6 ms·

Microsoft insiders worry the company has become just 'IT for OpenAI'

78 points by nancyp 2y ago

natas 2y ago
Now that OpenAI has chosen Oracle Cloud, Microsoft is becoming completely irrelevant in the domain of AI, and their "efforts" will soon be regarded as a "cloud clippy"
- esafak 2y ago
  They say it is for backup: https://www.oracle.com/news/announcement/openai-selects-oracle-cloud-infrastructure-to-extend-microsoft-azure-ai-platform-2024-06-11/ https://www.oracle.com/news/announcement/openai-selects-orac...
- chucke1992 2y ago
  do you understand that Oracle was chosen in the first because all the cloud providers are running out of the available hardware? Microsoft also partnered with Oracle with the same reason. Oracle has some cloud infra, that nobody is using (lol).
  - tomrod 2y ago
    > Oracle has some cloud infra, that nobody is using (lol). Nor should they, Oracle is awful!
gjsman-1000 2y ago
2 month old article. https://archive.is/bLaDA https://archive.is/bLaDA
- gmerc 2y ago
  Since then - Recall recalled - Copilot+ cut down to a web wrapper - CoPilot+ PC benchmarks faked - CustomGPT support dropped from Copilot - Curb Stomped by Apple actually having a developer platform strategy around AI
  - chucke1992 2y ago
    > Curb Stomped by Apple actually having a developer platform strategy around AI Lol no. Intelligence of an apple did not curb stomped anything. Including apples. So far regulators like EU and countries like China curbstomped the fruit intelligence.
throwaway42668 2y ago
Now that's not really fair is it? They're also Sales, Marketing, and Channel Partner Management for OpenAI.
isoprophlex 2y ago
It's businessinsider so you can be sure it's an entire article spun around half a tweet and a daydream of an editor... but, > a former executive who left as a result of the changes said products like Azure Cognitive Search, Azure AI Bot Service, and Kinect DK are practically gone. I'm familiar with the first two and... good riddance. These only kept on existing because of marketing money being pumped into selling them to inept nincompoops. These products are exclusively meant for people with purchasing power but zero understanding of turning ideas into actual software.
- bryancoxwell 2y ago
  > That's according to interviews with several current senior Microsoft executives, former execs, and many rank-and-file employees Not really the same thing as “half a tweet and a daydream of an editor”.
  - Kwpolska 2y ago
    And all of those employees are anonymous. Yeah, right.
    - geodel 2y ago
      Agree. I'd believe only if Satya come and say MS is just an IT for OpenAI.
      - mc32 2y ago
        The problem with this kind of reporting is that we don’t know if it’s a reliable source or someone spouting off but who has no insight, or has an ulterior agenda. This is how narratives work best. You mock something up, give it some gravitas and hope it grows legs. Sometimes you get “the pentagon papers” other times you get a “Steele dossier”… it’s hard to tell the two apart but in retrospect.
drpossum 2y ago
[flagged]
- mittermayr 2y ago
  This comment is under every single post related to Microsoft. I am 50/50 between Apple and Microsoft operating systems, and quite frankly, I don't notice any ads on Windows. Apple is actually more annoying at times (with their constant upgrade and product release promos). I get that Microsoft keeps making mistakes, but in terms of ads and bad behavior, I'd highly recommend taking a look at what Google has been up to. Even Linux isn't safe anymore, the amount of times I've come across requests in updates or installs asking me to enable telemetry or donate or support their patreon has gone up dramatically in the past few years.
  - utensil4778 2y ago
    Do a fresh install with a new Microsoft account. Click on all the taskbar widgets and scroll through the start menu. It's inexcusably egregious.
  - cjk2 2y ago
    Clearly you have never used the Start Menu before!
    - mittermayr 2y ago
      I've disabled Personalization from the start, is that why I don't see them perhaps?
  - drpossum 2y ago
    > Even Linux isn't safe anymore Linux is a kernel and everything else you see is a product of whatever distro you choose to use. Linux is literally as safe as the user wants it to be
  - dagmx 2y ago
    The start menu has had ads since Windows 8. It started off as ads for candy crush and MSN affiliates and has grown from there over the years. I’m very surprised you haven’t noticed it. On early windows 10 it would occupy the right side of the start menu.
cjk2 2y ago
It's worse than that. They always sacrifice their customers to try and win new business on some fad of the hour. Every fucking time. This has been going on 20 years at least. This is another Windows Phone. They shaft the entire platform for a decade to fulfil some stupid fucked up half baked ideology. Imagine Windows if they invested in their customers rather than their stock price and ego. Imagine if they became a bastion of privacy and security. Imagine if they became someone we could trust.
- dageshi 2y ago
  Most people do trust them already, they're still the worlds biggest desktop os by a large margin. So erm, it probably wouldn't make any meaningful difference?
  - cjk2 2y ago
    Actually no we don't. I work for a company with 10,000 windows seats and we use it because we're basically locked in and stuck with the steaming turd. And the rug is getting pulled on Windows 10 now. Notably one of our biggest security threat vectors is actually Windows. The security model on it is so crap it's either locked down so it's completely unusable via GPOs and behind DLP proxies and firewalls. Or the risk is accepted and as a regulated industry we get fined to death if anything goes wrong. So no we aren't happy, we don't trust them but we have to gargle it anyway.
  - nunez 2y ago
    > Most people do trust them already, Forced to trust them. Windows is the default at most companies, and the cheapest laptops on the market (the ones that will shove ads all over Edge and your start menu) run Windows also.
- airocker 2y ago
  This is so true! Going after the pie in the sky only works for a short while, then you have to work for your pie. the worst is that employees in windows used to get slower promotions than these new tech groups (live,mobile etc ) which means more of them are in powerful positions to continue this trend. They tasted success with this strategy in their early days when they built sq L, xbox and word. Azure was the last successful play like this but at least they wrote own software.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
chucke1992 2y ago
I mean, AI is a vector for their growth now and Satya questioned in the past like why Microsoft research did not produce something like OpenAI.
- cjk2 2y ago
  That'd be because MSR was working on stuff for customers, not for shareholders...
  - mizzao 2y ago
    MSR was actually working for themselves (researchers who were career paper-publishers aka professors without teaching responsibilities). Source: worked at MSR
    - cjk2 2y ago
      That is exactly what working for the customer is. Fundamental technology, research and science.
      - kevinventullo 2y ago
        Working for the customer is designing a new graph search algorithm that speeds up formula propagation in Excel by 10%. Working for yourself is designing a new graph search algorithm that’s really cool and gets published in top journals and conferences.
        cjk2 2y ago
        The latter makes its way into products occasionally. Which helps the customer. A lot of the stuff I use comes from research not a product team.
holoduke 2y ago
What happens with microsoft if openai fails to become a dominant player that created a new market with significant revenue? I feel like this is gonna end up just like Windows phone did.
- throwoutway 2y ago
  This is what I expect will happen. Invest $10B (already happened), then invest another $5B for the sunk cost fallacy, then layoff and close (or divest if they're motivated enough). They'll write this off as a loss and the market will eventually forgive them as they chase the next buzz
reqo 2y ago
Isn't there some value in handling the infra for the largest genai products currently?

