Category: Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Launched Copilot for Microsoft 365: AI-Powered Productivity and Creativity for Organizations

Microsoft has launched a new premium subscription service called Copilot Pro for individuals. The subscription costs $20 per month and provides advanced AI capabilities, access to Copilot in Microsoft 365 apps, priority access to the latest models, enhanced AI image creation, and the ability to create Copilot GPTs 12.

For organizations, Microsoft has launched Copilot for Microsoft 365, a subscription that provides AI-powered productivity and creativity across emails, meetings, chats, documents, and more, plus the web. It is now available for businesses of all sizes, including small- and medium-sized businesses, and through Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider partners 3.

Copilot GPTs is a new feature that lets users customize the behavior of Copilot on a specific topic. A handful of Copilot GPTs are available today, and Copilot Pro users will soon be able to create their own Copilot GPTs using Copilot GPT Builder 12.

Microsoft has also launched a new Copilot mobile app that gives users the power of Copilot on the go, with access to GPT-4, Dall-E 3, and image creation. The app is available for Android and iOS users and has the same capabilities as the PC version. It is also available in the Microsoft 365 mobile app for Microsoft account holders 4.

In summary, Microsoft has launched a suite of new products and features under the Copilot brand. Copilot Pro is a premium subscription service for individuals that provides advanced AI capabilities, access to Copilot in Microsoft 365 apps, priority access to the latest models, enhanced AI image creation, and the ability to create Copilot GPTs. Copilot for Microsoft 365 is a subscription service for organizations that provides AI-powered productivity and creativity across emails, meetings, chats, documents, and more, plus the web. Copilot GPTs is a new feature that lets users customize the behavior of Copilot on a specific topic. Copilot mobile app is a new app that gives users the power of Copilot on the go, with access to GPT-4, Dall-E 3, and image creation1324

MS Ignite

Microsoft Ignite 2023: A Brief Summary

In the Microsoft Ignite 2023 event, Microsoft outlines how AI transformation is reshaping work and how Microsoft is supporting customers, partners and developers with its AI solutions. It covers:

  • Rethinking cloud infrastructure with new AI optimized silicon, Azure Boost, and partnerships with AMD and NVIDIA.
  • Extending the Microsoft Copilot experience across Microsoft 365, Copilot Studio, Copilot for Service, Copilot in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides, and Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise.
  • Bringing Copilot to everyone with the general availability of Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise as Copilot.
  • Reinforcing the data and AI connection with Microsoft Fabric, a unified platform for data management and AI tools, and integration with Microsoft Office and Teams.
  • Unlocking more value for developers with Azure AI Model-as-a-Service, Azure AI Studio, Vector Search, and new GPT models.
  • Enabling the responsible deployment of AI with the Copilot Copyright Commitment, Azure AI Content Safety, and new AI and productivity tools for developers.
  • Introducing new experiences in Windows to empower employees, IT and developers with Windows AI Studio and NVIDIA AI foundry service.
  • Strengthening defenses in the era of AI with the Unified Security Operations Platform and Security Copilot embedded within Microsoft Defender XDR and other Microsoft security products.

Page Reference – Microsoft Ignite 2023: AI transformation and the technology driving change – The Official Microsoft Blog

AI Pair Programmer - CIO Guide

Accelerating IT Development with AI Paired Programming: A CIO’s Guide

Accelerating IT Development with AI Paired Programming: A CIO’s Guide

Pair programming is a technique where two programmers work together on the same code, one writing the code and the other reviewing it. Pair programming can improve the quality, efficiency and creativity of software development, as well as enhance the skills and satisfaction of the programmers.

However, pair programming also has some challenges, such as finding a compatible partner, coordinating schedules and communication styles, and dealing with conflicts and distractions. Moreover, pair programming may not be feasible or desirable for some projects or tasks that require more individual work or privacy.

This is where Artificial Intelligence (AI) can come in handy. AI can act as a virtual pair programmer that can assist you with various aspects of software development, such as:

Code completion: AI can suggest relevant code snippets or fill in missing parts of your code based on the context and your preferences.

Code review: AI can analyze your code for errors, bugs, style issues, security vulnerabilities, performance bottlenecks, and best practices, and provide feedback and suggestions for improvement.

Code refactoring: AI can help you restructure your code to make it more readable, maintainable, reusable, and scalable, by applying design patterns, renaming variables, extracting methods, simplifying expressions, etc.

Code testing: AI can generate test cases and test data for your code, run automated tests, and report the results and coverage.

Code documentation: AI can generate comments and documentation for your code based on its functionality and structure.

Code generation: AI can create new code from scratch or from natural language specifications or examples.

