Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella has cautioned that artificial intelligence (AI) could become a speculative bubble if its benefits remain concentrated among major technology companies and wealthy economies.

Speaking on Tuesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Nadella said the long-term sustainability of AI depends on its ability to deliver real productivity gains across a wide range of industries and regions, rather than primarily boosting the fortunes of large tech firms.

“For this not to be a bubble by definition, it requires that the benefits are much more evenly spread,” Nadella said, adding that AI must demonstrate meaningful impact beyond the technology sector to justify current levels of investment and enthusiasm.

He explained that a key warning sign would be a situation where AI growth enriches technology companies without significantly improving productivity in other parts of the economy. According to him, widespread adoption across sectors such as healthcare, manufacturing and scientific research would be crucial in determining whether AI fulfils its promise.

Despite the warning, Nadella expressed optimism about the technology’s transformative potential. He said AI is likely to accelerate innovation, particularly as it builds on existing cloud computing and mobile platforms, with applications ranging from industrial processes to drug discovery.

The Microsoft CEO also highlighted a growing global divide in AI adoption, noting that current data shows usage and productivity gains are largely concentrated in developed countries. He warned that uneven uptake could limit AI’s broader economic impact and widen existing inequalities between rich and poor economies.

Nadella further stated that the future of AI would not be dominated by a single model provider, a belief that has shaped Microsoft’s approach to working with multiple AI developers. Beyond its partnership with OpenAI, the company has pursued collaborations with other firms to encourage a more diverse and competitive AI ecosystem.

His remarks were made during a discussion with BlackRock Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink at the Davos meeting, where global technology and business leaders gathered to discuss the risks and opportunities associated with the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence.

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TECH DIGEST- Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella introduced Phi-2, an advanced AI model boasting a staggering 2.7 billion parameters. What sets Phi-2 apart is not just its impressive size but its ability to rival and often surpass AI models up to 25 times its size, marking a paradigm shift in the relationship between model dimensions and performance.

Phi-2’s remarkable capabilities have been demonstrated across various domains, showcasing exceptional proficiency in language comprehension, mathematical problem-solving, programming, and information processing.

What makes Phi-2 truly stand out is its integration into Microsoft Azure AI Studio, providing researchers and developers with a powerful tool for seamlessly incorporating advanced AI into their applications.

A key feature of Phi-2 is its training on meticulously curated data corresponding to varying education levels. This unique approach contributes to the model’s accuracy and efficiency, enabling it to excel in knowledge transfer and interpretation. Microsoft’s emphasis on carefully selecting and structuring training data challenges conventional thinking and positions Phi-2 as a frontrunner in language models.

Phi-2’s compact size, relative to its counterparts, does not compromise its performance. It stands shoulder to shoulder with larger models such as the 7B Mistral and the 13B Llama 2 from Meta, even competing with the massive 70B Llama-2. Notably, Phi-2 surpasses Google’s Gemini Nano, showcasing its potential for mobile technology. With automatic text summarization, advanced proofreading, grammar correction, and contextual intelligent responses, Phi-2 emerges as a game-changer in the mobile AI landscape.

What truly sets Phi-2 apart is its ethical foundation. Microsoft’s experts highlight that Phi-2 achieves its high performance without relying on reinforcement learning methods based on human feedback or instructive optimization methods. This approach minimizes bias and reduces the risk of toxic emissions, positioning Phi-2 as one of the safest and most ethical models in the AI realm.

Phi-2 signals a new era in machine learning, where training quality and efficiency take center stage. Microsoft not only showcases significant strides in AI but also opens doors for global developers and researchers. Phi-2 heralds a future of smarter and safer technologies, redefining the landscape of possibilities in the ever-evolving field of artificial intelligence. As the industry witnesses this remarkable leap, Phi-2 stands as a testament to Microsoft’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of innovation.

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TECHDIGEST – Microsoft has unveiled a new version of its Binge search engine and Edge browser powered by a higher version of the popular AI chatbot, ChatGPT.

Nairametrics understands that the development will help Microsoft to challenge its main rival, Google, which recently introduced its own conversational AI tool called Bard.

The company said following the integration of the AI tool, the search engine and the browser will provide a now new experience for browsing the web and finding information online.

READ ALSO: Google deploys ‘Open Buildings’ AI to map buildings across Africa

Microsoft’s announcement came barely a day after Google announced its own conversational AI tool, called Bard to rival ChatGpt as the battle of AI intensifies.

While announcing the new product during an online event, Microsoft’s Chairman and CEO, Satya Nadella, said: “Today, we’re launching an all-new, AI-powered Bing search engine and Edge browser, available in preview now at Bing.com, to deliver better search, more complete answers, a new chat experience, and the ability to generate content. We think of these tools as an AI copilot for the web.

“AI will fundamentally change every software category, starting with the largest category of all – search. There are 10 billion search queries a day, but we estimate half of them go unanswered. That’s because people are using search to do things it wasn’t originally designed to do. It’s great for finding a website, but for more complex questions or tasks too often it falls short.”

The “new Bing,” as Microsoft is calling it, offers a chat function where users can ask questions and receive answers in natural language. The feature uses an updated version of the AI language model built by OpenAI that underpins ChatGPT — known as the “Prometheus Model” — which offers more up-to-date information with annotated answers.

In live demos, Microsoft showed the new Bing displaying traditional search results side-by-side with annotations and an AI chat interface. The company showed a number of example searches: for recipes, for travel tips, shopping for furniture from Ikea, and more.

In one demo Bing was asked to “create an itinerary for each day of a 5-day trip to Mexico.” The question was answered by the chatbot, describing the itinerary alongside links to sources for the information.

