Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (right) and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman at the Microsoft campus last year, when the companies announced their partnership and a $1 billion investment in OpenAI by Microsoft. (Photo by Scott Eklund, Red Box Pictures, for Microsoft.)
Microsoft this week gained an exclusive license to OpenAI’s GPT-3, the state-of-the-art language model garnering attention across the tech industry. Other companies will still be able to access the model through an Azure-hosted API, but only Microsoft will have access to GPT-3’s code and underlying advances. The deal follows Microsoft’s $1 billion investment last year in San Francisco-based OpenAI, which consists of the OpenAI Inc nonprofit founded four years ago and the for-profit OpenAI LP.
The implications of giving a tech giant such as Microsoft an exclusive license to GPT-3 raises questions and potential concerns. MIT Technology Review said this week that OpenAI was “supposed to benefit humanity,” and now “it’s simply benefiting one of the richest companies in the world.”
GPT-3 is the largest language model in the world and can quickly create human-like written text using machine learning technologies. Earlier this month The Guardian published an essay written from scratch by GPT-3. “Overall, it took less time to edit than many human op-eds,” said the site’s human editors.
With its exclusive license, Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott said the company aims to “expand our Azure-powered AI platform in a way that democratizes AI technology, enables new products, services and experiences, and increases the positive impact of AI at Scale.”
“Our mission at Microsoft is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more, so we want to make sure that this AI platform is available to everyone – researchers, entrepreneurs, hobbyists, businesses – to empower their ambitions to create something new and interesting,” Scott wrote in a blog post.
University of Washington computer science professor Pedro Domingos. (UW Photo)
GeekWire reached out to AI experts and other tech insiders in Seattle to get their take on Microsoft’s exclusive license.
“OpenAI should be renamed ClosedAI — for all intents and purposes they are a for-profit company,” said Oren Etzioni, CEO of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2).
Pedro Domingos, a University of Washington computer science professor and author of The Master Algorithm, said the deal makes sense logistically since Microsoft is better set up for licensing that OpenAI.
“OpenAI is still working to benefit humanity; it has had to become more commercial in order to be able to compete with the corporate labs, but I don’t begrudge them that,” he said.
Domingos added that he doesn’t think GPT-3 is the next big thing.
GeekWire’s Taylor Soper watches from the virtual stands as the Portland Trail Blazers take on the L.A. Lakers in the NBA playoffs on Thursday night. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop)
If you’ve seen fans appearing on live video on the sidelines of this year’s NBA playoffs, powered by Microsoft Teams, you might have wondered exactly how it works. So did we! GeekWire’s Taylor Soper got a chance to try it out this week, cheering from the virtual stands, and we talk about the experience on this week’s GeekWire Podcast episode.
Listen below, subscribe in your favorite podcast app, and continue reading for an edited transcript.
Todd Bishop: Hey everybody, it’s GeekWire Editor Todd Bishop here with Managing Editor Taylor Soper. This week, we’re going to talk about one story that I think has both of us really intrigued. Taylor, you just finished a unique experience, combining sports with the times that we’re in. You were in the virtual stands to watch the Portland Trail Blazers, your hometown NBA team, play against the Los Angeles Lakers. You were there, I saw you on TV, and yet you weren’t there. I have so many questions about this experience. But first, I just want you to explain what you did tonight.
Taylor Soper: Well, I went to Game 2 of an NBA playoff matchup, kind of. As you mentioned, it was a unique experience. Microsoft and the NBA signed a big partnership earlier this year. They implemented this pretty cool feature that takes advantage of Microsoft Teams and the fact that there are no fans allowed at NBA games right now. They’re playing in the so-called “Bubble” down near Orlando, Fla. So there are no real fans. But Microsoft and the NBA came up with the idea to use Microsoft Teams, their collaboration software, and allow fans to virtually be at the game. The end result is about 300 fans each game have their little head in the stands that you can see on the broadcast. And they take advantage of a feature in Teams called Together mode that just came out this summer.
All in all, it was a really, really cool experience. And I know you have tons of questions, and I would love to talk about this. There’s a lot of potential here.
