Due to international lockdowns, everyone had to start doing their work from home. Thanks to that, the demand for computer parts had increased significantly. This demand had caused massive shortages in supply of computer parts.

The shortage of computer parts was not limited to just graphics cards. But it also included RAM, SSD and others. As lockdowns were lifted and people went back to work from their workplace, the demand for the computer parts decreased too.

This decrease in demand meant that chipmakers, including the ones which make chips which go in RAM and SSD, were leftover with a huge amount of unsold inventory with them. This lead to RAM and SSDs getting cheaper.

The famous DRAM (RAM chips) and NAND (SSD chips) makers are Samsung, Kioxia, SK Hynix, Micron and others. So what did these manufacturers do with unsold inventory. They stopped or decreased the production of the DRAM and NAND ships. This meant that after some time, the prices of RAM and SSD would increase.

New evidence shows that the prices of DRAM and NAND chips are increasing by now.

DRAM And NAND Chips Prices Rise

Taiwan based DIGITIMES reports (translated), via @dnystedt and Tom’s Hardware, that the prices of DRAM and NAND chips have started increasing in the spot market. Spot market prices give us more immediate information, which is unlike long term contracts where prices are fixed for a longer term.

The report says that the 512Gb TLC NAND wafer prices have increased as much as 20% in a single month. If that is not alone, the prices of DDR5 RAM chips too seem to have increased in double digits, thanks to the increasing demand in the newer RAM.

Even the prices of DDR4 RAM chips are increasing. With an average increase of at least 3% per month, having a 10% increase since August. This is unlike DDR3, which continue to get cheaper.

The reason behind all this is simple. NAND chipmakers are holding onto their inventory, causing the price of SSDs to increase, so they can profit due to it. This is because these manufacturers are currently selling these chips at a loss.

For example, a year ago, a single 512Gb TLC NAND wafer used to sell at $1.4, that has increased to $2.6 this month. However, the prices need to reach at least $3.2 to $3.5 for chipmakers to reach a breakeven (no profit, no loss) point.

So big are the losses that all manufacturers are running at a loss of $6 billion each, which is down from $8 billion of losses they had a quarter ago, thanks to them cutting-down on production.

Conclusion

The report mentions that the production of DRAM and NAND chips are going to decrease further going into 2024. This means that the prices of RAM and SSD is only going to increase further.

So what we can suggest is simple. If one wants to buy or upgrade their RAM or SSD soon, now is the correct time. As otherwise, the prices are only going to increase further.

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Over the last few years, the Microsoft Rewards program has regularly evolved to reflect our growth and expansion. We evaluate every change for consistency and fairness, tuning the methods and frequency through which our members can earn points. Whether searching with Bing, browsing with Edge, playing on Xbox, or making purchases in the Microsoft store, we know our members take delight in the added incentive the Microsoft Rewards program offers. We aim to grow in ways that continue to provide value to our members, and we eagerly monitor feedback to ensure satisfaction. We appreciate the enthusiasm and loyalty of our Microsoft Rewards members and remain excited for the program’s future.

Original story - The Microsoft Rewards program has gone through a lot of changes over the years. It first started out with the name Bing Rewards, but got a name change to its current branding in 2016. In 2018, the Xbox Live Rewards program was merged with Microsoft Rewards.

However, the basic concept of the program has remained the same. People could earn points by filling out surveys, searching for content on Bing, and more and get points, which could be turned into digital gift cards, sweepstakes entries, or helping charities.

Now it looks like Microsoft is making some changes to its Rewards program. As reported by TrueAchievements, many users are reporting that the ability to earn points daily in the program by searching for content in Microsoft's Edge web browser has been eliminated. The number of daily points that could be earned was 20 in the US and 12 points in other markets.

The report also says that other users have found that normal search activities in Rewards have added a kind of "cool down" period. Previously, users could go through the normal search activities (without using Edge) pretty quickly every day. Now they claim that Microsoft is making people wait several seconds between each search attempt to get their points.

A few days ago, there were some other unconfirmed reports that Microsoft sent out a message stating it was planning to shut down the Microsoft Rewards app on Xbox consoles, in favor of the new Rewards hub in the Xbox user interface. As of this writing, there's been no confirmation of this reported change from other reliable sources.

In any case, it does look like Microsoft is making some small changes to how Microsoft Rewards works by ditching the Edge search feature. We have emailed Microsoft to see if they can provide any further information.

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The law required tech companies like Google to make deals with news media outlets in Canada so they could post links to their content on their services. At the time, Google stated:

The unprecedented decision to put a price on links (a so-called “link tax”) creates uncertainty for our products and exposes us to uncapped financial liability simply for facilitating Canadians’ access to news from Canadian publishers.

Today, Google blinked, as both it and the Canadian government announced that a deal has been reached that will allow the company to comply with the Online News Act.

In a statement, the Canadian government said:

As part of this framework, Google will contribute $100 million in financial support annually, indexed to inflation, for a wide range of news businesses across the country, including independent news businesses and those from Indigenous and official-language minority communities. Google will have the option to work with a single collective to distribute its contribution to all interested eligible news businesses based on the number of full-time equivalent journalists engaged by those businesses.

The $100 million in Canadian dollars is roughly equivalent to about $74 million US dollars.

In a statement to Ars Technica, Google stated it had caused Canada's government to make some changes in the Online News Act as well, stating the government had "agreed to a number of changes to address our deeply held concerns that C-18 would require payment for links and create uncapped financial liability through an unworkable bargaining process."

In its own blog post statement, Google added:

Following extensive discussions, we are pleased that the Government of Canada has committed to addressing our core issues with Bill C-18, which included the need for a streamlined path to an exemption at a clear commitment threshold.

 

While we work with the government through the exemption process based on the regulations that will be published shortly, we will continue sending valuable traffic to Canadian publishers.

While Canada and Google are now in agreement, the same cannot be said of Meta, which pulled news posts from Canadian media outlets from its Facebook and Instagram services in June, in protest of the Online News Act. The CBC got a response from a Meta spokesperson, who state:

Unlike search engines, we do not proactively pull news from the internet to place in our users' feeds and we have long been clear that the only way we can reasonably comply with the Online News Act is by ending news availability for people in Canada.

It would seem that the response from Meta would indicate there's no solution to their issues with Canada that's coming anytime soon.

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What you need to know

• NVIDIA's revenue for Q3 2023 currently stands at $18.12 billion, with profits at $10.42 billion, which makes it the most profitable semiconductor chip brand ahead of Intel and Samsung.
• This translates to a 206% year-over-year increase due to the high demand for AI chips.
• Microsoft and Meta are its biggest clients, buying 150,000 H100 GPUs each.

The US government recently imposed new exportation rules on chipmakers like NVIDIA, banning them from shipping AI chips to China over security concerns. This happened shortly after President Biden issued an Executive Order addressing AI safety and privacy concerns, which consequently blocked a shipment worth $5 billion headed to China.

Biden's administration insists that the move isn't in place to run down China's economy but to ensure safety guardrails are in place to ensure the technology isn't leveraged for ill purposes. However, China has seemingly found a workaround for this via its GPU recycling factories. The move has negatively impacted China and chipmakers shipping the components.

But despite all these setbacks, NVIDIA has seemingly emerged victorious, taking the crown as the most profitable semiconductor chip brand in the world ahead of Samsung and Intel, according to Tom's Hardware.

Rising demand for AI turns lucrative for NVIDIA

This doesn't come as a surprise, given the high demand for chips due to the rapid growth of generative AI-related ventures. In Q1 2023, NVIDIA came in at fourth place, but it has since climbed the ropes and is now the largest semiconductor firm in Q3 2023.

According to Taipei-based financial analyst Dan Nystedt's findings, NVIDIA's revenue for Q3 2023 currently stands at $18.12 billion, while its profit is $10.42 billion. This translates to a 206% year-over-year increase, with most of the profit stemming from AI chip sales. 

Per a report by Omdia (which specializes in market tracking), Meta and Microsoft are NVIDIA's largest purchasers of H100 GPUs. Each company bought approximately 150,000 H100 GPUs from the chipmaker, which is significantly more than what Google, Amazon, Oracle, and Tencent purchased when combined — each purchased  50,000 processors. 