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TECHDIGEST – OpenAI, the company behind the popular AI tool ChatGPT, announced on Monday that it has secured an additional investment running into billions of dollars from Microsoft.

Nairametrics understands that the investment will allow OpenAI to continue its independent research towards developing AI that is increasingly safe, useful, and powerful.

Note that the latest investment extends the partnership between the two tech companies.

OpenAI also noted that the investment by Microsoft will not change its status as a capped-profit company.

“In pursuit of our mission to ensure advanced AI benefits all of humanity, OpenAI remains a capped-profit company and is governed by the OpenAI non-profit. This structure allows us to raise the capital we need to fulfil our mission without sacrificing our core beliefs about broadly sharing benefits and the need to prioritize safety.

“Microsoft shares this vision and our values, and our partnership is instrumental to our progress.”

Microsoft confirmed the investment in a blog post seen by Nairametrics, saying that it would accelerate AI breakthroughs to ensure the benefits are broadly shared with the world.

The official announcements confirmed the earlier speculations that Microsoft was planning to invest $10 billion into OpenAi, although the two companies are not revealing the actual amount.

According to Microsoft, the latest investment follows its previous investments in 2019 and 2021 and it extends the ongoing collaboration across AI supercomputing and research and enables each of the two companies to independently commercialize the resulting advanced AI technologies.

“We formed our partnership with OpenAI around a shared ambition to responsibly advance cutting-edge AI research and democratize AI as a new technology platform. In this next phase of our partnership, developers and organizations across industries will have access to the best AI infrastructure, models, and toolchain with Azure to build and run their applications,” said Chairman and CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella.

Meanwhile, the Chief Executive Officer of OpenAI, Sam Altman said: “The past three years of our partnership have been great. Microsoft shares our values and we are excited to continue our independent research and work toward creating advanced AI that benefits everyone.”

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TECHDIGEST – Microsoft is shutting down its social network, LinkedIn, in China, saying having to comply with the Chinese state has become increasingly challenging.

It comes after the career-networking site faced questions for blocking the profiles of some journalists.

But this will not include a social feed or the ability to share or post articles.

LinkedIn senior vice-president Mohak Shroff blogged: “We’re facing a significantly more challenging operating environment and greater compliance requirements in China.”

And the firm said in a statement: “While we are going to sunset the localised version of LinkedIn in China later this year, we will continue to have a strong presence in China to drive our new strategy and are excited to launch the new Jobs app later this year.”

‘Gross appeasement’

LinkedIn had been the only major Western social-media platform operating in China.

When it launched there, in 2014, it had agreed to adhere to the requirements of the Chinese government in order to operate there, but also promised to be transparent about how it conducted business in the country and said it disagreed with government censorship.

Recently, LinkedIn blacklisted several journalist accounts, including those of Melissa Chan and Greg Bruno, from its China-based website.

Mr Bruno, who has written a book documenting China’s treatment of Tibetan refugees, told Verdict he was not surprised the Chinese Communist Party did not like it but was “dismayed that an American tech company is caving into the demands of a foreign government”.

US senator Rick Scott called the move a “gross appeasement and an act of submission to Communist China”, in a letter to LinkedIn chief executive Ryan Roslansky and Microsoft boss Satya Nadella.

It’s hard to pinpoint whether LinkedIn’s move was driven by the pressure from China, or that from the US. It could be both, as the Chinese government has been tightening its grip over the internet, and meanwhile, LinkedIn has drawn growing criticism in America for bowing to Beijing’s censorship rules.

LinkedIn launched its Chinese version in 2014, hoping to tap into the country’s huge market.

Seven years on, it has struggled against local competitors and run into regulatory problems. In March, LinkedIn was reportedly punished by the Chinese regulator for failing to censor political content, resulting in a suspension of new user registration for 30 days. Other than controversy over censorships, the platform has been used by Chinese intelligence agencies as a recruitment tool.

In a letter to the platform’s users in China today, President of LinkedIn China Lu Jian pledges that the site will continue to “connect global business opportunities”.

But LinkedIn’s shutdown in China shows an opposite trend. The country’s heavily controlled internet has drifted further away from the rest of the world, and it’s increasingly challenging for global business operating in China to bridge the deep divide.

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TECHDIGEST – Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella has described the proposed deal to buy TikTok, under pressure from the Trump White House, as “the strangest thing”.

In August 2020, as President Trump threatened to ban TikTok, the Chinese video app’s owner ByteDance approached Microsoft as a possible partner.

The plan was to force the sale of the US part of the business over concerns it was a threat to national security.

In an interview with tech journalist Kara Swisher at the Code Conference, Mr Nadella admitted he was “kind of intrigued” when TikTok approached him.

TikTok was “an interesting product” and a good fit for Microsoft because it was a social, cloud-based service that used AI, he said.

The backdrop to the potential partnership was that then-President Trump had given a 15 September 2020 deadline for the Chinese-owned app to sell its US business, or be shut down.

The day before that deadline, Microsoft revealed that its offer to buy the company had been rejected.

In the end, TikTok struck a deal with Oracle and Walmart. However, after months of delays and legal challenges, Mr Trump left office, and the need for any sort of deal receded.

details about that time, including that President Trump “had a particular point of view on what he was trying to get there, and then just dropped off”.

The requirements of the administration “just disappeared”, he added.

In June of this year, President Joe Biden revoked the executive order to ban TikTok and that of fellow Chinese app WeChat, putting any such deals with US tech firms on the backburner.

The US Department of Commerce said instead it would have continuing reviews of apps designed in “the jurisdiction of a foreign adversary” such as China.

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