Bishop: This is great. So I want to go through your experience, but I want to clarify, this is not the lame cardboard cutouts behind home plate in baseball. This is live video in the stands, you’re seeing fans react in near real time, it seems like, to what’s going on on the court because you’re seeing it on your computer screen. And there you are, basically your upper torso or your face or your head, you’re right there and you’re visible on the NBA broadcast. I froze it and it was like, there’s Taylor, there’s Taylor! So this is not the lame baseball thing. I want to make that clear. This is really interesting. I think the NBA has done something really cool here, at least from a fan-at-home experience. So Taylor, walk us through what it was like to be a virtual fan in the stands for this NBA game.
Soper: I worked with the NBA and Microsoft to get into the game. It’s a little bit difficult because there’s only 300 seats per game, but I got in. I got an email with instructions for what to do. I have to say, the instructions are quite exhaustive, especially if you’re not tech savvy, or even a little bit used to software, especially the new software that we’ve all been using more and more because of the pandemic.
GO @trailblazers! Look out for me in the virtual stands!!! Testing out the new @MicrosoftTeams virtual fan experience.
For some reason they put me with the Lakers fans. WTF!!
RIP CITY!!!! pic.twitter.com/Qwq6oALpDh
— Taylor Soper (@Taylor_Soper) August 21, 2020
You had to download Microsoft Teams, first of all, and then you had to go into the calendar and join the event that they had created. And then once you get in the event, you have to wait for the host to allow you in. And then once the host allows you in, you get into this section. I believe there are 10 sections per game with about 30 virtual seats in them. From there, you can pin the broadcast feed. So, what it appears like from the fan perspective is you’ve got the TV broadcast feed as one widget, right alongside the section of fans that you’re sitting with. It’s basically 30 little heads and you on one part of the screen, and then the actual live feed of the game on the other half of the screen, plus the chat stream on another little part of the screen. So it’s all right there.
Once you get in and you’re in, it’s really slick, really impressive. And if you have problems, there’s an NBA moderator in each room to kind of answer questions, which I thought was a nice touch.
Bishop: Did they purposefully seat you in a section with other Portland Trail Blazers fans?
Soper: I thought they might, you know, win some brownie points with me so I’d write good things about Microsoft, but in fact, it was the opposite. I was with Lakers fans. It was very annoying to experience the game sitting around virtual Laker fans. But you know, I was happy to just experience it and be there. It’s kind of funny to be that one fan, it was like as if I was at an away game, wearing the away team’s uniform and being the loud person that cheers and everyone else is pissed off.
Bishop: So the fans in that section could hear each other audibly?
Soper: That’s a good question. I was wondering about that going in. And yes, they let you mute or unmute yourself. You can hear everyone talking and you can interact with each other, which I thought was interesting.
The moderator lays down ground rules at the beginning: no cursing and no holding up signs because when the game’s going on the broadcast, they want to show the faces and if a bunch of people are holding up signs, you know, it’s going to look a little bit awkward. And so no signs, no foul language or the moderator will kick you out.
My experience was smooth. No one was causing any ruckus. It was really kind of funny talking to their fans before the game, during the game. The Lakers, when they did well, a bunch of people start clapping. When the Blazers scored, it was me and like one other person that were happy. It was kind of funny, watching the game but also watching the fans and seeing how everyone interacted. At one point, there were two fans sitting next to each other trying to virtually high five each other. That was pretty funny. There are all these new ways to interact with each other while you watch the game. But at the same time, it did also feel like you’re actually at the real game.
Bishop: It did? You’re saying it did feel like that?
Soper: In some ways, when you’re with the fans, and you’ve got the game there and you’ve got the reaction. LeBron James has a big dunk and then the 30 or so fans, everyone’s cheering really loud and you kind of have that feeling of togetherness, if you will.
Microsoft unveiled a release date and more details about the Surface Duo, its new dual-screen Android phone that the company says represents a “major new form factor” and “the next wave of mobile productivity.”
The Surface Duo will go on sale Sept. 10 starting at $1,399 in the U.S., with pre-orders beginning today at Microsoft’s online store, AT&T, and Best Buy. It will work on AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon networks.