By using AI as a pair programmer, you can benefit from:

Increased productivity: AI can help you write code faster and more accurately, by reducing the cognitive load and the need for manual work.

Enhanced quality: AI can help you improve the quality of your code by detecting and fixing issues early and enforcing standards and best practices.

Improved learning: AI can help you learn new skills and technologies by providing guidance, feedback, and examples.

More creativity: AI can help you explore new ideas and solutions by generating alternatives and variations for your code.

More flexibility: AI can adapt to your preferences and needs, and work with you anytime and anywhere.

Using AI as a pair programmer can be a rewarding experience that can boost your software development skills and outcomes. However, you should also be aware of the limitations and challenges of using AI in this context. For example:

Trust: You should not blindly trust the suggestions or feedback from AI without verifying their correctness and suitability for your project. You should also be aware of the potential biases or errors that may affect the performance of AI.

Communication: You should communicate clearly and explicitly with AI about your goals, expectations, and preferences. You should also provide feedback to AI to help it learn from your behavior and improve its service.

Ethics: You should respect the ethical principles and guidelines for using AI in software development. You should also consider the social and environmental impacts of your code and how it may affect other stakeholders.

Using AI as a pair programmer is an exciting opportunity to leverage the power of AI for software development. By following some best practices and precautions, you can enjoy the benefits of using AI as a pair programmer while avoiding the pitfalls. Happy coding!

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Microsoft 365 Copilot

Microsoft’s Latest Launch of Copilot in Microsoft 365

Microsoft has recently announced a new feature for its Microsoft 365 suite of productivity apps: Copilot. Copilot is an AI-powered assistant that helps you write, create, communicate, and collaborate more effectively and efficiently. Copilot leverages the power of large language models (LLMs) and your data in the Microsoft Graph to understand your context, intent, and preferences, and to generate relevant suggestions, insights, and actions.

Copilot is integrated into Microsoft 365 in two ways:

– It works alongside you, embedded in the Microsoft 365 apps you use every day — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams and more — to unleash creativity, unlock productivity and uplevel skills.

For example, Copilot can help you write better emails by suggesting subject lines, salutations, sign-offs, and follow-ups; it can help you create engaging presentations by suggesting layouts, designs, images, and animations; it can help you analyze data by suggesting charts, formulas, and insights; it can help you communicate more effectively by suggesting responses, emojis, and translations; it can help you collaborate more smoothly by suggesting tasks, reminders, and meetings.

– It also offers an entirely new experience: Business Chat. Business Chat is a conversational interface that works across all your data and apps in Microsoft 365. You can simply type or speak what you want to do or know in natural language, and Copilot will understand your query and provide relevant information or actions in a chat-like format.

For example, you can ask Copilot to show you your latest sales report or to schedule a meeting with your team or to find a document related to a project or to summarize an article for you.

Copilot is not only smart but also secure and trustworthy. Copilot is integrated into Microsoft 365 and automatically inherits all your company’s valuable security, compliance, and privacy policies and processes. Two-factor authentication, compliance boundaries, privacy protections, and more make Copilot the AI solution you can trust.

Copilot also respects your preferences and feedback and learns from your behavior to provide ersonalized and relevant suggestions.

Microsoft 365 Copilot is currently being tested with a limited number of people and the company plans to open its doors to a wider audience in the coming months.

Microsoft 365 Copilot is a game-changer for productivity and innovation. It combines the best of human intelligence and artificial intelligence to help you achieve more with less effort. With Copilot as your copilot for work, you can focus on what matters most: your ideas, your goals, your impact.

Sources:

https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2023/03/16/introducing-microsoft-365-copilot-your-copilot-for-work/

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2023/03/16/introducing-microsoft-365-copilot-a-whole-new-way-to-work/

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/gadgets-news/two-ways-copilot-is-integrated-into-microsoft-365-all-details-here/articleshow/98721299.cms

https://redmondmag.com/articles/2023/03/16/microsoft-unveils-microsoft-365-copilot.aspx

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AI Regulations

AI regulations – the need of the hour in an automated world?

In July 2017, an epic rebuke created waves on the internet, as two tech titans clashed. Yes, we are talking about the now infamous Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg cyber spat. The bone of contention was AI, and its impact on humanity in the future.

Musk has repeatedly sounded the alarm bells on AI and the havoc it could cause if not put on leash. He impressed upon these points in the National Governors Association Meet held at Providence, Rhode Island, earlier in July. Post this, Zuckerberg, in his Facebook Live chat, dismissed Musk’s claims and called him a naysayer. In fact, he called the Tesla Motors’ founder ‘irresponsible’ for such a negative outlook.

