Google and its rivals are increasingly employing AI-generated summaries, but research indicates their results are far from authoritative and open to manipulation Does aspartame cause cancer? The potentially carcinogenic properties of the popular artificial sweetener, added to everything from soft drinks to children’s medicine, have been debated for decades. Its approval in the US stirred controversy in 1974, several UK supermarkets banned it from their products in the 00s, and peer-reviewed academic studies have long butted heads. Last year, the World Health Organization concluded aspartame was “possibly carcinogenic” to humans, while public health regulators suggest that it’s safe to consume in the small portions in which it is commonly used. While many of us may look to settle the question with a quick Google search, this is exactly the sort of contentious debate that could cause problems for the internet of the future. As generative AI chatbots have rapidly developed over the past couple of years, tech companies have been quick to hype them as a utopian replacement for various jobs and services – including internet search engines. Instead of scrolling through a list of webpages to find the answer to a question, the thinking goes, an AI chatbot can scour the internet for you, combing it for relevant information to compile into a short answer to your query. Google and Microsoft are betting big on the idea and have already introduced AI-generated summaries into Google Search and Bing. Continue reading...

Abdo Mohamed and Hossam Nasr organized event outside headquarters to reject company doing business in Israel Two Microsoft employees who were fired last week after organizing a vigil for Palestinians killed in Gaza say the company retaliated against them for their pro-Palestinian activism. The two, Abdo Mohamed, a researcher and data scientist, and Hossam Nasr, a software engineer, organized the event outside Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington, on 24 October. They were fired later that evening. Continue reading...

Revenue from Azure cloud business increased by 22% as company focuses attention on artificial intelligence Microsoft reported better-than-expected earnings on Wednesday fueled by growth in its Azure cloud business, as five of the “Magnificent Seven” tech megacaps roll out quarterly earnings this week. “AI-driven transformation is changing work, work artifacts, and workflow across every role, function, and business process,” the company’s CEO, Satya Nadella, said in a press release. On an earnings call, Nadella said Microsoft’s AI business was “on track to surpass an annual run-rate of $10bn next quarter, which will make it the fastest growing business in our history to reach this milestone”. Continue reading...

Campaigners say 21% of people at workshops did not disclose on their applications relationships with firms being discussed More than one in five attenders at EU events on regulating big tech companies did not disclose links to the industry when applying to take part, according to transparency campaigners who say hidden networks are distorting public debate. Researchers at three NGOs analysed nearly 4,000 registrations at European Commission workshops organised earlier this year to test companies’ compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a law to curb anti-competitive behaviour. Continue reading...

As the software used by millions around the world celebrates its birthday, here are some of the low points For millions of people, from accountants to the person in charge of the work rota, Microsoft Excel has been been a godsend. But as the spreadsheet software celebrates its 40th birthday, spare a thought for those who misplaced a decimal, left out a row or got their cut and paste wrong. Here are some of the most memorable examples. Continue reading...

From baby names to wedding planning, fans of the 40-year-old spreadsheet program reveal how it has transformed their lives “I’m a boring man,” says Mike Elwin, an energy management consultant from Warrington. “My friends think it’s ridiculous how much I use Microsoft Excel. But it’s a dead handy tool.” Elwin, 56, has long used Excel to organise his life – from mapping finances, to plotting medical test results, to monitoring his household energy use. When his son was born in 2007, he made a spreadsheet for the feeding schedule. Continue reading...

Collaboration between leading garden designer and Microsoft to go on display at Chelsea flower show 2025 Hardcore gardeners sometimes, when no one else is listening, talk quietly to their prize blooms. But at next year’s Chelsea flower show, visitors will be encouraged to have a chat with its first ever AI-powered garden. The garden designer Tom Massey has partnered with Microsoft to create the Avanade “intelligent” garden. Sensors in the soil are partnered with an AI trained on Royal Horticultural Society plant data and gardening advice, meaning visitors can ask the garden: “How are you?” Continue reading...

US company gives customers the ability to build own virtual agents as well as releasing 10 off-the-shelf bots Microsoft is introducing autonomous artificial intelligence agents, or virtual employees, that can perform tasks such as handling client queries and identifying sales leads, as the tech sector strives to show investors that the AI boom can produce indispensable products. The US tech company is giving customers the ability to build their own AI agents as well as releasing 10 off-the-shelf bots that can carry out a range of roles including supply chain management and customer service. Continue reading...

Event will push for greater transparency and aims to rank AI firms in terms of ability to meet climate goals World leaders at the next AI summit will focus on the impact on the environment and jobs, including the possibility of ranking the greenest AI companies, it has been announced. Rating artificial intelligence companies in terms of their ecological impact is among the proposals under consideration, while other areas being looked at include the effect on the labour market, giving all countries access to the technology, and bringing more states under the wing of global AI governance initiatives. Continue reading...

Many fear the arrival of tech giants such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google in the state of Querétaro will place too much of a strain on scarce water and electricity resources In a nondescript building in an industrial park in central Mexico, cavernous rooms hold stack after stack of servers studded with blue lights, humming with computations and cooled by thousands of little fans and large vents blasting great columns of air across the room. “Datacentres are the lungs of digital life,” says Amet Novillo, the managing director of Equinix Mexico, a digital infrastructure company, as he stands in the middle of the airflows that stop the hardware overheating. Continue reading...