Originally announced this past October, the foldable device features two 5.6-inch OLED PixelSense Fusion Displays connected by a 360-degree hinge that can be used individually or together. It is powered by a Snapdragon 855 chip and has 6GB of RAM along with 128GB and 256GB storage configurations. The Duo has an 11-megapixel camera and works with the Surface Pen accessory. Its battery has up to 15.5 hours of local video playback, 10 days of standby time, and 27 hours of talk time. There is LTE availability but no 5G.
Microsoft does not want to reinvent the phone but “inspire people to rethink how they want to use the device in their pocket,” Microsoft Chief Product Officer Panos Panay wrote in a blog post.
“The ability to use two screens together on a mobile product has a real impact on how you create, how you share, and how you feel when using the product,” Panay wrote.
Microsoft optimized apps such as Office, Outlook, Teams, and others for two screens, as described in this blog post from Microsoft Office design chief Jon Friedman.
The Duo features “App Combos,” which opens two apps at once — Teams and Outlook, AllTrails and Google Maps, etc. It also works with the Your Phone app, which lets Android smartphone users make calls, send text messages, check notifications, and more from their Windows PC. Panay noted that users will be able to copy and paste content from the Duo and a PC, and “even mirror the dual-screen experience of your Duo right on your Windows PC.”
Here’s more from Panay on use cases with the new device:
“Join a Microsoft Teams meeting and see participants on one screen while you present your PowerPoint slides on another. Open the Amazon Kindle app and read a book like a book. Position Surface Duo’s screen like a tent and watch a video hands-free. Use Surface Duo in Compose mode to quickly respond to an email, or tilt it into portrait for a more immersive way to scroll through web pages or photos.”
Panay added that “every detail from the layout of the motherboard and multi-cell battery to the placement of inertial sensors, mics and antennas was purposefully designed to unlock an entirely new interaction model across two screens.” He said Microsoft is working closely with Google “to make additions to the Android operating system” for the two-screen form factor. The Duo is the first Microsoft device running Android.
. @Surface Duo represents our vision for the next wave of mobile productivity. It brings together the power of Microsoft and the full ecosystem of Android apps into one device, with two screens that fits in your pocket. Pumped for you to check it out. https://t.co/A6LQY6FArl
— Panos Panay (@panos_panay) August 12, 2020
The high price tag for the Surface Duo may be an issue. “I believe these prices will make it a non-starter for anyone other than Microsoft Surface superfans,” ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley wrote.
When it was first unveiled last year, the Duo sparked comparisons to the Microsoft Courier, the dual-screen device that Microsoft developed in secret a decade ago before shelving without releasing as a product.
Other hardware makers including Samsung and Dell also sell their own foldable devices that could represent the next evolution in personal electronics.
Panay and other Microsoft execs have been offering glimpses of the Surface Duo device on social media this summer. Google’s Android chief got in on the fun earlier this week.
Made some yakitori and yakiniku this weekend! ?????????????????? pic.twitter.com/moSdmFQzSf
— Hiroshi Lockheimer (@lockheimer) August 10, 2020
Microsoft originally planned to debut its larger dual-screen device, the Surface Neo, this year but delayed the release. The Neo will use a special version of Windows 10 for dual-screen devices called Windows 10X.
Microsoft said in May that it would pause development of Windows 10X on dual-screen devices and instead focus first on developing Windows 10X first for single-screen devices.
Revenue in Microsoft’s Surface hardware business jumped 28% to more than $1.7 billion in the quarter ended June 30, its biggest result ever outside the holidays. The increase was due to higher demand for Surface laptops, tablets and other devices due to stay-at-home orders in the pandemic, the company said.
IDC reported that smartphone shipments are expected to decline 11.9% this year as the pandemic affects consumer spending.
“What started as a supply-side crisis has evolved into a global demand-side problem,” Sangeetika Srivastava, senior research analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers, said in a statement. “Nationwide lockdowns and rising unemployment have reduced consumer confidence and reprioritized spending towards essential goods, directly impacting the uptake of smartphones in the short term.”
However, traditional PC and tablet shipments both grew more than 11% year-over-year in Q2, IDC reported.
