AI comes to Ireland’s remote Islands through Microsoft’s ‘Skill Up’ program

On Inishbofin, a small island off the western coast of Ireland where the population hovers around 170 and the main industries are farming, fishing and tourism, a quiet technology revolution has been taking place.

Artificial intelligence (AI), once thought to be the exclusive domain of big cities and tech hubs, is making its way to the furthest corners of rural Ireland, empowering locals with cutting-edge tools to boost their businesses and preserve their traditional...

19 June 2024 | Applications

Microsoft unveils new Copilot+ PCs featuring advanced AI capabilities

Microsoft unveils new Copilot+ PCs featuring advanced AI capabilities

Microsoft has launched a new type of personal computer designed with AI capabilities, underscoring the company's commitment to integrating cutting-edge technology across its product lineup. 

This new category not only boosts Microsoft's ventures but also positions it to compete directly with AI-led advancements from tech giants such as Alphabet and Apple. During an event at Microsoft's campus in Redmond, Washington, CEO Satya Nadella unveiled the Copilot+ PCs....

21 May 2024 | Artificial Intelligence

OpenAI set to unveil AI-driven challenger to Google Search

Google's long-standing supremacy in the search engine arena may soon be challenged as OpenAI, boosted by its partnership with Microsoft, is reportedly stepping up to launch its own AI-driven search product.

According to two sources familiar with the matter who spoke to Reuters, OpenAI is scheduled to unveil its AI-powered search tool on Monday. The introduction of this product coincides closely with the timing of Google’s annual I/O conference, which starts on Tuesday and is...

10 May 2024 | Applications

Coalition of news publishers sue Microsoft and OpenAI

A coalition of major news publishers has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft and OpenAI, accusing the tech giants of unlawfully using copyrighted articles to train their generative AI models without permission or payment.

First reported by The Verge, the group of eight publications owned by Alden Global Capital (AGC) – including the Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, and Orlando Sentinel – allege the companies have purloined “millions" of their articles without permission...

1 May 2024 | Applications

Microsoft unveils Phi-3 family of compact language models

Microsoft has announced the Phi-3 family of open small language models (SLMs), touting them as the most capable and cost-effective of their size available. The innovative training approach developed by Microsoft researchers has allowed the Phi-3 models to outperform larger models on language, coding, and math benchmarks.

"What we're going to start to see is not a shift from large to small, but a shift from a singular category of models to a portfolio of models where customers get...

24 April 2024 | Artificial Intelligence

Microsoft to forge AI partnerships with South Korean tech leaders

Microsoft is set to host top executives from South Korea’s leading technology firms next month to strengthen its AI partnerships.

The high-level meeting, dubbed the MS CEO Summit 2024, will be held on 14 May 2024 and feature Microsoft's founder Bill Gates and Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella. They will engage in closed-door discussions with Kyung Kye-hyun of Samsung, Kwak Noh-jung of SK Hynix, Cho Joo-wan of LG Electronics, and Ryu Young-sang of SK Telecom.

Sources for...

22 April 2024 | Artificial Intelligence

Microsoft AI opens London hub to access ‘enormous pool’ of talent

Microsoft is doubling down on its AI efforts in the UK with the opening of a major new AI hub in London. The Microsoft AI London outpost will focus on advancing state-of-the-art language models, supporting infrastructure, and tooling for foundation models.

The hub will be led by AI scientist and engineer Jordan Hoffmann, who previously distinguished himself as a pioneer at AI companies Inflection and DeepMind, which are also based in London.

"There is an enormous pool of...

8 April 2024 | Artificial Intelligence

Mistral AI unveils LLM rivalling major players

Mistral AI, a France-based startup, has introduced a new large language model (LLM) called Mistral Large that it claims can compete with several top AI systems on the market.  

Mistral AI stated that Mistral Large outscored most major LLMs except for OpenAI's recently launched GPT-4 in tests of language understanding. It also performed strongly in maths and coding assessments.

Co-founder and Chief Scientist Guillaume Lample said Mistral Large represents a major...

27 February 2024 | Applications

Microsoft is quadrupling its AI and cloud investment in Spain

Microsoft has announced plans to significantly boost its investment in AI and cloud infrastructure in Spain, with a commitment to quadruple its spending during 2024-2025 to reach $2.1 billion. This substantial increase marks the largest investment by Microsoft in Spain since its establishment in the country 37 years ago.

The tech giant is set to unveil new data centres in Madrid and has outlined its intention to construct additional centres in Aragon, catering to European...

21 February 2024 | Artificial Intelligence

Microsoft unveils 2.7B parameter language model Phi-2

Microsoft’s 2.7 billion-parameter model Phi-2 showcases outstanding reasoning and language understanding capabilities, setting a new standard for performance among base language models with less than 13 billion parameters.

Phi-2 builds upon the success of its predecessors, Phi-1 and Phi-1.5, by matching or surpassing models up to 25 times larger—thanks to innovations in model scaling and training data curation.

The compact size of Phi-2 makes it an ideal playground...

13 December 2023 | Artificial Intelligence