Latest news with #CoPilot
AU Financial Review
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- AU Financial Review
He's the godfather of Microsoft's AI push. Here are his next big calls
Call it the parable of the snake. Back in May 2023, Thomas Dohmke, the chief executive of the Microsoft-owned developer platform GitHub, gave a speech in Brazil where he performed what he thought at the time was a neat trick. Live on stage, he used GitHub's artificial intelligence tool for coders, called CoPilot, to create a simple Snake computer game, like we all used to play on our Nokia phones.
Business Upturn
18-06-2025
- Business
- Business Upturn
AI can empower agriculture retailers, farm supply cooperatives
DENVER, June 18, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — New artificial intelligence technology is enabling agricultural retailers and farm supply cooperatives to optimize their operational performance while strengthening all-important customer relationships. In addition to broad-based AI platforms that can be leveraged to simplify everyday business operations, farm suppliers now have access to AI apps specifically designed to support field agronomy and crop production. According to a new research brief from CoBank's Knowledge Exchange, AI technology offers ag retailers a new set of tools to optimize workflows, inventory management, employee performance and other key business functions. Farm supply businesses that rise to the challenge of adopting AI can also enhance their position as trusted advisors and essential partners in the ag supply chain. 'AI in agriculture can be utilized in a company's back office, front office as well as within agronomy and supply chain operations divisions,' said Jacqui Fatka, farm supply and biofuels economist with CoBank. 'Early adoption and reliable partnerships will provide an advantage for those willing to test the AI landscape. Ag retailers should research companies and pick AI partners who understand agriculture and promise value beyond just lofty ROIs.' Agricultural cooperatives and retailers serve as a critical relationship bridge between farmers and input providers. The potential erosion of those relationships due to alternative distribution models, disruptive technologies or other competing forces is one of the biggest challenges ag retailers face moving forward. Early adoption of AI can help the ag retailer sector stay ahead of competitors while maintaining and strengthening customer relationships. Fatka suggested ag retailers start with easy-to-implement, low-stakes AI applications for things like email and presentation assistance and customer interaction summaries before tackling more complex tasks. 'Testing out different pathways to gain internal acceptance can lead to greater long-term success. For instance, an easy initial test might be recording virtual meetings with CoPilot. Within minutes, it can deliver an AI-generated summary of the meeting with key takeaways, immediate action items and future tasks.' Ag retailers can also start leveraging AI to optimize workflows for standard business functions like human resources, accounting, operations and sales. Using AI to evaluate and streamline these functions offers a high return on investment relative to the efforts required to build or implement such tools. Fatka stresses, however, that companies should establish guardrails for the use of customer information and understand privacy changes with the use of AI tools. While AI is unlikely to eliminate ag retail jobs, it can help simplify tasks and reduce human error or bias. In addition, as labor continues to be a challenge for many rural enterprises, it can provide continuity during labor turnover. AI can also help agronomists and other staff cover more acres or customers. Apps like AgPilot enable agronomists to interact with AI verbally while traveling between customers, allowing them to input crop protection recommendations and smoothly advance potential sales from one stage to another. 'The stakes are high for agribusinesses operating in an environment where margins are tight,' said Fatka. 'However, ag retailers will need to ensure AI costs do not outweigh the benefits. The cost of experimentation is minimal and delaying a trial adoption of these promising tools could result in missed opportunities for growth.' Read the research brief, How AI is Empowering Agriculture Retailers. About CoBank CoBank is a cooperative bank serving vital industries across rural America. The bank provides loans, leases, export financing and other financial services to agribusinesses and rural power, water and communications providers in all 50 states. The bank also provides wholesale loans and other financial services to affiliated Farm Credit associations serving more than 78,000 farmers, ranchers and other rural borrowers in 23 states around the country. CoBank is a member of the Farm Credit System, a nationwide network of banks and retail lending associations chartered to support the borrowing needs of U.S. agriculture, rural infrastructure and rural communities. Headquartered outside Denver, Colorado, CoBank serves customers from regional banking centers across the U.S. and also maintains an international representative office in Singapore. Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with GlobeNewswire. Business Upturn takes no editorial responsibility for the same. Ahmedabad Plane Crash
Mint
17-06-2025
- Business
- Mint
Air India CEO in hot water over condolence message after plane crash, netizens demand ‘authenticity'
