the Information report said, citing co-founder and board director Ilya Sutskever.

Talking about Altman, he and Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s former president, will now be joining Microsoft and lead a new advanced AI research team.

The move, announced by the tech giant’s boss Satya Nadella, may prove to be an ominous one for the OpenAI, analysts predicted.

Nadella also said that Microsoft, a key investor in OpenAI, will be getting to know Emmett Shear and the tech venture’s new leadership team.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Nadella remarked, “We remain committed to our partnership with OpenAI and have confidence in our product roadmap, our ability to continue to innovate with everything we announced at Microsoft Ignite, and in continuing to support our customers and partners. We look forward to getting to know Shear and OAI’s new leadership team and working with them.”

“And we’re extremely excited to share the news that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, together with colleagues, will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team. We look forward to moving quickly to provide them with the resources needed for their success,” the Microsoft boss added further.

The Tumultuous Few Days

Altman, whose mission was to spearhead efforts to transform OpenAI from a non-profit into a commercially viable business, faced the board of director’s heat for not being ‘candid in his conversations’.

As per the reports, Altman clashed with the board members, amid the latter’s concern about the OpenAI CEO was moving too quickly, “without sufficient concern to the safety implications of a technology that, left unchecked, could create content capable of harming the public”.

Immediately after Altman’s removal, OpenAI Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap said that safety was not the primary reason behind the board’s decision, while citing the “breakdown in communications” as the reason behind the move.

Reports also emerged about OpenAI’s interim CEO Mira Murati bringing back Sam Altman and the venture’s former President Greg Brockman in a ‘yet to be finalized capacity’.

On November 20, Altman posted a picture on his X account, where he was seen posing with a picture of guest card at the OpenAI offices, claiming ‘first and last time I ever wear one of these.’

In fact, Altman and Brockman joined executives at the OpenAI’s San Francisco headquarters after Murati told the staff about her inviting the maverick tech leader.

Altman’s sacking also worried the OpenAI staffers about the decision potentially affecting the upcoming USD 86 billion worth share sale. In fact, one of Altman’s conditions for returning to the tech company was the removal of the existing board members.

It was said that if Altman returns as the CEO, Microsoft, which owns a 49% stake in OpenAI, would likely to take up a role on the board. Reports also claimed about Microsoft and Nadella being blindsided by the OpenAI’s sudden leadership change.

Nadella also reportedly offered Altman his full support in his bid to return to the company and in any of his future endeavors. However, Emmett Shear’s appointment poured cold water on the above-mentioned ‘possibilities’.

Microsoft currently uses OpenAI’s solutions like Bing Chat and Windows Copilot for improving its products.

Is Altman Working On A New Venture?

Meanwhile, Altman is now working on a new artificial intelligence venture, reports suggested.

Brockman too will be joining the effort. It is worth mentioning that prominent OpenAI researchers including Szymon Sidor, have quit the company over the CEO change.

On September 2023, the Information reported about Altman and Apple’s former design chief Jony Ive discussing building a new AI hardware device, with SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son being involved in the conversation. It has to be seen now how the project shapes, as OpenAI have already moved beyond the Altman era.

Will the project go ahead? We have to wait and watch.

The post OpenAI closes ‘Sam Altman’ chapter as tech maverick joins Microsoft appeared first on International Finance.

The company is also putting Bard’s technology into Google’s search engine to make it easier to find answers to complicated questions.

Bard has been made available to specialised product testers in the first week of February 2023, and in the coming days, it will be made available to everyone. Like ChatGPT, Bard is run by a “large language model,” in this case, LaMDA from Google.

LaMDA and ChatGPT are significant language artificial intelligence models that use neural networks and computer programmes to simulate the human brain’s internal structure. By giving them a lot of text from the internet, these chatbots are trained on how to write answers to text-based questions.

Following its release in November 2022, ChatGPT has gained popularity for producing a wide range of legitimate content, including academic essays, poems, and job applications. Analysts estimate that there are already 100 million users. It also cleared the Minnesota University Law School exam in January 2023, along with the Wharton MBA exam, and the US law and medical licensing tests.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has been vocal about Bard being as good as ChatGPT. Google’s information release on the chatbot included an example of Bard responding to a question about how to teach a nine-year-old about recent discoveries made by NASA’s James Webb space telescope and learning about the current top football strikers and receiving training routines to imitate elite players.