TSMC, on the other hand, generated $17.28 billion in revenue and made a $7.21 billion profit. Intel staggered behind it with $14.16 billion and $8 million in losses. Finally, Samsung generated $12.52 billion in revenue and made significant losses of $2.86 billion. Samsung is arguably the largest memory chipmaker, but it's facing losses due to the drop in price for memory chips and the fact that potential customers have become more cautious when making purchases of these components.

Do you think NVIDIA will be able to meet the rising demand for AI chips? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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The animation and VFX company had been partially acquired by Unity in 2021 for $1.625 billion, with Peter Jackson's Weta FX retaining the rest. As part of the deal, Weta FX retained the use of those tools through a professional services agreement.

However, Unity has now decided to end the agreement. In a statement, the company said it needs to focus on its core games business and that it makes more sense for Weta FX to support the use of the tools directly. Weta FX, on the other hand, says it aims to rehire as many of the affected Weta Digital team members as possible.

In addition to the job cuts, Unity plans to close offices in 14 locations around the world. It will also significantly reduce office space in major hubs such as San Francisco and Bellevue, Washington.

Going forward, Unity said it will be more flexible about remote work. The company will no longer require employees to come into the office three days a week, instead reducing in-person time to three days in most locations.

The changes come as Unity's new leadership tries to refocus the business. In October, Jim Whitehurst became interim CEO after John Riccitiello retired. Sequoia Capital's Roelof Botha also took over as board chairman. The company stated he would "continue to advise Unity to ensure a smooth transition."

Unity has faced turbulence before when a new pricing policy for game developers backfired. Today's changes aim to reset Unity's strategy after that misstep shook investor confidence.

Source: Reuters

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What you need to know

• Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is an expansion that launched back in September 2023. 
• As part of the company's Q3 2023 results, CD Projekt shared that Phantom Liberty reached 4.3 million copies sold. 
• Developer CD Projekt RED is now allocating the majority of its developers to work on the next Witcher game, which is meant to kick off a trilogy. 
• Across internal development teams and external partners, CD Projekt RED is also working on a remake of the first Witcher game and a stylized Witcher spinoff.

The resurgence of Cyberpunk 2077 continues. 

CD Projekt shared its Q3 2023 financial results on Tuesday, revealing that Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty has sold 4.3 million copies so far, which helped contribute to the best Q3 period in the company's history. This is up from 3 million copies sold, which was the milestone the expansion reached just days after launch.

The publisher says this is a 20% attach rate, math that seems to check out when accounting for the fact that the expansion isn't available on the Xbox One or PlayStation 4 versions of Cyberpunk 2077. Additionally, CD Projekt RED reported profitability of 51.1% for the quarter.

In my review of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, I wrote "The storyline is gripping from the beginning, and integrates naturally into the main path of the base game. Protagonist V is drawn into cloak-and-dagger wetwork with a compelling cast of characters, all of which have their own agendas. This synergizes with the free 2.0 update, which brings a heavy rework to the perks, improved police chases, a new system for Cyberware, and more."

What's next for CD Projekt RED?

With Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty available now on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PS5, CD Projekt RED is working on shipping an ultimate physical edition of the game. Outside of that, the largest team at the company is now working on the next Witcher game, codenamed Polaris. Not much is known about the title, but it's being developed with Unreal Engine 5 and is meant to be the first game in a new trilogy. 

(Image credit: CD Projekt)

At internal studio The Molasses Flood, work is continuing on another spinoff in the Witcher franchise, though the team restarted development after being hit with layoffs earlier in the year. CD Projekt RED has also partnered with an external developer, Fool's Theory, to create a remake of the first Witcher game using Unreal Engine 5.

Analysis: Going dark for a bit

Outside of continued sales milestones for already-released games, I expect it'll be a little while before we hear anything from CD Projekt RED about the next Witcher game, though I do expect it'll be the next project we hear about, considering how work on the remake seems to be extremely early and the spinoff from The Molasses Flood was recently rebooted. 

For Cyberpunk 2077, its comeback now seems drawn in iron, and sales from Phantom Liberty and the Ultimate Edition of the game should help keep the company steady over the next year or so. 

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Over the last few years, Microsoft has released its own lineup of Windows-based holiday ugly sweaters to help raise money for a number of good causes. We have seen ugly sweaters based on the Windows 95 logo, the Windows XP logo, and MS Paint unleashed on the world. In 2021, Microsoft sold one with a Minesweeper theme, and in 2022, it offered one up with an image of the company's unofficial mascot, Clippy.

For 2023, the Windows Ugly Sweater will have a version of Bliss, the photo of a green hill and blue sky that was taken years ago in Sonoma County, California, and famously became the default wallpaper for the Windows XP operating system.

Because of the natural setting of the wallpaper and this year's ugly sweater, Microsoft is giving $100,000 of its proceeds from the sweater sales to The Nature Conservancy organization. You can head over to the windowsuglysweater.com website to buy your own, but there will only be a limited quantity of sweaters that will go on sale.

The site will also have some more free bonus content. You can get wallpapers for your phone, Teams background, or desktop to show off your Bliss ugly sweater image. There's even a special hotline on the site that you can call to give you trivia on the Bliss wallpaper.

Microsoft is also going on social media to promote the 2023 Windows Ugly Sweater campaign via Instagram, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter) from 9-10 am Pacific time today.

The event, set on a hand-crafted Bliss backdrop, will be revealing this year's design and filled with engaging edu-tainment, including Windows-specific trivia, a trip down memory lane and opportunities to purchase the Windows Ugly Sweater.

Will you go down memory lane and purchase a Windows Ugly Sweater with the legendary Bliss wallpaper?

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The game's official website has posted two sets of system requirements. The first is for gamers who want to play Homeworld 3 but without ray tracing effects.

Minimal

• In-game graphics preset - Low
• Resolution - 1080p
• GPU - NVIDIA GTX 1060, AMD R9 480, Intel ARC A380
• CPU - Intel I5-8600K, AMD Ryzen 5 3600X
• RAM - 12GB
• VRAM - 6GB
• OS and Storage - Windows 10-11 64-Bit, 40GB

Recommended

• In-game graphics preset - Medium
• Resolution - 1080p
• GPU - NVIDIA RTX 2070, AMD RX 5700, Intel ARC A580
• CPU - Intel 17-11700K AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
• RAM - 16GB
• VRAM - 8GB
• OS and Storage - Windows 10-11 64-Bit, 40GB

High

• In-game graphics preset - High
• Resolution - 1440p
• GPU - NVIDIA RTX 2070S, AMD RX 6600 XT, Intel ARC A770
• CPU - Intel 17-12700K, AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
• RAM - 16GB
• VRAM - 8GB
• OS and Storage - Windows 10-11 64-Bit, 40GB

Ultra

• In-game graphics preset - Epic
• Resolution - 2160p
• GPU - NVIDIA RTX 3080, AMD RX 6900 XT
• CPU - Intel 17-13700K, AMD Ryzen 9 7900X
• RAM - 16GB
• VRAM - 12GB
• OS and Storage - Windows 10-11 64-Bit, 40GB

There are also three more PC system requirements for gamers who want to play Homeworld 3 with ray tracing effects turned on. As you will see, the CPU and GPU requirements go much higher:

RT Low

• In-game graphics preset - Ray Tracing: Low
• Resolution - 1080p
• GPU - NVIDIA RTX 3060, AMD RX 6650 XT
• CPU - Intel 15-10600K, AMD Ryzen 5 5500
• RAM - 16GB
• VRAM - 8GB
• OS and Storage - Windows 10-11 64-Bit, 40GB

RT High

• In-game graphics preset - Ray Tracing: High
• Resolution - 1440p
• GPU - NVIDIA RTX 3080, AMD RX 6900 XT
• CPU - Intel17-12700K, AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
• RAM - 16GB
• VRAM - 12GB
• OS and Storage - Windows 10-11 64-Bit, 40GB

RT Ultra

• In-game graphics preset - Ray Tracing: Epic
• Resolution - 2160p
• GPU - NVIDIA RTX 4080, AMD RX 7900 XTX
• CPU - Intel 17-14900K, AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D
• RAM - 16GB
• VRAM - 16GB
• OS and Storage - Windows 10-11 64-Bit, 40GB

In addition, Blackbird states that Homeworld 3 will also support HDR for compatible displays. Some NVIDIA GPU card owners can also benefit from support for DLSS3 and Frame Generation and AMD GPU owners can expect support for AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.

