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Posts tagged "trouble"

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Windows 11 runs into more trouble as Microsoft halts rollout of new features in testing
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Microsoft has stopped the rollout of some new features to Windows 11 testers as it “investigate a few issues” discovered in the Dev channel (build 26120.961). 

The announcement was made in the blog post announcing the latest slew of new Windows 11 features which have now been put on hold.

Those features include improvements with Voice Access, such as support in Narrator to allow the hands-free dictation of text, as well as bringing Voice Access to Windows 11's search functionality, all of which are big wins for accessibility.

There's also a new account manager panel in the Start menu, and fixes for Task Manager, all of which are paused while Microsoft investigates said issues. The software giant hasn't given us any indication of when we might expect a resolution of these problems yet. 

PhantomOfEarth, a regular leaker on X, observes that the brakes were applied by Microsoft due to issues including a “broken touch keyboard, emoji picker, and clipboard history.”

Windows 11's broader woes

We shouldn't have to wait too long for the gremlins in the works to be fixed, given that Windows 11 preview builds arrive on a pretty regular schedule (at least once per month, minimum).

It's not been the best week for Windows 11, as Microsoft just broke the taskbar for some users when it implemented a solution for a previous issue (whereby the KB5039302 update was put on hold after some users were left stuck in an infinite boot loop – nasty). Another recent fly in the ointment has been the appearance of adverts in the Start Menu.

In the case of this latest preview build, it makes sense why Microsoft has pushed back these more experimental features, but it's far from a good look given all the current problems around Windows 11 – particularly the controversial Recall feature which was recently put on ice, too.

In all honesty, Microsoft really needs to make an effort to get its act together on a broader level with Windows 11.

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AI music makers face recording industry legal battle of the bands that could spell trouble for your AI-generated tunes
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Artificial intelligence music makers Suno and Udio have been hit with major lawsuits filed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and major music labels for copyright infringement. The suits mark the latest battle over generative AI and synthetic media and the debate over whether they represent original creations or infringement of intellectual property rights.

The RIAA was joined by Sony Music Entertainment, UMG Recordings, Inc., and Warner Records, Inc. in the lawsuits. Suno was sued in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, while Udio developer Uncharted Labs, Inc., was sued in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The complaints allege that both companies have copied and exploited copyrighted sound recordings without permission.

Both Suno and Udio translate text prompts into music, much like other tools can create images or videos based on a user’s suggestion. While there are plenty of other music AI developers, Suno and Udio were likely picked because of their relatively successful products. Suno AI is part of the Microsoft Copilot generative AI assistant, while Udio went viral for the creation of “BBL Drizzy.” The recording agencies say the music generated by the AI models is not original but just a reworking of copyrighted material. Notably, the groups suing are making an effort to sound like they aren’t against the tech, just how it’s used by those companies. 

“The music community has embraced AI and we are already partnering and collaborating with responsible developers to build sustainable AI tools centered on human creativity that put artists and songwriters in charge,” RIAA Chairman and CEO Mitch Glazier said in a statement. “But we can only succeed if developers are willing to work together with us. Unlicensed services like Suno and Udio that claim it’s ‘fair’ to copy an artist’s life’s work and exploit it for their own profit without consent or pay set back the promise of genuinely innovative AI for us all.”

Press pause

This could be pivotal in the fight over music AI, which has been escalating for a while. The viral deepfakes of Ghostwriter and his multiple synthetic songs with voice clones of real artists attest to the growing interest, and to the RIAA, danger, of this technology. 

TikTok and YouTube have also been drawn into the fray. Earlier this year, music by UMG artists, including Taylor Swift, was temporarily removed from TikTok due to unresolved licensing issues, partly driven by concerns over AI-generated content. In response to similar issues, YouTube introduced a system last fall to remove AI-generated music upon the request of rights holders. In May, Sony Music issued warnings to hundreds of tech companies about the unauthorized use of copyrighted material, signaling the industry’s proactive stance against unlicensed AI-generated music.

The RIAA wants the courts to rule Suno and Udio infringed on their copyrights, get them to pay for it, and stop them from continuing to do so. Unsurprisingly, the companies being sued disagree. 

“Our technology is transformative, it is designed to generate completely new outputs, not to memorize and regurgitate pre-existing content,” Suno CEO Mikey Shulman said in a statement. “We would have been happy to explain this to the corporate record labels that filed this lawsuit (and in fact, we tried to do so), but instead of entertaining a good faith discussion, they’ve reverted to their old lawyer-led playbook. Suno is built for new music, new uses, and new musicians. We prize originality.” 

The lawsuit won’t immediately affect Suno and Udio and their customers barring some unlikely early ruling from the courts. But, a legal battle at this level suggests any easy compromise is off the table. The move may speed up the timetable for the creation of a regulatory framework and accompanying laws to back it up, however.

Depending on how that goes, people using Suno, Udio, and other AI audio makers may have to remove the music from anything they have published. I wouldn’t stake everything on the current AI music scene staying the same, but the technology will almost certainly still be around regardless of the lawsuit, just perhaps with new controls and official approval of any songs for training AI models.

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

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

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

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