Air India CEO Campbell Wilson is in hot water over his condolence message after the deadly crash, which claimed the lives of 241 on board and several more on the ground. Karthik, a communications strategy consultant, claimed that his speech was 'plagiarised' from American Airlines CEO Robert Isom's January 30 condolence speech. Angry netizens demanded 'authenticity'. Isom was consoling the death of 67 people after a commercial jet collided with a military helicopter near Washington, DC. In an X post, Karthik shared the text of the two speeches and highlighted the sentences that matched. These include, 'This is a difficult day for all of us', and 'I know there are many questions and at this early stage, I'll not be able to answer all of them, but I do want to share information I have at this time'. Social media users were stunned by the level of 'competence' of the Air India boss and said, 'Crisis communication demands authenticity.' 'So Air India boss even copied the condolence message? What competence!' an angry user said. 'Crisis communication demands authenticity. The striking similarities between Campbell Wilson's statement and Robert Isom's speech raise serious concerns about corporate messaging. In times of tragedy, sincerity matters more than scripted responses,' said another user. Industrialist Harsh Goenka also reacted to the tweet, calling it a 'good perspective'. However, several users pointed out that they were 'not surprised' by the similarities in the speech because 'messaging in such situations will always be very similar.' 'Is it really plagiarism? The SOPs in such situations are common, and if standard procedures are common, using similar/same verbatim to express thoughts is common too,' said another user, adding that there are multiple things to criticise Air India about, 'but this, in my opinion, is far fetched'. 'These are standard communication guidelines followed by leaders during such unforeseen accidents. We should rather focus our thoughts and prayers to the grieving families. For the curious minds: how such an accident happened despite tech advancements is where need to focus,' another user said. A user also suggested that both CEOs may have used the same consultants, Artificial Intelligence (AI). To which Karthik replied: 'I tried multiple prompts across ChatGPT, CoPilot, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude. They all returned original-seeming text but not verbatim copies.'
Time of India
11-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Microsoft may sign one of the biggest deals yet for its AI-powered CoPilot assistant: Report
Microsoft is reportedly working on one of the biggest deals yet for its AI-powered CoPilot assistant. According to a Business Insider report, the software giant's Chief Commercial Officer Judson Althoff told employees that a single customer with more than 1 million Microsoft 365 licenses will soon be adding Copilot to its setup. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The report further says that the agreement could still change, and Microsoft might not follow its usual per-user monthly pricing. Instead, the company could try consumption-based billing, a new trend in AI-related services. If Microsoft were to charge its standard $30 per user per month for Copilot, the deal could be worth around $360 million a year. However, it's unlikely that a customer buying in such volume would pay full price. Adding over a million users in one go would be a big boost for Microsoft's efforts to expand Copilot's adoption. While the company has heavily invested in AI tools, it's still working out how to best market and price them. Some customers and insiders have questioned Copilot's effectiveness and Microsoft's evolving AI strategy. To address this, Microsoft has recently updated how it presents its AI offerings to customers, aiming to simplify the pitch and boost adoption, internal documents show. Likely partners of rumoured Microsoft's deal While the identity of the customer remains unknown, but 'there aren't many companies with workforces that size,' the report states. Amazon is one possible candidate, given its size. But a company employee told Business Insider that Amazon is unlikely to adopt Copilot due to internal rules against using external AI tools. Amazon also declined to comment. A previous report by the publication quoted an internal memo which said that Amazon employees will migrate to Microsoft's cloud applications on a "rolling basis". Apple's HUGE iPhone makeover: iOS 26 & Liquid Glass Explained!
Hamilton Spectator
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Hamilton Spectator
Is it art, or is it stealing work? Album cover designers stare down an AI future
TORONTO - Finger Eleven guitarist James Black has picked up a new instrument, one that pushes the boundaries of his visual imagination — generative artificial intelligence technology. The Toronto musician and graphic artist admits it's a controversial choice, but over the past year, he's been using the tool to help design his band's new album covers. Each one showcases grand concepts, stunning imagery and ultimately a piece of art that demands attention in an era where all musicians are jostling to stand out. 'We're in the blockbuster age where people like to see big, big things,' Black says from his office. 'Whenever I have an idea, it's usually something beyond what we have the resources to do, and AI means you don't have to put a lid on those ideas.' His work usually starts with typing a few descriptive words into AI software and collecting the images it spits back out. Then, he uses photo editing to fine-tune his favourites so they fit his original vision. Sometimes, he submits those altered images back into the AI to generate more ideas. 'There's quite a bit of back-and-forth where you're applying your own skill and then putting it back in,' he said. 