Homeworld 3 is currently due out in February 2024 on Steam and the Epic Games Store You can also preorder the game's Collector's Edition on Amazon. Priced at $174.99, it includes, among other things, a 14-inch model of the game's main Mothership, along with smaller models of the game's Hiigaran Destroyer, Torpedo Frigate, and three Recon ships in formation.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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The search giant cautioned that inactive accounts are more likely to be compromised, and they are at least 10 times less likely than active accounts to have 2-step verification set up. "Meaning, these accounts are often vulnerable, and once an account is compromised, it can be used for anything from identity theft to a vector for unwanted or even malicious content, like spam," the company said at the time.

To prevent your Google account from getting purged, all you need to do is sign in at least once every 2 years. Your account will be considered active if you use one of Google's services like Gmail, Google Drive, YouTube, Sign-in with Google button, or download an app from Google Play.

However, it's worth noting that you need to sign in to Google Photos specifically every two years to ensure your uploaded photos and other media don't get deleted. Google won't purge your account if there is an active subscription, such as Google One, or if your account has YouTube videos.

This inactivity policy only applies to personal accounts and will not affect organizations, schools, or businesses. However, this doesn't mean Google will start removing all inactive accounts from December 1. The account deletion process will happen in a phased manner, where the search giant will first target accounts created and never used again.

It will send multiple reminders to a user's primary and recovery emails before deleting their account after two years of inactivity. If you have an old Google account that you no longer need, you can use Google's Takeout feature to download all your data.

You can also use the inactive account manager to configure what happens to your data if you become inactive in the future. For instance, you can choose to have your data deleted after a certain time period or give its access to a trusted contact.

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Google Drive, also known as GDrive, is among the most used online backup, file cloud storage and synchronization service out there.

To understand the scale of Google Drive, one has to see how many users it has. In 2018, TechCrunch reported that it had hit 1 billion active users. That means about 1 in 7 people in this world uses it. We believe its numbers might have only increased further since then.

The reason for its popularity is simple. GDrive gives 15GB of space for free for every Google account. It’s built-in and integrated with Gmail. It syncs your files on the go, providing an excellent backup service. Not to forget, it comes pre-installed on all Android phones, which contributes to its high usage.

But like every service, Google Drive too can have issues. Looks like it is going through one right now.

Google Drive Users Reporting Disappearing Files

About six days ago, a South Korea based user reported (via Tom’s Hardware and The Register) an issue of data loss on the Google support forums.

The user reported that the files on his / her Google Drive account have disappeared. Not only that, the folder structure of the account has gone back to what it was in May this year. Even data made after May seems to have disappeared.

The user mentions how it was unlikely for these files to be deleted as there were no files in the trash folder and he / she is the sole user of the account. The user mentions how he / she contacted Google support in South Korea, who tried to help to recover the files, but that didn’t work. Then the user contacted different places at Google and none of them were able to fix it.

In that post, many others too have chipped in. Other users too are reporting the same problems. One user said how they have lost months of data since May. Another user mentioned how a person in their organization too seems to have lost files in their Google Drive desktop since May.

Later, more and more users are coming ahead and reporting the same issue. One user reported that again, their files up till May have disappeared. Another user reported that 3 months of their files, folders and even activity logs have disappeared. Since then, the original post has gotten more and more users reporting the same issue.

Google Responds And A Temporary Fix

Two days ago, one user mentioned that he / she has gotten a reply from Google. The Google representative has acknowledged the issue, understanding that multiple admins are reporting it and Google is currently looking into the root cause of it.

In another reply from the same user, Google support has advised users to not make any changes to the root folder of the Google Drive. Hoping that a solution to this issue will be found soon this week.

Meanwhile, another user has posted a lengthy temporary fix for this issue on desktop. Worth checking out if those files are very important for you. This is while everyone waits for Google to fix this issue from their side.

So far, at the time of writing this article, 179 users on the original post have agreed that they have the same issue. Which might seem small, but not everyone reports or knows the issue until they specifically check it. Nor would everyone know about the post on Google support forums.

Our Opinion – Have More Backups

Honestly, this issue doesn’t seem to be files getting deleted, it seems more about files getting disappeared. In all likelihood, the files are still there, but only disappeared due to some bug.

However, this issue exposes the limitations on relying too much on online services, especially online storage services, without extra backup.

Nothing can replace a good physical storage backup. So we suggest everyone to follow a good backup policy where they have at least two backups of their important files, one online and one on a physical media which is different from the storage found inside their computer.

So backing up important files on external devices is recommended in addition to using online services such as Google Drive and others.

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Some of those users posted about their issues with the service on the Google Support forums. One of the people who was affected, who is from South Korea, stated:

Hi, my Google Drive files suddenly disappeared. The Drive literally went back to condition in May 2023. data from May until today disappeared, and the folder structure went back to status in May. Google Drive activity doesn't show any changes (only show activity that was in May) No files was deleted manually, so no files in Trash. I never sync or shared my files and drive to anyone, I used the drive locally.

The same person reported these issues to Google support. Some attempts to bring back the files, including using a recovery program, have failed so far. Similar messages have also been posted by other Google Drive users.

So far, this issue appears to only affect Google Drive customers who access the service on the desktop app. It does not seem to affect people who use the Google Drive website or its mobile apps.

The latest update on this issue on the support forums, which reportedly came from a Google team member, was posted earlier this morning. It stated:

As of this morning we know that Project Engineers are involved and are trying to understand the root cause before they can offer a fix. Per the top response, don't make any changes to your root folder for Drive. Hopefully we will get a solution this week.

We will update this post as more information on this issue, and a possible fix, is revealed.

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Google Drive is a cloud-based storage service that allows people to store and access files from any internet-connected device via their Google account. It is a widely used service by individuals and businesses (as part of Google Workspace).

A trending issue reported on Google's support forums starting last week describes a situation where people say they lost recent data and folder structure changes.

"There is a serious issue here that needs to escalate urgently. We have a support ticket open, this has not been helpful to date," said a Google Drive user on the support thread.

"I pay extra each month to store folders in the cloud so that it is safe, so it is devastating that all my work appears to have been lost," another Google Drive user posted.

The activity logs on impacted accounts do not show any recent changes, confirming that the users themselves didn't accidentally delete them.

Overall, there are no indications of a user error but rather a problem with the service's system that prevented the synchronization of data between the local devices and Google Cloud at some point.

Some users have offline caches that might contain the missing data, but no known method exists to restore access to the data within them.

Google's volunteer support agents have posted an alleged response from Google's support engineers that confirms they are already investigating the issue. However, an estimate for a fix hasn't been provided yet.

"Please accept my sincere apologies if I'm unable to join the Google Meet session. I am continously tracking this case and to be transparent with you we totally agree now that you are not the only customer affected by this behavior.

 

Aside from the thread link you provided there are other admins now that have reported the same behavior we encounter where after the update there are files that went missing. This is now being investigated by our Product Engineers and we are also waiting for a root cause analysis as well on how we can fix it. Due to the ongoing investigation we are unable to provide an ETA yet.

 

We don't recommend as well to make changes on the root/data folder while we wait for instructions from our Engieers. I will continue to monitor the behavior of reported issue from other admins and schedule a callback tommorow same time hoping there are progress within the day that I can deliver before our Google Meet session." - Google Support Team.

The recommendation for those affected is to avoid making changes to the root/data folder until the situation clears up and the root cause of the problem is determined.

Understandably, many users are frustrated by the loss of critical data they entrusted to the cloud-based service and, in many cases, paid for the hosting of their files. 

A notable aspect of the situation is that Google's support forums are backed by volunteers with limited insight or understanding of the cloud service, so the lack of effective assistance in critical problems like this makes it all the worse.

BleepingComputer has contacted Google for an update on the status of the internal investigation and whether the lost files are recoverable or irreversibly lost, but we have not received a response by publication time.

In this situation, Google Drive users should refrain from changing their cloud storage as it might complicate the recovery process. Instead, your best bet would be to contact Google Support, open a new case, and monitor for official updates.

