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Vulnerabilities and Exploits
AI image generation Copilot image generation models Microsoft Microsoft Copilot Vulnerabilities and Exploits

Microsoft Employee Raises Alarms Over Copilot Designer and Urges Government Intervention

 

Shane Jones, a principal software engineering manager at Microsoft, has sounded the alarm about the safety of Copilot Designer, a generative AI tool introduced by the company in March 2023. 

His concerns have prompted him to submit a letter to both the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Microsoft's board of directors, calling for an investigation into the text-to-image generator. Jones's apprehension revolves around Copilot Designer's unsettling capacity to generate potentially inappropriate images, spanning themes such as explicit content, violence, underage drinking, and drug use, as well as instances of political bias and conspiracy theories. 

Beyond highlighting these concerns, he has emphasized the critical need to educate the public, especially parents and educators, about the associated risks, particularly in educational settings where the tool may be utilized. Despite Jones's persistent efforts over the past three months to address the issue internally at Microsoft, the company has not taken action to remove Copilot Designer from public use or implement adequate safeguards. His recommendations, including the addition of disclosures and adjustments to the product's rating on the Android app store, were not implemented by the tech giant. 

Microsoft responded to the concerns raised by Jones, assuring its commitment to addressing employee concerns within the framework of company policies. The company expressed appreciation for efforts aimed at enhancing the safety of its technology. However, the situation underscores the internal challenges companies may face in balancing innovation with the responsibility of ensuring their technologies are safe and ethical. 

This incident isn't the first time Jones has spoken out about AI safety concerns. Despite facing pressure from Microsoft's legal team, Jones persisted in voicing his concerns, even extending his efforts to communicate with US senators about the broader risks associated with AI safety. The case of Copilot Designer adds to the ongoing scrutiny of AI technologies in the tech industry. Google recently paused access to its image generation feature on Gemini, its competitor to OpenAI's ChatGPT, after facing complaints about historically inaccurate images involving race. 

DeepMind, Google's AI division, reassured users that the feature would be reinstated after addressing the concerns and ensuring responsible use of the technology. As AI technologies become increasingly integrated into various aspects of our lives, incidents like the one involving Copilot Designer highlight the imperative for vigilant oversight and ethical considerations in AI development and deployment. The intersection of innovation and responsible AI use remains a complex landscape that necessitates collaboration between tech companies, regulatory bodies, and stakeholders to ensure the ethical and safe evolution of AI technologies.
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Technology
AI Chatbots Bing Chat Chatbot ChatGPT Copilot Microsoft Microsoft Copilot Technology

Bing Chat Rebrands to ‘Copilot’: What is New?


Bing Chat has been renamed as ‘Copilot,’ according to an announcement made during Microsoft Ignite 2023.

But, is the name change the only new thing the users will be introduced with? The answer could be a little ambiguous. 

What is New with Bing Chat (now Copilot)? Honestly, there are no significant changes in Copilot, previously called Bing Chat. “Refinement” might be a more appropriate term to characterize Microsoft's perplexing activities. Let's examine three modifications that Microsoft made to its AI chatbot.

Here, we are listing some of these refinements:

1. A New Home

Copilot, then Bing Chat, now has its own standalone webpage. One can access this webpage at https://copilot.microsoft.com

This means that the user will no longer be required to visit Bing in order to access Microsoft’s AI chat experience. One can simply visit the aforementioned webpage, without Bing Search and other services interfering with your experience. Put differently, it has become much more "ChatGPT-like" now. 

Notably, however, the link seems to only function with desktop versions of Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome. 

2. A Minor Makeover

While Microsoft has made certain visual changes in the rebranded Bing Chat, they are however insignificant. 

This new version has smaller tiles but still has the same prompts: Write, Create, Laugh, Code, Organize, Compare, and Travel.

However, the users can still choose the conversation style, be it Creative, Balanced and Precise. The only big change, as mentioned before, is the new name (Copilot) and the tagline: "Your everyday AI companion." 

Though the theme colour switched from light blue to an off-white, the user interface is largely the same.