'It's a little bit like arguing with a robot. You have to nuance it into doing what you want.' One of his first experiments was the cover artwork for Finger Eleven's 2024 single 'Adrenaline.' The illustration shows a curvaceous woman in a skin-tight red-and-white-racing suit, her head concealed under a motorcycle helmet. She's standing in the middle of a racetrack with her back to the viewer. A cloudy blue sky imparts an otherworldly calm. Anyone who's seen recent AI artwork will probably recognize the hyperrealistic sheen of its esthetic. Other familiar AI trademarks are there too, including a landscape firmly rooted in a dream world. Generative image models are trained on billions of photographs to learn patterns, such as recurring shapes and styles. They then use that information to construct images that can often seem familiar. Many fear that the tools also draw from copyrighted pieces without permission from their creators. It's a legal quagmire that only skirts the surface of the ethical debate around generative AI models. Beyond the copyright risks, critics fear the technology will cost album cover designers and photographers their jobs. But AI programs such as NightCafe, CoPilot and Adobe Firefly offer cutting-edge possibilities that many artists say they can't ignore. Still, Black said he understands there are ethical concerns. 'I'm definitely torn myself,' he said. 'But I'm using it because it extends as far as my imagination can go.' Other musicians have found that generative AI answers the demands of a streaming industry that pressures them to churn out new music, eye-catching lyric videos and other visual elements regularly. But some fan bases aren't sympathetic to those reasons. Last year, Tears for Fears was slammed on social media after they revealed the cover of their live album 'Songs for a Nervous Planet,' which had several familiar AI image traits. The illustration shows an astronaut staring straight at the viewer, their face concealed under a space helmet. They're standing in the middle of a field of sunflowers that stretches into the distance. A cloudy blue sky imparts otherworldly calm. The cover's creator, Vitalie Burcovschi, described it as 'art created by AI using human imagination.' But fans were quick to accuse the band of using AI that might have scraped copyrighted work. As blowback intensified, the English duo released a statement calling it 'a mixed media digital collage, with AI being just one of the many tools used.' Pop singer Kesha encountered similar flak for the cover of her 2024 single 'Delusional,' which featured a pile of Hermés Birkin bags with the song's name spray-painted across them. Fans instantly recognized common flaws of an AI-created image: misspellings in the song's title, sloppy digital fragments. Some demanded she redo the artwork with paid photographers. It took months, but the singer replaced the image with a photograph of herself tied to a chair. She assured fans it was created with an 'incredible team of humans.' 'AI is a Pandora's box that we as a society have collectively opened, and I think it's important that we keep human ramifications in mind as we learn how to use it as a tool and not as a replacement,' she said in an Instagram post in May. Illustrator and musician Keenan Gregory of the band Forester says he used AI technology to extend the background of an old photograph so it could fit on the cover of the band's upcoming EP. The original image for 'Young Guns' was taken in the 1940s as a vertical photograph and showed bass player Dylan Brulotte's grandfather strolling through the streets of Edmonton. Gregory needed a square shape for the album cover, so he put the shot into Photoshop's generative AI tool, which artificially extended the frame's left and right edges with more detail. He removed certain background elements, like storefront signs, with a blend of traditional photo editing techniques. 'Typically, an artist would have to do that manually,' he said. 'But having AI provide you with options, which you then edit, is very powerful.' Gregory said he considers AI one of a photo editor's many tools, adding he didn't use it to make the cover for Royal Tusk's 'Altruistic,' which earlier this year won him a Juno Award for best album artwork. Even when musicians are transparent about using AI, some fans are not ready to embrace it, as British Columbia rock band Unleash the Archers learned last year. Vocalist Brittney Slayes said their concept album 'Phantoma' told the story of an AI gaining sentience and escaping into the real world in the body of an android. To explore the album's theme, Slayes said some of her songwriting drew inspiration from ChatGPT suggestions, while they used visual AI programs to create inspiration images for songs. She said the band also filmed a music video for 'Green & Glass' and then fed the finished product into an AI model trained on artwork by Bo Bradshaw — the illustrator for the band's merchandise. It spat out an AI-animated version of the video. 'We paid to license all of his artwork ... so he was compensated and he was credited,' she said. But the reaction was swift. Some listeners accused the band of theft, alleging that despite paying for Bradshaw's work, the AI tool likely used other unlicensed art to fill out the visuals. 'We didn't realize that even though our model was trained after one artist, the program was going to fill in the blanks with others,' Slayes said. 'People didn't care. The second the word 'AI' was used, we were targeted. You know, the usual Twitter uproar, being like scraped across the internet as these terrible people that use AI in their music.' Unleash the Archers responded on their socials, issuing a statement acknowledging they had unintentionally implied their video featured original artwork by Bradshaw when it was actually produced through an AI program without his direct involvement. Their statement recognized how fraught the risks are for bands eager to explore new technology, saying that 'while we were expecting some controversy, we weren't expecting as much as we got.' Slayes said the backlash has forever sullied her connection to the album, which she originally intended as an exploration of an inevitable AI future. Instead, to her, it's become a reminder of how fast-developing AI technology is provoking deep-rooted anxieties. 'People are still afraid of it,' she said. 'And for good reason, because it is taking jobs.' For other artists, she urges them to think carefully about how they introduce AI into their own projects: 'If you're going to use AI for your artwork, you've got to have a really good reason.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 10, 2025.