78 points by nancyp 2y ago

Now that OpenAI has chosen Oracle Cloud, Microsoft is becoming completely irrelevant in the domain of AI, and their "efforts" will soon be regarded as a "cloud clippy"

esafak 2y ago
They say it is for backup: https://www.oracle.com/news/announcement/openai-selects-oracle-cloud-infrastructure-to-extend-microsoft-azure-ai-platform-2024-06-11/ https://www.oracle.com/news/announcement/openai-selects-orac...
chucke1992 2y ago
do you understand that Oracle was chosen in the first because all the cloud providers are running out of the available hardware? Microsoft also partnered with Oracle with the same reason. Oracle has some cloud infra, that nobody is using (lol).
- tomrod 2y ago
  > Oracle has some cloud infra, that nobody is using (lol). Nor should they, Oracle is awful!

gjsman-1000 2y ago

2 month old article. https://archive.is/bLaDA https://archive.is/bLaDA

gmerc 2y ago
Since then - Recall recalled - Copilot+ cut down to a web wrapper - CoPilot+ PC benchmarks faked - CustomGPT support dropped from Copilot - Curb Stomped by Apple actually having a developer platform strategy around AI
- chucke1992 2y ago
  > Curb Stomped by Apple actually having a developer platform strategy around AI Lol no. Intelligence of an apple did not curb stomped anything. Including apples. So far regulators like EU and countries like China curbstomped the fruit intelligence.

throwaway42668 2y ago

Now that's not really fair is it? They're also Sales, Marketing, and Channel Partner Management for OpenAI.

isoprophlex 2y ago

It's businessinsider so you can be sure it's an entire article spun around half a tweet and a daydream of an editor... but, > a former executive who left as a result of the changes said products like Azure Cognitive Search, Azure AI Bot Service, and Kinect DK are practically gone. I'm familiar with the first two and... good riddance. These only kept on existing because of marketing money being pumped into selling them to inept nincompoops. These products are exclusively meant for people with purchasing power but zero understanding of turning ideas into actual software.