Sundar Pichai stated, “Bard seeks to combine the depth of the world’s knowledge with the strength, intelligence, and creativity of our large language models. It also uses data from the internet to deliver original, excellent responses.”

Google also said its search engine would incorporate the newest artificial intelligence technologies, including LaMDA, PaLM, the picture generator Imagen, and the music maker MusicLM.

Sundar Pichai also said that new artificial intelligence-powered search engine features would make complex data and different points of view easier to understand.

He gave the example of asking Google, “Which instrument is easier to learn, a guitar or a piano?”

Instead of providing a link to a single blog post, Google gave an example of a conversational answer to the question.

It reads, “Some claim the piano is easier to master, as the finger and hand movements are more natural, and learning and memorising notes can be more accessible.”

Others argue that learning guitar chords is more straightforward and that one may quickly master a strumming pattern.

To create apps utilising Google’s artificial intelligence technology, the company will also make the LaMDA technology available to developers, creators, and enterprises.

When a Google employee made public assertions that LaMDA was “sentient” in 2022, it quickly became a topic of discussion over the potential power of artificial intelligence. So, Google fired Blake Lemoine because they thought his claims about LaMDA, which stands for “language model for dialogue applications,” were “wholly unfounded.”

Google made its statement as Microsoft, a major supporter of ChatGPT, prepared to release other products utilising the chatbot’s technology. OpenAI, a San Francisco-based company that has secured a massive investment from Microsoft, created ChatGPT.

Users of Microsoft’s Bing search engine claimed to have seen a preview of a feature over the weekend that allowed them to ask queries up to 1,000 characters long with source citations in the answers.

In response to Google’s move, Microsoft is now revamping its Bing search engine and Edge web browser with artificial intelligence, in one of its biggest efforts to lead a new wave of technology and reshape how people gather information.

Microsoft is staking its future on artificial intelligence through billions of dollars of investment, while it challenges Google.

This rivalry may result in new competition in the field of cloud computing and collaboration products in 2023.

Working with OpenAI, Microsoft is now aiming to leapfrog Google and claim control over vast returns from tools that speed up content creation, automating tasks, if not jobs themselves.

“This technology is going to reshape pretty much every software category,” Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella told reporters at company headquarters in Washington.

Investors are also expecting the artificial intelligence battle to create new markets. Shares of Microsoft rose 3.8% and Alphabet, Google’s parent, gained by 3.6%.

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

Bing will be powered by artificial intelligence and run on a new “large language model” that is more powerful than ChatGPT, said Microsoft Consumer Chief Marketing Officer Yusuf Mehdi. Bing is currently far behind Google in search market share.

Microsoft is now aiming to market OpenAI’s technology to its cloud customers and add the same power to its suite of products, including search.

Near-term, “the partnership with OpenAI is more relevant for its business customers,” said Gartner analyst Jason Wong, while interacting with AlJazeera. He, however, also said that 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.

The rivalry in the field of search engines is now among the industry’s biggest, as OpenAI sets up Microsoft to expand its 9% share at Google’s expense, said Daniel Ives, an analyst with Wedbush Securities.

The post Google’s Bard vs Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s ChatGPT: Rivalry to watch out for in 2023 appeared first on International Finance.

ChatGPT, a chatbot launched by OpenAI in November 2022, has recently passed exams at a US law school in January 2023. It wrote essays on topics like constitutional law and taxation.

As per AFP reports, Minnesota University Law School professor Jonathan Choi gave ChatGPT the same test faced by his students. The chatbot had to answer 95 multiple-choice questions and 12 essay questions. The experiment was a part of a research paper titled “ChatGPT goes to law school”.

The bot scored an overall C+, just enough marks to pass the test. The bot was, however, near the bottom of the class in most subjects and failed in solving MCQs involving mathematics.