Until the problem is resolved, it would be more prudent to backup important files locally or use a different cloud service.

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In separate blog posts, Microsoft announced that both Azure ACS and SharePoint Add-Ins will stop working for new tenants on November 1, 2024. Both of those services will stop working for existing tenants and will be retired completely on April 2, 2026.

For Azure ACS customers, Microsoft states that their authentication needs in Microsoft 365 "will be better served by modern auth offered via Microsoft Entra ID." Microsoft first announced back in July that its Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) service would be renamed as Microsoft Entra ID. The blog post added:

If you are using custom developed applications or are using SharePoint provider hosted Add-Ins, we recommend switching those applications to use Microsoft Entra ID for authorization and authentication needs.

In addition to the shut down and retirement dates for SharePoint Add-ins, Microsoft also announced that adding, updating, and acquiring SharePoint Add-Ins on its online store will be closing down even sooner. It stated:

As of March 1st, 2024 Microsoft will not accept new SharePoint Add-Ins for listing in the public marketplace, from July 1st, 2024 SharePoint Add-Ins cannot be acquired anymore from the public marketplace. Using a tenant app catalog will stay supported and enables 3rd parties to offer their SharePoint Add-Ins until April 2nd, 2026.

Microsoft also recommends that customers who have used custom-developed SharePoint add-ins to begin migrating those add-ins to SharePoint Framework based solutions. It added that any SharePoint Add-Ins that were accessed from a public marketplace or from a third party should ask those sources for an update that will not need the SharePoint Add-In extensibility model. That option will expire on the same date that the SharePoint Add-Ins themselves will close down on April 2nd, 2026.

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In a 20-page document unveiled Sunday, the 18 countries agreed that companies designing and using AI need to develop and deploy it in a way that keeps customers and the wider public safe from misuse.

The agreement is non-binding and carries mostly general recommendations such as monitoring AI systems for abuse, protecting data from tampering and vetting software suppliers.

Still, the director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Jen Easterly, said it was important that so many countries put their names to the idea that AI systems needed to put safety first.

"This is the first time that we have seen an affirmation that these capabilities should not just be about cool features and how quickly we can get them to market or how we can compete to drive down costs," Easterly told Reuters, saying the guidelines represent "an agreement that the most important thing that needs to be done at the design phase is security."

The agreement is the latest in a series of initiatives - few of which carry teeth - by governments around the world to shape the development of AI, whose weight is increasingly being felt in industry and society at large.

In addition to the United States and Britain, the 18 countries that signed on to the new guidelines include Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland, Australia, Chile, Israel, Nigeria and Singapore.

The framework deals with questions of how to keep AI technology from being hijacked by hackers and includes recommendations such as only releasing models after appropriate security testing.

It does not tackle thorny questions around the appropriate uses of AI, or how the data that feeds these models is gathered.

The rise of AI has fed a host of concerns, including the fear that it could be used to disrupt the democratic process, turbocharge fraud, or lead to dramatic job loss, among other harms.

Europe is ahead of the United States on regulations around AI, with lawmakers there drafting AI rules. France, Germany and Italy also recently reached an agreement on how artificial intelligence should be regulated that supports "mandatory self-regulation through codes of conduct" for so-called foundation models of AI, which are designed to produce a broad range of outputs.

The Biden administration has been pressing lawmakers for AI regulation, but a polarized U.S. Congress has made little headway in passing effective regulation.

The White House sought to reduce AI risks to consumers, workers, and minority groups while bolstering national security with a new executive order in October.

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Table of contents:

1. Windows 11 news
2. Updates are available
3. Gaming news
4. A blast from Microsoft's past
5. Random fact about Microsoft

OpenAI turmoil

Microsoft surprised the industry on November 11, 2023, by announcing a new AI research team. What made the reveal extra special is that the team was supposed to be led by Sam Altman (former OpenAI chief executive officer) and Greg Brockman (former OpenAI president). OpenAI's board of directors fired Sam Altman last week (they already regret it), causing other employees to resign and most of the workforce to demand that the board of directors bring Sam back. Following the massive backlash, OpenAI's directors restored Sam as the CEO and Greg as the president.

Just shortly after all that firing and hiring mess, a new rather concerning report emerged about OpenAI achieving a major AI breakthrough, with the creation being able to figure out mathematical problems on its own. Now, we better hope AI does not decide that the destruction of humanity is in its interest. Perhaps it is time to welcome our new insect AI overlords?

Windows 11 and 10

Here we talk about everything happening around Microsoft's latest operating system in the Stable channel and preview builds: new features, removed features, controversies, bugs, interesting findings, and more. And of course, you may find a word or two about older but still supported versions.

Microsoft has announced a new bug bounty program to incentivize developers and hackers to find security issues in its Defender security product lineup. Spotting a vulnerability and reporting it to Microsoft may result in the company rewarding you with up to $20,000.

Practice shows that such programs are very effective, and external security experts often find places to improve, leading to safer products. The Blackwing Intelligence group, for example, revealed the result of its research, detailing a newly found method to bypass fingerprint authentication in Windows Hello. Now, Microsoft and fingerprint manufacturers have to fix the situation to ensure the safety of over one billion Windows devices (even though not every device has a fingerprint sensor).

We also published two important guides, detailing how to install the recently released Windows 11 version 23H2 on unsupported hardware (watch out for Linux fanboys in the comments) and a new, relatively simple way to remove Microsoft Edge from Windows 10 and 11 in the latest Release Preview updates.

Important: do not clean-install Windows 11 version 23H2 if you rely on assistive technologies, namely the built-in Narrator. Microsoft has confirmed that the current install media contains a bug preventing Narrator from working during installation. The company is working on a new Windows 11 version of 23H2 images. Note that the bug does not affect systems upgrading from Windows 10 or older Windows 11 releases.

Windows Insider Program

Microsoft released the following preview builds for testing this week:

• Release Preview: KB5032278 (19045.3757) for Windows 10 with the initial Copilot rollout. You can check out this guide to learn how to force-enable Copilot in Windows 10. And if you have a hard time finding a reason to use Copilot, here is Microsoft trying to explain why you should try Copilot in Windows.

Sadly, no Windows 11 preview builds this week due to holidays in the United States. Windows engineers are having some well-deserved rest.

Updates are available

This section covers software, firmware, and other notable updates (released and coming soon) delivering new features, security fixes, improvements, patches, and more from Microsoft and third parties.

Mozilla Foundations released Firefox 120 in the Release channel. The latest update delivers several privacy improvements, such as the ability to strip a link of its trackers, a global setting to tell websites not to sell your data, picture-in-picture improvements, and more. If you are tired of Chrome implementing questionable changes or Edge with its annoyances, Firefox may become a breath of fresh air in our Chromium-ridden world.

NTDEV, the creator of the tiny11 and tiny10 projects, released tiny11 version 2311 based on Windows 11 version 23H2. It offers all the benefits of the previous tiny11 releases plus complete serviceability (you can install cumulative updates without issues), support for Copilot and other 23H2 features, and a 20% decrease in size.

For those unfamiliar, tiny11 is a modified Windows image stripped of unnecessary components. In addition to significantly reducing the install size, tiny11 works on unsupported hardware without extra tweaks.

Microsoft also released the November 2023 firmware update for a few Surface devices: the Intel-based Surface Laptop 3 and the Surface Go 3. Those updates improve graphics, wireless connection, Surface Pen inking, built-in compass, and more.

Other notable updates include the following:

• Dev Home app preview 0.7 with new Azure extensions, accessibility fixes, and minor changes.
• A new ink-to-text tool and pen gestures in Word, PowerPoint, and OneNote for Office Insiders.
• Start11 v2.03 with support for nine languages and a long list of fixes to improve your experience.

New drivers released this week:

• Intel Arc Beta 31.0.101.4972 with Starfield fixes and performance improvements.

To finish the update section, here is the latest edition of our Microsoft 365 Roadmap Weekly with Stream support in the new Outlook and voice isolation for calls in Microsoft Teams.

On the gaming side

Learn about upcoming game releases, Xbox rumors, new hardware, software updates, freebies, deals, discounts and more.

