It might not get the same kind of attention as Google and Apple, but Microsoft is still one of the biggest and most powerful tech companies operating today. It runs Azure, one of the biggest cloud computing services, and maintains Windows 11 and the whole Office suite of software. It also makes plenty of Surface hardware and has a whole slew of gaming products, including the Xbox Series X. But the company is ever expanding — building new hardware, acquiring new game studios, and making sure that even if Microsoft doesn’t run your phone, it can touch plenty of the apps on it.
I enjoyed reading this story about Bill Gates’ malevolent influence on the current crop of Silicon Valley megalomaniacs. If you remember his pre-Gates Foundation reputation, you will particularly appreciate it.
[The New York Review of Books]
The latest open-world racer is a stunning virtual road trip through Japan, and it’s perfect for explorers.
New Xbox boss Asha Sharma is asking fans whether it should be Xbox or XBOX, when the real answer is right there, if only she could see it.
Chris K.:
Give it the gamertag treatment: xXxBOxXx
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On Wednesday, the AISI, which evaluates AI models for the British government, said both Anthropic’s Claude Mythos Preview and OpenAI’s GPT-5.5 showed progress well above previous trends on cybersecurity testing. Separately, XBOW released data suggesting “frontier models have taken a major step forward in vulnerability discovery.”
Meanwhile, Microsoft said its multi-model agentic setup, MDASH, was used to discover 16 CVEs in this week’s Patch Tuesday updates and is the leader on the CyberGym security evaluation framework.
Microsoft is reportedly cutting around five percent of its LinkedIn headcount this week, approximately 875 roles. Reuters reports that Microsoft-owned LinkedIn will inform staff of the cuts today. Microsoft confirmed the layoffs in a statement to Seeking Alpha. “As part of our regular business planning, we’ve implemented organizational changes to best position ourselves for future success,” said an unnamed LinkedIn spokesperson.
Microsoft quietly announced last week that its Israel general manager, Alon Haimovich, is stepping down at the end of the month after four years. Israeli newspaper Globes now reports that Haimovich is leaving amid a Microsoft investigation into Microsoft Israel’s work with the Israeli Ministry of Defense. Microsoft blocked the Israeli military from some cloud and AI services last year after The Guardian revealed its services were being used for mass surveillance of Palestinians.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was just asked to explain what Copilot is during the Musk v. Altman trial. “Copilot is an AI assistant, similar to ChatGPT.” That’s funny because you won’t find a mention of ChatGPT in Microsoft’s Copilot marketing materials.
The Microsoft CEO said that though things “started off as, essentially, a bunch of people leaving,” it turned into them “talking about creating a new company. That was obviously very concerning to me.” He said he was trying to make sure Altman and Greg Brockman joined Microsoft instead of launching a new competitor: “I just wanted to make sure we could hang onto the band that created all this technology, one way or the other.”
Microsoft is holding an Xbox game dev update today, and a lot of gaming publications think that “a closer look at Project Helix” means it’s some kind of showcase. That’s not the case, as it’s just “a recap of our announcements from GDC,” according to Xbox’s Jason Ronald. “We will have more to share about Project Helix later this year.” You can follow along at 12PM ET / 9AM PT over at the Microsoft game dev YouTube channel, if you’re interested in Xbox game development.
The two companies’ famed 2019 contract was made public as part of the Musk v. Altman trial exhibits. The 36-page agreement defines artificial general intelligence as “a highly autonomous system that outperforms humans at most economically valuable work.”