ChatGPT has also cleared the Wharton MBA exam, and the US law and medical licensing tests, thus forcing the New York City Department of Education to ban the bot out of the fear that the students may use ChatGPT to complete homework assignments, solve mathematical equations and write essays. The bot has also been banned in several public schools in Seattle. Top French university Sciences Po has also introduced a similar measure.

However, many are seeing ChatGPT as a major technological breakthrough, and they are ready to invest in this innovation.

China’s largest internet search engine Baidu is planning to debut a new AI chatbot service, rivalling ChatGPT and eyeing a March 2023 launch. As per Bloomberg, the AI will be embedded into Baidu’s primary search services, apart from having conversation-style search results. If Baidu meets the launch deadline, then it will beat Google in the race of launching the next big AI.

Feeling the pressure, Google has promised to invest in 20 AI projects. However, one may call this move a badly-timed one as the tech giant has been in the headlines for laying off 12,000 employees in January 2023.

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is commonly called a Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer. The chatbot is built on top of OpenAI’s GPT-3 family of large language models, and is fine-tuned with supervised and reinforcement learning techniques. It was launched on November 30, 2022, after which, it quickly grabbed eyeballs by displaying its detailed, well-articulated responses across multiple disciplines of knowledge. However, it has a problem in the form of frequent factual inaccuracies.

Compared to a normal chatbot, ChatGPT can write and debug computer programs, compose music, teleplays, fairy tales, and student essays. It can also answer test questions, apart from writing poetry and song lyrics. Its other abilities include emulating a Linux system, simulating a chat room, playing games like tic-tac-toe and mimicking an ATM.

ChatGPT also remembers its previous prompts given in the same conversation. To prevent offensive outputs from being presented to and produced from the bot, queries get filtered through OpenAI’s moderation API (Application Programming Interface), dismissing racist/sexist prompts during a conversation.

As interesting as the ChatGPT sounds, equally interesting is the story of its emergence.

Samuel Altman & The Game-Changing Tie-Up With Microsoft

Samuel H. Altman, who heads OpenAI, is an American entrepreneur, investor, programmer and blogger.

After finishing his schooling at John Burroughs School, Samuel Altman studied computer science at Stanford University until dropping out in 2005. In 2017, he received an honorary degree from the University of Waterloo.

At the age of 19, Samuel Altman co-founded and became CEO of the location-based social networking mobile application Loopt, in 2005. After raising over USD 30 million from the market, Loopt was shut down in 2012 and was later acquired by the Green Dot Corporation for USD 43.4 million.

After Loopt’s failure, Samuel Altman became a part-time partner at Y Combinator in 2011. In 2014, he became the president of this US-based tech startup accelerator. In the same year, the company’s valuation crossed the USD 65 billion mark. In 2016, Samuel Altman made public his plans of expanding Y Combinator to fund 1,000 new companies per year. He attempted to expand the types of YC-funded companies, especially ‘hard technology’ companies.

In October 2015, USD 700 million growth-stage equity fund YC Continuity came up with the goal of investing in YC companies. Samuel Altman also formed a non-profit research lab called Y Combinator Research and donated USD 10 million to the group.

Samuel Altman was named the top investor under 30 by Forbes in 2015. He also bagged the honour of “Best Young Entrepreneurs in Technology” by BusinessWeek in 2008, apart from getting listed as one of the five most interesting startup founders between 1979 and 2009 by his colleague Paul Graham.

By early 2020, Samuel Altman left YC. As an angel investor, Samuel Altman has backed companies like Airbnb, Stripe, Reddit, Asana and Pinterest. He also headed Reddit for eight days in 2014 after CEO Yishan Wong resigned.

When Samuel Altman formed OpenAI, he got funding from Elon Musk, author and tech entrepreneur Jessica Livingston, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, venture capitalist Peter Thiel, Amazon Web Services, Infosys and YC Research. During its launch in 2015, OpenAI raised USD 1 billion.

As per a Wall Street Journal report, OpenAI’s partnership with Microsoft will be a game-changing one, in terms of creating products catering to new-age internet users.

Shortly after becoming OpenAI CEO, Samuel Altman received USD 1 billion in funding from Microsoft head Satya Nadella, along with a business deal. OpenAI also got the resource access to train and improve its artificial intelligence algorithms.