Last week, the original Half-Life turned 25, and Valve celebrated the occasion by giving away the game on Steam for everyone to enjoy. Neowin joined the celebration with a personal look-back article from John Callaham, detailing the launch of what many consider one of the greatest games ever made.

Several weeks ago, Activision launched Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III to a lukewarm reception and mixed reviews. To combat the initial wave of negativity and keep the momentum going, Activision revealed details about the first content update. It will bring three new multiplayer maps, an additional zombie mode chapter, and more.

Moving from future game updates to released ones, Bethesda pushed out a much-anticipated update for Starfield, bringing DLSS, DLAA, NVIDIA Reflex, and frame generation on supported GPUs from the "green camp." In addition, Starfield's latest update improves performance, fixes various issues across the game, adds the ability to eat food from the floor (five-second rule, amirite?), and more. The update requires around 15GB of free space on your drive.

Cyberpunk 2077, another critically acclaimed title, will soon get a new edition. CD PROJEKT RED has announced Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition with the Phantom Liberty expansion and every update ever released for the game. On December 5, 2023, you can expect it on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC. Hopefully, we will not get five delays this time.

Killer Instinct is another game that is getting a fancy new edition. Microsoft announced Killer Instinct Anniversary Edition to celebrate ten years since its fighting game was released in November 2013 on the original Xbox One. The anniversary edition will replace Killer Instinct Definitive Edition from 2017, costing $29.99 on Xbox, PC, and Steam.

NVIDIA's GeForce NOW cloud streaming service received 18 more games, so you can now play Bridge Contrucgtor: The Walking Dead, Chivalry 2, Dungeons 4, The Invincible, Tropico 6, Saints Row IV: Re-Elected, and more. As a reminder, you must purchase those games to play them using NVIDIA GeForce NOW.

Deals and Freebies

Valve is hosting its annual Steam Autumn Sale. During November 21-28, you can snag multiple games with big discounts and never play them. Besides, gamers can nominate their favorite games for The Steam Awards 2023 in 11 categories: Game of the Year, Labor of Love, VR Game of the Year, Better with Friends, Best Soundtrack, and more.

By the way, you still have time to play Diablo IV for free until November 28, 2023. In addition, the game is available with a 40% discount, allowing you to save some bucks in case you decide to continue playing once the free event is over.

Moving from Steam to the Epic Games Store, we have a Deliver Us Mars giveaway. The game is up for grabs until November 30, 2023. If that is still not enough, check out our Weekend PC Game Deals with even more discounts. Do you even have time to play all those games?

A blast from Microsoft's past

John Callaham's weekly "Look back" series provides throwbacks into the past, detailing the company's products, partnerships, mishaps, and successes from years ago.

November 20, 2023, marks 38 years of Windows. Microsoft launched Windows 1.0 (Windows 1.01, to be precise) on November 20, 1985, kickstarting a new era of personal computing. We have already published a look-back article about Windows 1.0, and this week's piece focuses on the operating system's launch.

This week's second look-back article is about Microsoft's first sports video game: Microsoft Olympic Decathlon. The company launched it on TRS-80 in 1980, offering customers the chance to play ten different events that were a part of the decathlon, one of the most grueling events in the Summer Olympic Games.

Forty years later, Microsoft is one of the biggest players in the gaming industry, with well-established franchises in different genres, such as simulation, racing, strategy, and shooters. But after taking a shot in 1980, Microsoft is now happy to let other well-established studios create sports games for PC and Xbox.

Random fact about Microsoft

And here is a randomly selected piece of trivia about the company, Windows, and other Microsoft-made things.

This week's random fact about Microsoft comes from the @wowstartsnow X (Twitter) user, also known as Windows on Windows.

Did you know Windows 11 is not the first Microsoft desktop operating system with a tabbed File Explorer? Windows Explorer in early Windows 95 builds contained a feature that allowed enabling tabs for easier access to the recently opened directories. Sadly, "Folder tabs" never made it to the public release in 1995 or subsequent Windows releases. Eventually, Microsoft introduced a tabbed File Explorer in 2022 as a part of the Windows 11 version 22H2 update.

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Ironically, the second commercial game that Microsoft published, after Microsoft Adventure in 1979, was an attempt at a sports game sim. It was called Microsoft Olympic Decathlon, and like Microsoft Adventure, it was first launched as a TRS-80 PC game, this time in 1980.

TRS-80 has an excellent article that takes a look at the history of this game. Timothy W. Smith is credited as its creator. The article stated that Smith took several months researching the history of the decathlon so he could understand the physics of the 10 different sporting events. The final result was a game that combined great (for their time) graphics with some simulation value as well.

The decathlon is considered one of the most grueling events in the Summer Olypmpic Games. In case you are unfamiliar with it, here are the 10 events that are a part of the decathlon:

• 100-meter dash
• Long jump
• Shot put
• High jump
• 400-meter dash
• 110-meter hurdles
• Discus throw
• Pole vault
• Javelin throw
• 1500-meter run

The game was a hit with critics of the time, and while the graphics definitely seem primitive now, the gameplay does try to simulate these 10 events as best as it can. It makes you time out your long jump attempts for the best jump or you could get a fault for hitting the plasticine jump line. You have to have some skill on the keyboard to make the best shot put throw.

Microsoft likely wanted the game to come out in 1980, which was when the Summer Olympics was planned to be held. Unfortunately, the Olympics were being held in Moscow in the former Soviet Union that year. When that country invaded Afghanistan a few months beforehand, the US and many more countries boycotted the Olympic Games in Moscow. It's possible that might have cut into this game's audience.

In 1981 a version of the game was released for the Apple II and in 1982 it was ported over to IBM PCs. However, that version dropped the "Olympic" part of the title, most likely because Microsoft didn't get a license from the Olympic Committee to use that name.

That would also be the end of that game at Microsoft. The company never released a follow-up version for any of its Windows operating systems. Today, with the exception of the Forza games, Microsoft seems happy to let EA Sports, 2K Sports, and others make sports-themed games for its Xbox consoles and Windows platforms.

That's too bad, because Microsoft now has many more internal game development studios under its wing, either acquired individually or by buying companies with multiple studios like Zenimax and more recently Activision Blizzard. Perhaps this might be a good time for Microsoft to consider reentering the sports video game arena, and with a game title that doesn't directly compete with the other third-party sports developer groups. Something like Microsoft Decathlon could be a big hit, if Microsoft can find the right developer that can combine excellent graphics and solid simulation.

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What you need to know

• Dave's Garage recently touched base with Raymond Chen, a 30-year Windows developer at Microsoft, and discussed the USB Cart of Death.
• Chen described it as "one of those office carts – like a mail cart – but it was loaded with every USB device Microsoft could get their hands on."
• Its development was prompted by users' increased interest in USB devices during the Windows 98 era, ultimately resulting in the Windows kernel and other Windows developers doubling down on their efforts to bring USB support to Windows builds.

Retired Microsoft Software Engineer David William Plummer (better known as Dave's Garage on YouTube) recently touched base with Raymond Chen, a 30-year Windows developer at Microsoft, talking all things USB Cart of Death and more.

The 4-minute-long clip kicks off on a high note, with Dave's Garage asking Chen what the USB Cart of Death was and how many people it killed. In Jest, Chen responded that it didn't kill anyone, but it negatively impacted Windows builds, as reported by Tom's Hardware.

What is the USB Cart of Death?

The Windows developer described the USB Cart of Death as "one of those office carts – like a mail cart – but it was loaded with every USB device Microsoft could get their hands on."

Per Chen's description, the USB Cart of Death shipped with three mice, four keyboards, printers, drives, and support for USB peripherals. He further cited that a few hubs were incorporated into the setup as they could be daisy-chained with hubs three levels deep. At the time, it was possible to chain up to 64 devices together. Putting it all together, the enormous USB Cart of Death featured a gaming steering wheel to facilitate easy movement.

Chen highlights that USB devices were gaining quite a bit of traction during the Windows 98 era, which prompted the Windows kernel and other Windows developers to double down on their efforts to bring USB support to Windows builds.

This ultimately led to the development of the USB Cart of Death, which would provide an avenue for powering and connecting devices on a single bus. The goal was to transition from a period where printers, keyboards, and more had dedicated connectors.

