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Youth and experience have combined to create an AI superpower Just a decade ago, the world’s biggest tech beast was a relative minnow. Microsoft had become notorious for disappointing product launches, stagnant innovation, and losing top talent. The first true software giant was becoming a big tech dinosaur. Fast forward to 2024 and Microsoft is the planet’s most valuable business. Under the leadership of CEO Satya Nadella, stock has soared by over 1,000% in 10 years. In January, the company reached a $3 trillion market cap — larger than the whole GDP of France. At the heart of the comeback is artificial intelligence. Microsoft has embedded AI across the Azure cloud computing platform, the Office productivity suite, and the Bing search engine. After missing out on the mobile and social media booms, the Redmond giant has become a global leader in AI. A key player in the turnaround was Sophia Velastegui — one of the star speakers at TNW Conference this June. Velastegui joined Microsoft in 2017 as a general manager of AI Products and Search. Six months later, Business Insider named her one of the most powerful female engineers in tech. Back then, Nadella’s plans were just starting to take shape. “Microsoft was not an AI company — it was a software company. But if you talk about Microsoft now, many people will say it’s an AI company,” Velastegui, now an AI advisor for the National Science Foundation, tells TNW. “How did they do that? What are the things they did? They invested in and infused AI into their features and their products —whether it be for software development or Office.” Velastegui played a growing role in that infusion. After a promotion to Chief AI Officer in Business Applications, she became part of the core team exploring Microsoft’s vaunted new investment: OpenAI. An intergenerational relationship Microsoft has a long history in AI. The company’s research unit had explored the field since Bill Gates launched the centre in 1991 — but the experiments hadn’t spawned popular products. From the reviled Clippy to the jilted Cortana, Microsoft’s AI apps rarely charmed consumers. Nadella immediately sought to change that. His first big move after he was appointed CEO in 2014 was a sweeping embrace of chatbots. The shift wasn’t an immediate triumph: an early bot called Tay became a Hitler-loving sex pest.  Despite the controversy, the plans rolled on. “As an industry, we are on the cusp of a new frontier that pairs the power of natural human language with advanced machine intelligence,” Nadella said after Tay’s meltdown. As a company, Microsoft looked beyond its walls for that frontier. The search led the company to OpenAI. Nadella has looked to startups for AI innovations. Credit: Microsoft Launched in 2015, OpenAI had a bold  mission to build artificial intelligence that would “benefit humanity as a whole.” But its ambitions were consuming vast resources. In 2017, the buzzy startup spent an estimated $7.9 million on cloud computing — a quarter of its functional expenses. That brought the young contender into a collaboration with an ageing tech behemoth: Microsoft. The software giant announced a partnership with OpenAI the next year. Under the terms of the deal, OpenAI would use Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform for research and development.  By 2019, Microsoft had become the AI lab’s “exclusive” cloud computing provider. Following a fresh $1bn investment in the startup, the Redmond giant became OpenAI’s preferred partner for commercialisation. Commercialising OpenAI Microsoft soon integrated OpenAI large language models (LLMs)  into Azure cloud services. Customers use the software for various app features, from chatbots and content generation to translators and personalised marketing. The service grew rapidly. In the second quarter of this year, Microsoft reported a 50% increase in users of Azure OpenAI over the previous 12 months. Over 53,000 customers now used the service, Nadella said, including “over half” of the Fortune 500. The Azure plans reflected wider moves at Microsoft. According to Velastegui, the company’s AI strategy was laser-focused on delivering powerful products. A recent McKinsey report found that this approach was common among successful AI adopters. “They’re not just focusing on efficiency and operation, they’re creating new products and new capabilities that they’re selling as part of their business or providing as a service,” Velastegui says. Velastegui spent five years on Microsoft’s AI teams. Credit: Sophia Velastegui Azure is now the world’s fastest-growing cloud computing platform — and dramatically narrowing the gap to long-term leader Amazon Web Services. OpenAI has played a key role in the revival. According to Raimo Lenschow, a stock analyst at Barclays, the GPT giant gives Microsoft a “massive, competitive advantage over Google and Amazon.” “Historically, if you’re a cool startup that was doing something amazing, Microsoft wasn’t really your first choice,” Lenschow told the Associated Press in February. “So the fact that [Nadella] got OpenAI to commit to Azure was an amazing masterstroke.” Azure was just the first of the pair’s collaborations. OpenAI’s models were rapidly spreading across Microsoft’s product portfolio.  Microsoft enters the LLM era OpenAI had a breakthrough moment in 2020. That June, the startup unveiled a powerful new LLM that sparked the flame for today’s AI explosion: GPT-3. The architecture laid the foundations for ChatGPT.  The New York Times called GPT-3’s ability to produce prose, poetry, and code “amazing”, “spooky”, “humbling”, and “more than a little terrifying.” Wired said the model was “provoking chills across Silicon Valley.” Microsoft was clearly impressed. In September, the software giant inked a new deal with OpenAI that provided an exclusive licence to GPT-3. Velastegui led Microsoft’s exploration of the model’s potential use cases, from search and business applications to low-code development platforms. The applications quickly expanded across the company’s products. When the World Economic Forum rolled into Davos last year, Nadella said Microsoft planned to put “tools like ChatGPT into all of its products.” But the integration needed firm guardrails. “ChatGPT is interesting, but it doesn’t do sources… It goes into this black box and you don’t understand why it’s behaving the way it is,” Velastgui says.  