The partnership first introduced a project called DALL-E 2 in 2022, enabling users to create realistic art from strings of text. Then came ChatGPT. Microsoft will also integrate OpenAI’s models into the Bing search app and a new design program called Microsoft Design.

As per the WSJ report, the OpenAI-Microsoft partnership will soon launch the ‘sale of employee-owned stock’. OpenAI’s stock was previously valued at around USD 14 billion and now it has been discussed a higher price for the current offering. Microsoft will also increase its investments in Samuel Altman’s company.

OpenAI’s initial goal was to advance AI for humanity’s benefit, instead of going after corporate profit. However, in 2019, OpenAI brought on its first group of investors and capped returns at 100 times the cost of their contributions. After securing Microsoft’s investment, Samuel Altman pushed OpenAI to bring in more revenue to attract funding and support the computational resources needed to train its algorithms.

Microsoft has become OpenAI’s preferred partner for commercializing its technologies. This arrangement allows Microsoft to easily integrate OpenAI’s models into its products.

Aided by Microsoft funding, OpenAI has changed the game by releasing its disruptive AI models and putting tech giants like Google under pressure.

What’s ahead?

As per WSJ, OpenAI has limited some venture investors’ profits to about 20 times their investments, with the ability to earn greater returns the longer these investors wait to sell their shares. During his recent chat with the investors, Samuel Altman also spoke about the possibility of OpenAI being able to touch the USD 1 billion yearly revenue mark.

The venture has already earned tens of millions of dollars from the sale of its programmable code to other developers, as per reports.

Samuel Altman also told TechCrunch recently about OpenAI’s latest research area, a video-based AI model. He said that his company can build its own software products and services, apart from licensing its technology to other companies, thus leaving experts to wonder whether openAI will rival Google, in the domain of internet search engines.

The post ChatGPT, Sam Altman & the OpenAI-Microsoft Deal appeared first on International Finance.

This will transform driver and passenger experiences with vehicle diagnostics, improved in-car productivity, advanced navigation, predictive maintenance of vehicles and more. Both companies will collaborate to take this platform to car manufacturers globally, to integrate with vehicle systems.

At the heart of this partnership is Ola Play, the world’s first connected car platform for ridesharing, that will leverage Microsoft AI and IoT to enhance driver experiences with telematics and navigation guidance; passenger experiences with cloud-based infotainment and productivity; and provide auto manufacturers with custom digital experiences for their customers.

Ola Play customers will be able to use productivity tools such as Office 365 and Skype for Business, as well as voice-assisted controls built using Microsoft Cognitive Services and Bot framework, in-car during their rides. The advanced telematics platform will transform the car into a high-performing, intelligent vehicle, capable of assessing fuel efficiency, engine performance, and driver performance. It will also enable smarter navigation and predict breakdowns, enhancing safety and security while creating new business models and opportunities.

“Today’s car is quickly becoming the ultimate computing device and together with Ola, we’re focused on providing more intelligent, connected and productive experiences to our customers,” said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. “The combination of Microsoft Azure, Office 365 and our AI platform with Ola Play will deliver new customer experiences and business opportunities across the automotive ecosystem.”

Bhavish Aggarwal, Co-Founder and CEO of Ola said, “Globally, the auto industry is experiencing a seismic shift as the definition of automobiles is increasingly changing from gas-powered vehicles to technology-packed, connected devices. With Ola Play, we have already set the tone for connected vehicles in India; together with Microsoft, we can make the new platform available to a larger, global audience and unlock futuristic experiences for customers worldwide.”

The platform is designed to continually collect, analyze, and learn from high volumes of data and user behaviour. This will allow for customised offerings to shape the nature of services and business models, such as usage-based insurance, amongst others. Microsoft and Ola also plan to build superior safety features and advanced driver assistance services, as well.

Launched in late 2016, Ola Play, in a short span of time has transformed the in-car experience for millions of Indians. With a range of connected experiences that the customers can seamlessly control through their smartphones as well as a tablet, Ola Play has made commutes more productive and enjoyable. With advanced telematics, productivity tools and intelligent cloud integrations as part of this partnership, Ola and Microsoft are together building the future of connected vehicles.

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