The transition was far from perfect

The transition wasn't as seamless as they'd initially hoped. Chen recounts an unfortunate incident that occurred during a Windows 98 keynote. The operating system crashed live on stage while Bill Gates attempted to connect a USB scanner to the USB Cart of Death.

The cart would often be steered up and down the hallways and used to "terrorize" developers as it would be plugged into current test machines. Chen cites that this would often result in the USB infrastructure in the machines practically going crazy.

Where did the name USB Cart of Death come from?

Sometimes, the developer would wait until things simmer down to decipher whether the mice, keyboards, printers, and more were recognized. Chen cites that some developers would yank the plug immediately after the machine showed any sign of struggle, which would instantaneously result in a blue screen error, hence the USB Cart of Death name.

Chen also disclosed that it caused quite a bit of havoc at Microsoft as it was used to run tests on machines running on fresh builds, which almost always ended in blue screen errors for Windows developers to decode as the cable was yanked from the machine abruptly. You can also check out Dave's full interview with Chen on YouTube.

What are some of your earliest memories of the USB Cart of Death? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.

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When Apple employees leave the company, their next stop is most likely Google, according to a new study.

Switch on Business recently looked at LinkedIn data to determine which tech giants attract the most talent from competitors. The company analyzed the employee profiles for Google, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, IBM, Tesla, Oracle, Netflix, Nvidia, Salesforce, Adobe, Intel, and Uber, paying special attention to employees who currently work at a tech giant that previously worked for one of the other companies on its list.

Through analyzing the employee profiles, the group found that 26.51% of Meta employees have previously worked at another tech giant, the highest proportion of any other company. Google, however, has the most talent by volume, with 38,316 (24.15%) of the company’s staff coming from other tech giants. Inversely, IBM had the fewest tech giant veterans on its staff, with just 2.28% of its workforce having previously been employed by another large tech company.

Apple comes in just a tiny bit higher, with 5.7% of its workforce having come from other tech giants. While that’s a small percentage, it’s still a pretty substantial number; 4,773 Apple employees, for instance, were previously employed by Intel. Apple previously used Intel chips in its computers and is now developing its own chips in-house, so that number isn’t entirely shocking. Apple also purchased Intel’s modem division, which came with 2,000 of its employees.

Potentially surprising is the fact that Apple employees are twice as likely to make the move to Google from Apple than the next biggest post-Apple destination, Amazon. After Amazon, Apple employees make the move to Meta, followed by Microsoft, Tesla, Nvidia, Salesforce, Adobe, Intel, and Oracle.

As for where Apple employees come from, new Apple employees are most likely to enter the company from Intel, followed by Microsoft, Amazon, Google, IBM, Oracle, Tesla, Nvidia, Adobe, and Meta.

While Apple employees are most often headed to Google, Google employees are most often headed to Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon, with Apple only making it to fourth on the list.

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You’re not the only one: Since videoconferencing skyrocketed in popularity with the early days of the pandemic, use of such technology has soared.

So have anecdotal accounts of a phenomenon some call “Zoom fatigue” — a unique state of exhaustion reported by those who feel wrung out after video calls.

A recent brain-monitoring study supports the phenomenon, finding a connection between videoconferencing in educational settings and physical symptoms linked to fatigue.

The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, looked for physiological signs of fatigue in 35 students attending lectures on engineering at an Austrian university. Half of the class attended the 50-minute lecture via videoconference in a nearby lab and a face-to-face lecture the following week, while the other half attended first in person, then online.

Participants were monitored with electroencephalogram (EEG) and electrocardiogram (ECG) instruments that recorded electrical activity in the brain and their heart rhythms. They also participated in surveys about their mood and fatigue levels.

The researchers searched for physical changes correlated with mental fatigue, including distinctive brain waves, reduced heart rate and hints the nervous system might be trying to compensate for growing exhaustion during the lecture.

There were “notable” differences between the in-person and online groups, the researchers write. Video participants’ fatigue mounted over the course of the session, and their brain states showed they were struggling to pay attention. The groups’ moods varied, too, with in-person participants reporting they felt livelier, happier and more active, and online participants saying they felt tired, drowsy and “fed up.”

Overall, the researchers write, the study offers evidence of the physical toll of videoconferencing and suggests that it “should be considered as a complement to face-to-face interaction, but not as a substitute.”

They say the research should be replicated in business settings and homes to get a more accurate sense of how such sessions affect participants, calling for further studies that include more portions of the brain and a broader participant base.

The research was conducted as part of “Technostress in Organizations,” an Austrian-funded project devoted to collecting hard evidence about how technology affects human bodies and brains. Other studies published over the course of the project covered “digital detoxes,” workplace interruptions and social network use.

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OpenAI — the company behind the blockbuster artificial intelligence (AI) bot ChatGPT — has been consumed by frenzied changes for almost a week. On 17 November, the company fired its charismatic chief executive, Sam Altman. Five days, and much drama, later, OpenAI announced that Altman would return with an overhaul of the company’s board.

The debacle has thrown the spotlight on an ongoing debate about how commercial competition is shaping the development of AI systems, and how quickly AI can be deployed ethically and safely.

“The push to retain dominance is leading to toxic competition. It’s a race to the bottom,” says Sarah Myers West, managing director of the AI Now Institute, a policy-research organization based in New York City.

Altman, a successful investor and entrepreneur, was a co-founder of OpenAI and its public face. He had been chief executive since 2019, and oversaw an investment of some US$13 billion from Microsoft. After Altman’s initial ousting, Microsoft, which uses OpenAI technology to power its search engine Bing, offered Altman a job leading a new advanced AI research team. Altman’s return to OpenAI came after hundreds of company employees signed a letter threatening to follow Altman to Microsoft unless he was reinstated.

The OpenAI board that ousted Altman last week did not give detailed reasons for the decision, saying at first that he was fired because he “was not consistently candid in his communications with the board” and later adding that the decision had nothing to do with “malfeasance or anything related to our financial, business, safety or security/privacy practice”.

But some speculate that the firing might have its origins in a reported schism at OpenAI between those focused on commercial growth and those uncomfortable with the strain of rapid development and its possible impacts on the company’s mission “to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity”.

Changing Culture

OpenAI, which is based in San Francisco, California, was founded in 2015 as a non-profit organization. In 2019, it shifted to an unusual capped-profit model, with a board explicitly not accountable to shareholders or investors, including Microsoft. In the background of Altman’s firing “is very clearly a conflict between the non-profit and the capped-profit; a conflict of culture and aims”, says Jathan Sadowski, a social scientist of technology at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI’s chief scientist and a member of the board that ousted Altman, this July shifted his focus to ‘superalignment’, a four-year project attempting to ensure that future superintelligences work for the good of humanity.

It’s unclear whether Altman and Sutskever are at odds about speed of development: after the board fired Altman, Sutskever expressed regret about the impacts of his actions and was among the employees who signed the letter threatening to leave unless Altman returned.

With Altman back, OpenAI has reshuffled its board: Sutskever and Helen Toner, a researcher in AI governance and safety at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology in Washington DC, are no longer on the board. The new board members include Bret Taylor, who is on the board of e-commerce platform Shopify and used to lead the software company Salesforce.

It seems likely that OpenAI will shift further from its non-profit origins, says Sadowski, restructuring as a classic profit-driven Silicon Valley tech company.

Competition heats up

OpenAI released ChatGPT almost a year ago, catapulting the company to worldwide fame. The bot was based on the company’s GPT-3.5 large language model (LLM), which uses the statistical correlations between words in billions of training sentences to generate fluent responses to prompts. The breadth of capabilities that have emerged from this technique (including what some see as logical reasoning) has astounded and worried scientists and the general public alike.

OpenAI is not alone in pursuing large language models, but the release of ChatGPT probably pushed others to deployment: Google launched its chatbot Bard in March 2023, the same month that an updated version of ChatGPT, based on GPT-4, was released. West worries that products are appearing before anyone has a full understanding of their behaviour, uses and misuses, and that this could be “detrimental for society”.

The competitive landscape for conversational AI is heating up. Google has hinted that more AI products lie ahead. Amazon has its own AI offering, Titan. Smaller companies that aim to compete with ChatGPT include the German effort Aleph Alpha and US-based Anthropic, founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees, which released the chatbot Claude 2.1 on 21 November. Stability AI and Cohere are other often-cited rivals.

