There’s trouble in AI paradise as Microsoft and OpenAI butt heads

OpenAI warned Microsoft early this year about rushing into integrating GPT-4 (a more advanced but less ‘stable’ language model) into Bing without further training. Microsoft pushed ahead anyway. 

This led to a rush of unhinged and strange behaviour from the Bing AI tool. Now, a new report by the Wall Street Journal details how there is “conflict and confusion” between the companies and their fragile alliance.

Keeping in mind Microsoft doesn't own OpenAI outright (something it often does to up-and-coming companies), but instead invested a 49% stake in the startup, the arrangement gave Microsoft early access to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Dall-E to boost Bing’s search engine.

It’s a setup that benefits both parties, as OpenAI gains a stable financial investment and servers for hosting, where Microsoft gets early access to the previously mentioned tools, forcing Google and others to scramble to catch up. The WSJ article describes this as an “open relationship” where Microsoft maintains significant influence without outright control. 

Retro illustration of a man and robot butting heads

(Image credit: studiostoks / Shutterstock)

Butting of heads

Microsoft's rush to incorporate GPT-4 into Bing search without the necessary further training has built resentment on both sides. 

According to the article, some Microsoft employees feel slighted by the fact that Microsoft's in-house AI projects are being overlooked in favour of OpenAI, which despite their partnership is free to work with Microsoft’s rivals. 

Apparently, there's also a feeling that OpenAI is not allowing some people at Microsoft full access to its tech. Some also feel that OpenAI's warning about not rushing into using its tech is hypocritical, as many feel OpenAI rushed out ChatGPT.

This has led to a situation where the pair are working together, and yet against each other at the same time. Time will tell whether that leads to healthy competition or a very messy breakup. 

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

Read More

Windows 11 reportedly installs optional update without asking – and it’s causing trouble

Windows 11’s latest optional update – which is a preview of Moment 3 (KB5026446) – is causing trouble for some users, coming with some bugs, and worse still, in some reported cases the upgrade is installing itself automatically.

Windows Latest reports that it experienced the installation of KB5026446 going ahead automatically when updates were checked for on the PC. Note that as an optional update, one that might contain gremlins in the works (which it apparently does), the user should have to manually trigger the update.

In other words, you should have to choose to install this preview update, it should not be installing automatically.

Windows Latest observes that it has received reports from readers that this unexpected installation of KB5026446 has occurred, and indeed, elsewhere online we’ve seen other reports of this happening (even, in some cases, if people hadn’t checked for updates).

As for the problems the Moment 3 preview update is causing, there are various reports of diverse issues, as you might expect with a patch still in testing. One of those is that it breaks the Microsoft Store, or messes with the Game Pass on PC (making games unplayable, we’re told).

There are other reports of worrying system freezes, some apps failing to open, and the keyboards and mice of some users failing to work post-update.

There were installation failures too, with the usual meaningless error messages (strings of hexadecimal), but that’s pretty much par for the course these days it seems with Windows 11.


Analysis: The clue is in the name – ‘optional’

The good news, well, such as it is, is that in all these cases, simply uninstalling the update (via Windows Update, under Update History) cured the PCs of the various ailments mentioned. The galling bit here is for the folks who didn’t want to install the optional update in the first place, of course.

How widespread is this issue with the KB5026446 preview update installing itself? It’s difficult to say, but it is certainly happening for a number of folks. Windows Latest does observe that if you do check for updates, and notice it installing, if you hit ‘Pause Updates’ that’ll cancel the installation. So that’s worth bearing in mind.

One theory is that this sneaky installation may be tied in to those who have selected the new option in Windows 11 to ‘Get the latest updates as soon as they’re available’ (and using that is necessary to enable Moment 3’s new features in KB5026446, as Bleeping Computer previously made clear).

However, even if you have selected this choice, you should not be getting an optional update piped through with no warning at all (especially when you haven’t even checked for updates, as seems to be happening in some cases). Optional updates should always be exactly that – an option, not an automatic installation (and certainly not one occuring stealthily behind the scenes, as it were).

Hopefully we’ll hear from Microsoft soon enough to clarify what’s going on here.

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

Read More

Having trouble copying and saving files across Windows? This could be why

Microsoft has confirmed some 32-bit apps are having issues when copying and saving files across different versions of Windows.

The issue is affecting a number of popular programs and Microsoft Office apps, including the likes of Word and Excel, with users finding they cannot save their work and being confronted with “Document not saved” error messages.

Microsoft says the issue is primarily affecting enterprise and business users, with consumers and those using Windows devices in their home unlikely to be affected. 

Windows copy issues

“You might have intermittent issues saving, or copying, or attaching files using 32-bit apps which are large address aware and using the CopyFile API,” the company said in a support page outlining the problems.

“Windows devices are more likely to be affected by this issue when using some commercial/enterprise security software which uses extended file attributes.”

Microsoft notes that all its most popular Windows builds are affected, including Windows 11, version 22H2; Windows 10, version 22H2; Windows 11, version 21H2; and Windows 10, version 21H2.

There have been no reports of File Explorer being affected by the copying issue, but Microsoft notes the CopyFile API used by a number of specific applications may be impacted. The company added that 64-bit apps are not affected by this issue, which also avoids apps that are 32-bit and not large address aware.

As it stands, Microsoft has only been able to release a fix for Windows 10 and Windows 11 21H2, which is available via the Known Issue Rollback system, adding it is working on a patch for other versions, and will provide an update soon. 

The company says users might be able to get around the issue simply by attempting to save or copy again. 

“Since the issue is intermittent, it is likely to succeed on a subsequent try,” Microsoft's advice says.

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

Read More