Microsoft President Brad Smith speaking at Seattle’s Town Hall in 2019. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)
Microsoft president Brad Smith once described the delicate “balance that we try to strike” when working with the Trump administration. He was referring to the tightrope act of partnering with the federal government one day, and suing it the next, during a Town Hall event in Seattle that I moderated last year.
“Politics is often about pragmatism and not principle alone,” Smith said during the Seattle event.
And now that pragmatism is on full display as Microsoft — a company best known for enterprise software and cloud computing — weighs the politically-charged purchase of social media giant TikTok.
Perhaps no tech company has navigated the bizarre political landscape of the past four years as deftly as Microsoft. Consider:
It won the lucrative $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure project from the Pentagon, outfoxing rival Amazon in D.C.It has largely avoided the latest antitrust drama, even though Microsoft’s market value has swelled to more than $1.5 trillion.And most recently it emerged as the surprise bidder for TikTok’s business in the U.S. and other key markets, a wild twist that’s resulted in direct negotiation between Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and President Donald Trump. (Breaking form with his predecessors, the sitting president is actively intervening in the acquisition deal. He said Monday that the negotiations must be finalized by Sept. 15 and provide “a very substantial portion” of the sale price to the U.S. Treasury).
What’s driving this unusual path for Microsoft? And where will it head next?
Microsoft’s government work stretches back decades, providing the software tools and cloud computing capacity to power everything from law enforcement to transportation infrastructure to court systems. Even while providing those services, Microsoft — largely under the direction of Smith — established a reputation as the tech industry’s moral compass. It was the wise elder among younger upstarts like Facebook or Twitter or even Amazon.
But Microsoft’s amicable relationship with the Trump administration is now raising eyebrows.
Tech journalists and other followers of the industry criticized Microsoft for holding closed-door negotiations with the Trump administration and allowing the federal government to reach so deeply into the TikTok deal.
M.G. Siegler, a former tech reporter and general partner at Google’s VC arm GV, said Microsoft “should be ashamed for playing along with this farce in any way.” He said Microsoft’s blog post on Sunday parroted Trump talking points, calling it a “huge black eye.”
Trump “demanded propaganda in order to win a deal,” Siegler tweeted. “Kiss the ring. Bend the knee.”
Others also sounded off:
The view from Microsoft is that a bad process that will lead to the good outcome re TikTok. But I keep thinking about Trump saying Microsoft should pay the Tresasury because he’s forcing a sale, and this “bad process” seems like a legit danger to democracy https://t.co/DMNHiWaWd1
— nilay patel (@reckless) August 3, 2020
Is no one else disturbed my @Microsoft having some sort of deliberation with Trump about buying @tiktok_us?! This is not the way that’s supposed to work.
— Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) August 3, 2020
The deal is far from a sure thing. Microsoft is negotiating the purchase of TikTok’s service in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, planning to own and operate the service in those markets if it can reach an agreement with ByteDance.
It will be a busy August for Microsoft as it works to close the TikTok deal and awaits the Pentagon’s latest decision in a legal dispute over the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure project. Microsoft beat out rival Amazon and won the $10 billion cloud computing contract, surprising many who saw Amazon as a shoo-in for the project. Amazon sued the federal government, claiming that Trump’s personal animus toward the company improperly impacted the outcome of the contest.
The lawsuit is on hold while the Pentagon reviews aspects of Microsoft and Amazon’s bid. The department plans to “do a re-announcement of our intentions to award,” by the end of August, according to Pentagon CIO Dana Deasy.
Some speculate that by helping the federal government avoid the messy, complicated process of banning a global social media brand, Microsoft could improve its chances for JEDI and other federal contracts.
“Bailing the government out like this probably helps their government contracts on some level,” said former Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff, speaking with CNBC Tuesday about the potential deal.
If both the JEDI and TikTok deals work out in Microsoft’s favor, the company will gain a major foothold in the federal government’s transition to the cloud and gain the fastest-growing social media platform.
Panos Panay, chief product officer at Microsoft. (Microsoft Photo)
— Microsoft is bringing more of its Windows team under Chief Product Officer Panos Panay as part of another reorganization this year. ZDNet reports the company is moving part of the Windows engineering team out of the Azure group and into Panay’s Windows + Devices group. Microsoft declined to comment on the reorg.