West notes that these start-ups rely heavily on the vast and expensive computing resources provided by just three companies — Google, Microsoft and Amazon — potentially creating a race for dominance between these controlling giants.

Safety concerns

Computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton at the University of Toronto in Canada, a pioneer of deep learning, is deeply concerned about the speed of AI development. “If you specify a competition to make a car go as fast as possible, the first thing you do is remove the brakes,” he says. (Hinton declined to comment to Nature on the events at OpenAI since 17 November.)

OpenAI was founded with the specific goal of developing an artificial general intelligence (AGI) — a deep-learning system that’s trained not just to be good at one specific thing, but to be as generally smart as a person. It remains unclear whether AGI is even possible. “The jury is very much out on that front,” says West. But some are starting to bet on it. Hinton says he used to think AGI would happen on the timescale of 30, 50 or maybe 100 years. “Right now, I think we’ll probably get it in 5–20 years,” he says.

The imminent dangers of AI are related to it being used as a tool by human bad actors — people who use it to, for example, create misinformation, commit scams or, potentially, invent new bioterrorism weapons1. And because today’s AI systems work by finding patterns in existing data, they also tend to reinforce historical biases and social injustices, says West.

In the long term, Hinton and others worry about an AI system itself becoming a bad actor, developing sufficient agency to guide world events in a negative direction. This could arise even if an AGI was designed — in line with OpenAI’s ‘superalignment’ mission — to promote humanity’s best interests, says Hinton. It might decide, for example, that the weight of human suffering is so vast that it would be better for humanity to die than to face further misery. Such statements sound like science fiction, but Hinton argues that the existential threat of an AI that can’t be turned off and veers onto a destructive path is very real.

The AI Safety Summit hosted by the United Kingdom in November was designed to get ahead of such concerns. So far, some two dozen nations have agreed to work together on the problem, although what exactly they will do remains unclear.

West emphasizes that it’s important to focus on already-present threats from AI ahead of far-flung concerns — and to ensure that existing laws are applied to tech companies developing AI. The events at OpenAI, she says, highlight how just a few companies with the money and computing resources to feed AI wield a lot of power — something she thinks needs more scrutiny from anti-trust regulators. “Regulators for a very long time have taken a very light touch with this market,” says West. “We need to start by enforcing the laws we have right now.”

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-03700-4

References
 

Urbina, F., Lentzos, F., Invernizzi, C. & Ekins, S. Nature Mach. Intell. 4, 189–191 (2022).

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Gao Xiangjin used to know all the names of players in the American baskeball leagues, but since relations between the US and China soured, once-daily NBA broadcasts are now far less frequent. So Gao started watching China’s men’s basketball instead, until reports about corruption turned him off earlier this year. He now watches China’s women’s basketball, not on television, but on Douyin, the original, Chinese version of TikTok.

Gao is 69 years old, one of a growing cohort of elderly people who have moved away from television and gravitated to Douyin, China’s most popular short-form video app. There are 267 million people aged over 60 in China, according to official statistics, and while China’s government has tried to limit young people’s use of Douyin, worried about its addictive nature, many of the app’s habitual users are their parents, or even grandparents.

“Whenever he’s not cooking, swimming, or sleeping, he’s on Douyin,” his daughter Helen says. “It’s brainless entertainment. It’s better to be playing with a cat, it’s better to be doing anything else.” She’s not a Douyin user herself. “I already have attention problems,” she says. “Douyin would make that worse.”

A former soldier, Gao follows the Israel-Palestine crisis and the war between Ukraine and Russia through videos made by commentators. He shows me one where a political analyst translates headlines from English-language media outlets, such as The Times of Israel. He watches others for their analysis of military strategy.

While television broadcasts the official viewpoint, Gao says that on Douyin there are often videos from different camps putting their views across.

The censors might get to them after a while, but it’s possible to witness a spectrum of opinions. Some of them are speaking with inside experience of the Party system, some are academics studying at Western universities, and others don’t disclose anything about their backgrounds; to many elderly users, they carry the same amount of authority.

Douyin is not just Gao’s source for news, but also basketball shoes. “Just look at those green shoes,” Helen says, gesturing to a pair of eye-catching sneakers on a shoe rack by local brand Tebu. “They’re ridiculous!”

Around once every five videos, Gao says, he gets an advert. Swiping on his phone, there’s a news video, then a woman pops up selling something, followed by news, news, news, then an advert for dates from Xinjiang. Gao is happy with his sneakers, paying just over $27 for them. He says that their quality is better than a pair he bought from Japan for more than four times the price.

Li Yongjian, a junior lecturer at Erasmus University Rotterdam who has studied social media use among elderly people in China, says that Covid-19 was a watershed moment. Strict Covid controls left elderly people seeking connection, and they turned to social media. Cheaper smartphones and data bundles have eased peoples’ passage into the short-video world—previously, older people typically eschewed the expensive gadgets that younger generations buy without hesitation (or because of cultural values that reward self-sacrifice, parents would buy for their children, but not themselves). “They think good things are not for them,” Li says.

Now, a bundle of 30 gigabytes of data plus 200 minutes from China Telecom costs as little as $18, and older people have become targets for China’s biggest phone brands. Li says that he’d bought a Xiaomi phone for his grandfather, which cost $50. With a huge screen and a long-life battery, it was advertised as “the phone for your grandpa.” Many apps, including Douyin, were preloaded onto the phone when it was started up. Li did a few rounds of searches on the app for his grandfather’s hobbies—fishing, the military, and cars—so that the algorithm registered those preferences.

His grandfather’s own use of the app has added other facets of his life, like farming, to his feed. He watches videos of others living as he did when he was young: how they harvested, then set up a cauldron in the field to start cooking. “It gives him a sense of being seen,” Li says. “There is still a place reserved for them, not only offline but also in the online world.”

Many older people are picking up technology because in modern China there’s little choice. Navigating what is increasingly a post-cash society is difficult without a smartphone—even those in need asking for donations on the street have QR codes.

There’s also the loneliness that many elderly people experience, as their children live far away from them, having found work or built a life elsewhere. They might have uprooted their own lives to join them, losing soft ties to their community and the familiar faces that accompanied them as they went about daily life.

Those elderly people who leave their hometown for other cities are called laopiao, or “old drifters.” “It’s not every country where grandparents would move to another city just to look after their grandchildren,” says Huang Chenkuang, a ceramics artist in Beijing. Huang’s mother is one of them—she left her community to take care of Huang’s sister’s children.

This part of the elderly population can live limited lives, moving between just three physical locations: the place they go to buy groceries, where they drop their children off from school, and their own community complex.

Huang’s mother didn’t move far. Originally from Jiangxi, she moved to Zhejiang, a six-hour drive away, and the living habits of those two southern provinces are similar. Had she moved to a northern province, “like Beijing, that would have been more difficult for her,” Huang says. Whenever her mother comes to visit her in Beijing, she complains about the dry climate and about how she can’t buy the dishes she eats from her hometown. “She’s not the kind of person who can quickly join people in a new place and dance with them,” Huang says. Instead, she learnt to dance from a teacher on Douyin who had a livestream every evening.

“She would suddenly cook a dish I'd never seen her cook before,” Huang says. Liangpi, a kind of flat noodle usually dressed with cucumber and vinegar, isn't common in the south, but her mother presented her with the dish. Her mother picked up new hobbies, and with them, smartphone habits.

“All the attention is no longer on you, because there’s a highly entertaining toy there,” Huang says. “Sometimes when I go home, I will be a bit worried. I feel we might have chatted more one-on-one in the past, talking about recent events.” As elderly people post content of their own on Douyin, the gap between generations when it comes to online anxieties is closing. “Sometimes she’ll say, ‘I haven’t used it in several days and I’ve lost fans!’” Huang says of her mother.

While other apps, such as WeChat, require users to add friends to be able to comment and view their updates, Douyin makes it easy to connect to strangers and opens up the possibility of getting a response from people outside their normal circles. On Douyin, any user can comment on a video.

It pushes recommended “friends” to users depending on who they’ve added already, so it is easy to add new people, and once you become “friends” with someone on the app, you can chat and video call.