Users can access DALLE-3 and GPT-4 for free with Bing Chat, which is now called Copilot. But in order to utilize Copilot on platforms like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other widely used productivity tools, users will have to pay a membership fee for what Microsoft refers to as "Copilot for Microsoft 365."

3. Better Security for Enterprise Users

With Copilot, users can access DALLE-3 and GPT-4 for free. But in order to utilize Copilot on platforms like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other widely used productivity tools, users will have to pay a membership fee for what Microsoft refers to as "Copilot for Microsoft 365."

This way, users who have had a Bing Chat Enterprise account, or pay for a Microsoft 365 license, will get an additional benefit of more data protection./ Copilot will be officially launched on December 1. 

What Stayed the Same? 

Microsoft plans to gradually add commercial data protection for those who do not pay. However, Copilot currently stores information from your interactions and follows the same data policy as the previous version of Bing Chat for free users. Therefore, the name and domain change is the only difference for casual, non-subscribing Bing Chat users. OpenAI's GPT-4 and DALL-E 3 models are still available, but users need to be careful about sharing too much personal data with the chatbot.

In summary, there is not much to be excited about for free users: Copilot is the new name for Bing Chat, and it has a new home.  

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Technology
AI Assistant AI Chatbot AI-powered tool Copilot Microsoft Microsoft 365 Microsoft Copilot Technology

Microsoft Copilot: New AI Chatbot can Attend Meetings for Users


A ChatGPT-style AI chatbot, developed by Microsoft will now help online users summarize their Teams meetings by drafting emails, and creating Word documents, spreadsheet graphs, and PowerPoint presentations in very little time. 

Microsoft introduced Copilot – its workplace assistant – earlier this year, labelling the product as a “copilot for work.”

Copilot which will be made available for the users from November 1, will be integrated to the subscribers of Microsoft 365 apps such as Word, Excel, Teams and PowerPoint – with a subscription worth $30 per user/month.

Additionally, as part of the new service, employees at companies who use Microsoft's Copilot could theoretically send their AI helpers to meetings in their place, allowing them to miss or double-book appointments and focus on other tasks.

‘Busywork That Bogs Us Down’

With businesses including General Motors, KPMG, and Goodyear, Microsoft has been testing Copilot, which assists users with tasks like email writing and coding. Early feedback from those companies has revealed that it is used to swiftly respond to emails and inquire about meetings. 

According to Jared Spataro, corporate vice president of modern work and business applications at Microsoft, “[Copilot] combines the power of large language models (LLMs) with your data…to turn your words into the most powerful productivity tool on the planet,” he said in a March blog post. 

Spataro promised that the technology would “lighten the load” for online users, stating that for many white-collar workers, “80% of our time is consumed with busywork that bogs us down.”

For many office workers, this so-called "busywork" includes attending meetings. According to a recent British study, office workers waste 213 hours annually, or 27 full working days, in meetings where the agenda could have been communicated by email.

Companies like Shopify are deliberately putting a stop to pointless meetings. When the e-commerce giant introduced an internal "cost calculator" for staff meetings, it made headlines during the summer. According to corporate leadership, each 30-minute meeting costs the company between $700 and $1,600.

Copilot will now help in reducing this expense. The AI assistant's services include the ability to "follow" meetings and produce a transcript, summary, and notes once they are over.

Microsoft, in July, noted that “the next wave of generative AI for Teams,” which included incorporating Copilot further into Teams calls and meetings.

“You can also ask Copilot to draft notes for you during the call and highlight key points, such as names, dates, numbers, and tasks using natural language commands[…]You can quickly synthesize key information from your chat threads—allowing you to ask specific questions (or use one of the suggested prompts) to help get caught up on the conversation so far, organize key discussion points, and summarize information relevant to you,” the company noted.

In regard to the same, Spataro states that “Every meeting is a productive meeting with Copilot in Teams[…]It can summarize key discussion points—including who said what and where people are aligned and where they disagree—and suggest action items, all in real-time during a meeting.

However, Microsoft is not the only tech giant working on making meeting tolerant, as Zoom and Google have also introduced AI-powered chatbots for the online workforce that can attend meetings on behalf of the user, and present its conclusions during the get-together.  

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