Not one to be left behind, Musk posted this response on Twitter:

While the spat will soon vanish from our memories, the spark remains ignited: are Musk’s claims well-founded? Do we need AI regulations?

First things first. What is AI?

To most of us, AI is a robot from the future that can do incredible things, including shape shifting. Thank you, Terminator, for that glamorous image of AI. But seriously, AI is not just a robot. Robots are containers for artificially-intelligent systems working in the background, making high-quality decisions.

According to AI researchers, there are three types of AI:

  • Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI)

These perform only specific tasks, like the Google AI that beat the world’s current champion in the ancient Chinese game, Go. It can do this and this task alone. Another example is the self-driven car that will hit the roads soon (and has already caused a death during trial phase).

Quite recently, the first loan that the BRICS Development Bank — a financial institution set up jointly by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — has approved for Russia is meant to fund a project that includes the use of AI in Russian courts to automate trial records using speech recognition.

  • Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)

Artificial General Intelligence thinks on par with humans. Imagine having a sane conversation with machines? Today’s chatbots might soon achieve that (with copious amounts of training, of course.) AGI is incredibly beneficial for us – building smarter homes, performing complex medical surgeries, eliminating loss of humans in wars, and much more.

  • Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI)

Creating something that’s much more intelligent than us? How will you control that one? Imagine having an army person who is incredibly strong that even tanks and missiles can’t harm, and is well-versed with all defence secrets. What happens when this commando goes rogue? Now imagine this in a real-world level.

Apocalyptic AI?

It’s not just Elon Musk that’s warning us about ‘summoning the demon’ with AI. Stephen Hawking and Bill Gates are telling us to be cautious too. We might empower computers to take high quality decisions that may be right from a machine perspective but incorrect from a human perspective.

Remember the Midas story? The greedy king asks for a boon by which all that he touches becomes gold. The wish is granted, not counting the human loss (Bacchus, the Roman God who grants the boon wants to teach Midas a lesson. When Midas accidently turns his daughter into gold, Bacchus reverses it).  Apply this situation in today’s world. A super-intelligent system, that doesn’t possess the emotions that we do, and can thwart all our schemes to defeat it, is in fact a demon! Think Skynet gone live.

It is possible that AI research may go out of hand and create self-evolving intelligent system that may prioritize its survival over humans. While a total human extermination may or may not happen, the encroachment of AI on predominantly human jobs is expected.

Already, the self-driven cars are taking centerstage, which will put cab drivers out of work.

Alibaba’s Jack Ma believes that excessive application of AI will lead to widespread chaos as unemployment will soar. He views a future of increasing divide among Haves and Have Nots, and geopolitical discord, as AI will cause power to be consolidated in the hands of a few. He goes on to say that the rise of AI will lead to a World War III. His reasoning is simple – “The first technology revolution caused World War I. The second technology revolution caused World War II. This (Artificial Intelligence) is the third technology revolution.”

Do any AI Regulations exist at the moment?

AI researchers are divided on the need for regulations. Some feel the regulations would prove to be detrimental to important technical advancements, as mentioned in this Stanford University report. They urge for tough transparency requirements and meaningful enforcement, as against narrow compliance that companies answer to in letter but not in spirit.  Some are working towards building base AI principles that would guide researchers towards building safe and beneficial AI, and are backed by the likes of Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, to name a few.

Partnership on AI

The big names of Silicon Valley have come together to form the Partnership on AI that provides a platform for researchers, scientists, policymakers and public to share knowledge. The group has thematic pillars which root for safe and accountable AI.

Asilomar AI Principles

 

In Feb 2017, leading AI researchers convened at the 2017 Beneficial AI conference, Asilomar, California. The group discussed the advancement of human-friendly AI and suggested regulatory principles.

European Union and US Government say yes to AI regulation

The European Union, too, published a document in 2016, with the intention of putting AI regulations into place by 2018. Similarly, the US Government has also stressed on the need for AI regulations.

The essentiality of AI Regulatory bodies

With businesses around the world investing heavily in AI without heeding precautions or repercussions, AI regulations, are indeed the need of the hour.  But, excessive regulation that is misguided will only stifle innovation. Thus, it is essential for lawmakers and researchers to work hand-in-hand to form an AI regulatory body that would:

  • assess the goal of the AI project,
  • understand its benefits/disadvantages,
  • provide for any countereffects and ensure public safety

Having a law does not prevent cybercrimes, nor will it prevent antisocial elements from using AI for self-serving avarice.  Effective enforcement is crucial, and it is best if the regulatory body is formed as early as possible, because – Artificial Super Intelligence is coming, we just don’t know when.