The app also encourages users to upgrade their video-editing skills, or develop them. Gao proudly showed me a video where he cut shots of himself diving into a river near his home where he swims in all seasons. It’s the result of a five-day short-video editing course, which he took after seeing an advert on the platform. There, he learned about camera angles and framing; he wasn’t interested in the bits of it that taught how to make money from videos. He places a bowl in front of him and angles his phone. “I make sure it takes up a third of the screen.”

There are now elderly Chinese influencers whose fans number beyond their own demographic. Many more consider themselves content creators, if not for money, for their own enjoyment and mental well-being. They don’t want to be forgotten. “For them,” Li says, “Their grandparents have already faded away.” Li’s grandfather keeps track of when his grandson likes his videos. He’ll ask, “Did you see that I uploaded this yesterday?” Li says. He wants to know that his grandson cares.

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When Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, took to the stage in San Francisco nine days ago he hinted at another significant development in the world of artificial intelligence.

“Four times now in the history of OpenAI, the most recent time was just in the last couple weeks, I’ve gotten to be in the room, when we sort of push the veil of ignorance back and the frontier of discovery forward, and getting to do that is the professional honour of a lifetime,” he told the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit.

Given that he leads the company behind ChatGPT – a chatbot that has transformed the debate around AI – this was a tantalising comment. And a major event in AI did occur the next day – Altman was fired.

OpenAI’s board announced on Friday 17 November that it had sacked the 38-year-old for failing to be “consistently candid in his communications” with its members, without giving further details about the alleged breaches of trust.

Altman was given notice of what was coming after he came off stage, receiving a text from fellow board member Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI’s chief scientist, asking the CEO to talk at noon via Google Meet the next day. Altman joined the call and was told by Sutskever that he was being fired, according to a post on X, formerly Twitter, by Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s chair and president.

Brockman was not on the call but minutes later he too was summoned to Google Meet and told that he was being removed from the board. Brockman was told he could stay at the company but chose to quit. OpenAI appointed Mira Murati, the company’s chief technology officer, as interim CEO.

The announcement of Altman’s sacking sent shock waves through Silicon Valley and immediately led to investors in OpenAI pushing for his return. OpenAI was founded as a non-profit company whose board oversees a commercial subsidiary in which Microsoft is the biggest investor. Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, said his company had not been contacted before the announcement.

Altman posted on X that Friday that he had “loved my time at openai” but it soon became clear the story was far from over. The Information, a tech news site, quoted a memo from the company’s chief strategy officer, Jason Kwon, telling staff in a memo on Saturday that an effort was under way to bring back Altman and other colleagues who had quit, including the three senior researchers Jakub Pachocki, Aleksander Mądry and Szymon Sidor.

“We are still working towards a resolution and we remain optimistic,” Kwon wrote. “By resolution, we mean bringing back Sam, Greg, Jakub, Szymon, Aleksander and other colleagues.”

Sunday brought more twists. Altman posted a picture of himself inside OpenAI’s San Francisco headquarters holding a guest pass with the message “first and last time i ever wear one of these”.

first and last time i ever wear one of these pic.twitter.com/u3iKwyWj0a

— Sam Altman (@sama) November 19, 2023

The talks with OpenAI’s four remaining board members failed and Emmett Shear, the former CEO of video game streaming platform Twitch, was appointed the company’s third CEO in three days. Soon after, Nadella announced that Microsoft had hired Altman and Brockman to lead a “new advanced AI research team”, although he added in a round of media interviews on Monday that he was open to both staying at OpenAI. As one analyst pointed out Altman would have a de facto leadership role at OpenAI because of Microsoft’s investment.

By Monday simmering staff discontent at Altman’s ousting broke into open revolt. The vast majority of OpenAI’s 770 employees including Murati signed a letter addressed to the board threatening to quit en masse unless Altman and Brockman were reinstated by the board – a move that must then be followed by the board stepping down.

“We are unable to work for or with people that lack competence, judgment and care for our mission and employees,” said the letter, which surprisingly was also signed by board member Sutskever.

The other three board members were: Adam D’Angelo, the co-founder of the question-and-answer website Quora; Tasha McCauley, a tech entrepreneur; and Helen Toner, a director and AI safety expert at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology.

It became clear, however, that Altman was edging closer to a return. OpenAI’s vice-president of global affairs, Anna Makanju, told staff that “intense discussions” were taking place to resolve the crisis. Bloomberg reported that Murati sent a message to staff on the Slack platform saying “still working on it …”

Then a deal was struck. OpenAI announced on Tuesday night in California that it had reached an agreement in principle for Altman to return with a new-look “initial” board chaired by Bret Taylor, the former co-chief executive of software company Salesforce, along with Larry Summers, the former US Treasury secretary, and D’Angelo. Altman has not, so far, regained his place on the board.

OpenAI will reportedly conduct an independent investigation into the circumstances around Altman’s departure, which has initially been announced by Shear. Shear had denied that Altman’s sacking was related to safety concerns.

But after Altman’s return, Reuters and the Information reported that some OpenAI researchers had been concerned by the capabilities of a new AI model being worked on the company before the CEO was fired. According to the Information, the “Q*” model – pronounced “Q-star” – was able to solve maths problems it had not seen before, representing a potential breakthrough in the technology.

OpenAI was founded in 2015 with the goal of developing “safe and beneficial artificial general intelligence [AGI] for the benefit of humanity”. AGI refers to an AI that can perform a variety of tasks at, or above, a human level of intelligence.

Some experts are concerned that the emergence of AGI could lead, in theory, to a system capable of evading human control and endangering humanity. OpenAI’s board has changed but its mission has not.

Altman, who had reportedly demanded a new board as a precondition for his return, indicated on Thursday – Thanksgiving in the US – that he was in the process of healing any divisions with D’Angelo.

“Just spent a really nice few hours with @adamdangelo,” he wrote on X. “Happy thanksgiving from our families to yours!”

Altman remains where he was nine days ago: at the frontier of discovery.

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That's what happened to some people who played games in Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed series on Thursday. In the middle of a game session, when you pause the game or try to go to it Map feature, an ad to help promote the Black Friday discount for Ubisoft's latest game in the series, Assassins Creed Mirage, showed up on the screen.

This was shown by X (formerly Twitter) user @Fab_XS_ in a video posted on his account. He stated the add came up on both Xbox and PlayStation platforms.

Eurogamer got a statement from a Ubisoft spokesperson who blamed the ad on something other than trying to get gamers to stop what they are doing to buy a discounted Assassin's Creed Mirage game.

"We have been made aware that some players encountered pop-up ads while playing certain Assassin's Creed titles yesterday," a Ubisoft spokesperson said. "This was the result of a technical error that we addressed as soon as we learned of the issue."

Of course, this sort of situation has happened before in another form. Microsoft made a number of Xbox console gamers upset a few weeks ago when it put in a popup ad screen for buying Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III when they powered up their consoles. Microsoft did something similar with the launch of Starfield earlier this year as well.

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The HGX H20 is the most powerful of three China-focused chips NVIDIA developed to comply with new US export restrictions. As reported by industry sources, it had been slated for a November launch.

In addition to the H20, NVIDIA's compliance chips include the L20 and L2. By opting for an AD102 GPU, the L20 series reportedly offers lower memory sizes of 48GB and 24GB GDDR6 while staying within the limited maximum compute performance of 4800 TOPS over the PCIe interface.

The new chips were designed to allow NVIDIA to retain its market share in China after being barred from shipping advanced A800 and H800 products under tightened US rules. While including most of the newest NVIDIA AI features, the compliance chips have reduced computing capabilities per export regulations.

The export curbs have enabled rivals like Huawei to win orders that may have otherwise gone to NVIDIA. According to prior reporting, Baidu recently placed a large Huawei AI chip order.

On the other hand, AMD's CEO Lisa Su announced in August the company's plans to develop an AI chip designed explicitly for the Chinese market, aiming to capitalize on the growing demand for AI chips in China. The MI300 accelerator is hoped to compete with NVIDIA's dominance in the AI market.

China has become a significant market for AI chips from US companies, as only a few domestic alternatives exist currently. AMD likely wants to capitalize on this demand while tailoring its products to meet export control requirements.

Source: Reuters

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