bryancoxwell 2y ago
> That's according to interviews with several current senior Microsoft executives, former execs, and many rank-and-file employees Not really the same thing as “half a tweet and a daydream of an editor”.
- Kwpolska 2y ago
  And all of those employees are anonymous. Yeah, right.
  - geodel 2y ago
    Agree. I'd believe only if Satya come and say MS is just an IT for OpenAI.
    - mc32 2y ago
      The problem with this kind of reporting is that we don’t know if it’s a reliable source or someone spouting off but who has no insight, or has an ulterior agenda. This is how narratives work best. You mock something up, give it some gravitas and hope it grows legs. Sometimes you get “the pentagon papers” other times you get a “Steele dossier”… it’s hard to tell the two apart but in retrospect.

drpossum 2y ago

[flagged]

mittermayr 2y ago
This comment is under every single post related to Microsoft. I am 50/50 between Apple and Microsoft operating systems, and quite frankly, I don't notice any ads on Windows. Apple is actually more annoying at times (with their constant upgrade and product release promos). I get that Microsoft keeps making mistakes, but in terms of ads and bad behavior, I'd highly recommend taking a look at what Google has been up to. Even Linux isn't safe anymore, the amount of times I've come across requests in updates or installs asking me to enable telemetry or donate or support their patreon has gone up dramatically in the past few years.
- utensil4778 2y ago
  Do a fresh install with a new Microsoft account. Click on all the taskbar widgets and scroll through the start menu. It's inexcusably egregious.
- cjk2 2y ago
  Clearly you have never used the Start Menu before!
  - mittermayr 2y ago
    I've disabled Personalization from the start, is that why I don't see them perhaps?
- drpossum 2y ago
  > Even Linux isn't safe anymore Linux is a kernel and everything else you see is a product of whatever distro you choose to use. Linux is literally as safe as the user wants it to be
- dagmx 2y ago
  The start menu has had ads since Windows 8. It started off as ads for candy crush and MSN affiliates and has grown from there over the years. I’m very surprised you haven’t noticed it. On early windows 10 it would occupy the right side of the start menu.

cjk2 2y ago

It's worse than that. They always sacrifice their customers to try and win new business on some fad of the hour. Every fucking time. This has been going on 20 years at least. This is another Windows Phone. They shaft the entire platform for a decade to fulfil some stupid fucked up half baked ideology. Imagine Windows if they invested in their customers rather than their stock price and ego. Imagine if they became a bastion of privacy and security. Imagine if they became someone we could trust.

dageshi 2y ago
Most people do trust them already, they're still the worlds biggest desktop os by a large margin. So erm, it probably wouldn't make any meaningful difference?
- cjk2 2y ago
  Actually no we don't. I work for a company with 10,000 windows seats and we use it because we're basically locked in and stuck with the steaming turd. And the rug is getting pulled on Windows 10 now. Notably one of our biggest security threat vectors is actually Windows. The security model on it is so crap it's either locked down so it's completely unusable via GPOs and behind DLP proxies and firewalls. Or the risk is accepted and as a regulated industry we get fined to death if anything goes wrong. So no we aren't happy, we don't trust them but we have to gargle it anyway.
- nunez 2y ago
  > Most people do trust them already, Forced to trust them. Windows is the default at most companies, and the cheapest laptops on the market (the ones that will shove ads all over Edge and your start menu) run Windows also.
airocker 2y ago
This is so true! Going after the pie in the sky only works for a short while, then you have to work for your pie. the worst is that employees in windows used to get slower promotions than these new tech groups (live,mobile etc ) which means more of them are in powerful positions to continue this trend. They tasted success with this strategy in their early days when they built sq L, xbox and word. Azure was the last successful play like this but at least they wrote own software.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

chucke1992 2y ago

I mean, AI is a vector for their growth now and Satya questioned in the past like why Microsoft research did not produce something like OpenAI.

cjk2 2y ago
That'd be because MSR was working on stuff for customers, not for shareholders...
- mizzao 2y ago
  MSR was actually working for themselves (researchers who were career paper-publishers aka professors without teaching responsibilities). Source: worked at MSR
  - cjk2 2y ago
    That is exactly what working for the customer is. Fundamental technology, research and science.
    - kevinventullo 2y ago
      Working for the customer is designing a new graph search algorithm that speeds up formula propagation in Excel by 10%. Working for yourself is designing a new graph search algorithm that’s really cool and gets published in top journals and conferences.
      - cjk2 2y ago
        The latter makes its way into products occasionally. Which helps the customer. A lot of the stuff I use comes from research not a product team.

holoduke 2y ago

What happens with microsoft if openai fails to become a dominant player that created a new market with significant revenue? I feel like this is gonna end up just like Windows phone did.

throwoutway 2y ago
This is what I expect will happen. Invest $10B (already happened), then invest another $5B for the sunk cost fallacy, then layoff and close (or divest if they're motivated enough). They'll write this off as a loss and the market will eventually forgive them as they chase the next buzz

reqo 2y ago

Isn't there some value in handling the infra for the largest genai products currently?