The Redmond, Wash., tech giant created the new Windows + Devices group in February, tying the Windows UX and Surface teams together. Based on an internal memo obtained by ZDNet, the changes are intended to create an end-to-end servicing and shipping experience for Windows.
Mike Ensing (RealNetworks Photo)
— Mike Ensing was named president and COO of Seattle-based digital media pioneer RealNetworks. Ensing recently served as interim CFO and was replaced in that role by Judd Lee. He succeeds Max Pellegrini, who has been president for the past seven years and will depart in September for a new opportunity in Italy.
Prior to RealNetworks, Ensing was CFO at Savers/Value Village and Knowledge Universe. He also held several finance leadership roles during eight years at Microsoft. Ensing will report to RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser, who invested $10 million into the company earlier this year as it makes a major pivot into facial recognition technology.
“Mike did a great job as our interim CFO earlier in 2020. I’m confident that he will hit the ground running in this significantly expanded permanent role” Glaser said in a statement.
— Former Amazon Web Services executive Christine Feng joined investment firm Blackstone as senior managing director. At AWS, Feng was a director of corporate development who focused on mergers and acquisitions. Feng previously held a similar role at Microsoft for six years. She will be based in San Francisco and focus on technology investing for Blackstone.
— Mike Clayville has also departed Amazon Web Services and will join online payment powerhouse Stripe as chief revenue officer. Clayville was most recently vice president of worldwide field operations at AWS and previously held executive roles at VMware and BEA Systems.
Major Horton (left) and Jessica Johnson. (LevelTen Energy Photos)
— Clean energy marketplace LevelTen Energy appointed Major Horton as CFO and Jessica Johnson as VP of customer success. Launched in 2016, the Seattle startup’s platform lets companies fund new clean energy projects without having to navigate the world of regulated utilities and power purchase agreements.
Horton previously served as CFO for tech companies AbacusNext, Nirvanix, and Rackspace Technology. Johnson originally joined the company as director of commercial delivery and now takes on an expanded role. She previously spent 16 years at Avangrid Renewables, a renewable energy utility based in Portland, Ore.
— Ken Willner, the former CEO of Seattle mobile marketing startup Zumobi, was named chief growth officer for Canadian mobile communications app TextNow. Prior to Zumobi, Willner was vice president of advertising and media at AT&T. He led Zumobi for more than a decade and will continue to be based in Seattle.
Jim Moffatt. (Icertis Photo)
— Contract management startup Icertis added Jim Moffatt, the former CEO and vice chairman of Deloitte Consulting, to its board. Moffatt retired from Deloitte in 2018 after more than 30 years at the global consulting firm. He currently serves on several other boards including tech companies SparkCognition and Optiv.
The Bellevue, Wash.-based company also appointed investor and advisor Betsy Atkins to its board last month.
— Former Edelman EVP Kent Hollenbeck has joined Amazon as the PR lead for robotics and advance technology. Hollenbeck spent more than five years at Edelman, most recently as a member of the senior leadership team for the Pacific Northwest. He previously was an executive at Matter Communications and WE Communications.
— Kelly Hostetler, director of marketing for Seattle smart commute startup Luum, received an Emerging Leader Award from the Association for Commuter Transportation. She has worked at Luum since 2018 and previously managed the University of Washington’s undergraduate Community, Environment and Planning major.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (right) and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman at the Microsoft campus last year, when the companies announced their partnership and a $1 billion investment in OpenAI by Microsoft. (Photo by Scott Eklund, Red Box Pictures, for Microsoft.)
University of Washington computer science professor Pedro Domingos. (UW Photo)
GeekWire’s Taylor Soper watches from the virtual stands as the Portland Trail Blazers take on the L.A. Lakers in the NBA playoffs on Thursday night. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop)
Microsoft President Brad Smith speaking at Seattle’s Town Hall in 2019. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)
Panos Panay, chief product officer at Microsoft. (Microsoft Photo)
Mike Ensing (RealNetworks Photo)
Major Horton (left) and Jessica Johnson. (LevelTen Energy Photos)
Jim Moffatt. (Icertis Photo)