To provide what she calls “trusted information,” Microsoft added references to LLM outputs. The annotations link to the information’s sources. AI risks and rewards OpenAI founder Sam Altman (left) worked with Elon Musk before partnering with Nadella. Credit: Y Combinator Further safeguards sought to reduce the risks of harmful outputs. Safety filters, abuse monitoring, hallucination detection., and simulating adversarial attacks have strengthened the defences. “The reason why Microsoft didn’t just leverage ChatGPT as it is,” Velastegui says, “is that ChatGPT is trained on all of the internet — the good, the bad, the ugly, and the very ugly.” Not all the restrictions were successful, however. A Microsoft engineer warned a design tool powered by OpenAI was generating violent and sexual images. The outputs also featured “political bias, underaged drinking and drug use, misuse of corporate trademarks and copyrights, conspiracy theories, and religion to name a few,” the engineer told the FTC. Tools harnessing ChatGPT have also produced disturbing outputs. Microsoft said the behaviour was limited to a small number of prompts used to bypass safety measures. The company also pledged to investigate the concerns. In the meantime, the AI roll-outs are continuing. Embedding OpenAI into Microsoft Microsoft has baked OpenAI into a diverse array of apps. One is  Copilot, a coding tool that conducts a growing proportion of programming tasks. Another is the revamped Bing search engine. Microsoft unveiled the AI-powered update in February 2023 — a month after announcing a fresh investment in OpenAI, reportedly worth a whopping $10bn. Nadella heralded Bing’s rebirth as a “new day in search.” By adding OpenAI’s models to the system, Microsoft hoped to create a conversational rival to Google’s market conqueror. That remains a distant goal, but the early results showed promise. Within six weeks of the launch, page visits on Bing had risen 15.8% while Google’s had declined by 1%, according to analytics firm Similarweb.  OpenAI has also entered the Microsoft 365 Office apps. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook now include an AI assistant called Copilot, which generates new content and analysis in response to prompts. The move highlighted Microsoft’s competitive advantage. “Can Google work with OpenAI instantly… and bring it to their products? The answer is no,” Velastegui says.  Microsoft’s rivals, she adds, can still integrate OpenAI’s off-the-shelf products. But that blunts the software’s edge.  “That means your competitor can do the same,” Velastegui adds. “If it’s easy for you, it’s also easy for them.” Microsoft’s exclusive access soon paid off. By the end of 2023, shares in the company had surged by 57% year-on-year. Analysts credited the rally to Microsoft’s lead in generative AI. The future relationship Not every OpenAI addition has been a hit. Early customers of Copilot have decried the service’s costs. Users of other Microsoft products, meanwhile, have grown frustrated with the coding tool’s relentless spread. In the future, the tie with OpenAI could loosen. Microsoft is also integrating services from rival companies, such as Paris-based Mistral AI, which last month attracted a €15mn cash injection from the Windows maker. Alongside the external addition, Microsoft is investing in homegrown foundation models. The company ultimately plans for Azure to become a “model garden.”   In the evolving world of AI, Microsoft’s future relationship with OpenAI is uncertain. But the marriage thus far has been extremely successful. It also offers useful lessons on AI strategies. Velastagui singles out one for special attention. “Don’t solve these micro problems, issues, or goals,” she says. “Solve the one that will make a difference in the business.”

This season, everyone's home cannot lack these 3 vegetable dishes in family meals. Growing them grows quickly, is both clean and delicious, and has many health benefits. Below are the 3 cheapest vegetables in the market this season, both clean and delicious, and good for health: Spinach Amaranth is a popular vegetable in Vietnam. Amaranth is easy to grow and can grow wild in many corners of the garden, so it is very cheap. However, this cheap vegetable contains many nutrients and is good for health. According to Oriental medicine, amaranth has a sweet taste, cool properties, and has a good heat-clearing effect. It is used to treat heat rash, pimples, disinfect and cool down during the hot season. Antioxidants found in amaranth such as vitamin C and vitamin B3 also help fight inflammation and prevent the risk of infection caused by microorganisms from the environment entering the wound. Amaranth, a familiar dish on every family's dinner tray According to modern medicine, amaranth is rich in minerals, carotene, protein, vitamin C, vitamin A and other nutrients. These substances help improve vision and prevent night blindness. At the same time, Amaranth provides a large amount of calcium. Supplementing this vegetable regularly makes your bones, teeth and nails stronger, minimizing the risk of osteoporosis and fractures in the elderly. The abundant amount of fiber in amaranth helps reduce blood fat, reduce blood sugar, create a feeling of fullness for a long time and reduce appetite. Furthermore, the calories in this vegetable are very low. Therefore, amaranth is very suitable for people with high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity Amaranth is a food suitable for many ages, from children, middle-aged people and the elderly. Vegetables are rich in calcium, iron and vitamin K, which can promote hematopoiesis, help maintain normal functioning of the heart muscle, and prevent muscle spasms. For middle-aged and elderly people, and patients with anemia, this is a great choice to supplement the nutritional regimen. The iron content in amaranth is quite high, every 100 grams of red amaranth contains about 11.8mg of iron. Vegetable spinach Malabar spinach is simple, easy to find, easy to buy, but it is a delicious, healthy vegetable. Since ancient times, this vegetable has been used in many remedies to clear heat, detoxify, reduce liver heat and repel symptoms of pimples and prickly heat. Both Eastern and Western medicine confirm that this vegetable has a laxative effect. According to Oriental medicine, spinach has cooling properties, sour taste, disperses heat, cools the blood, diuretic, detoxifies, beautifies the skin, effectively treats rashes and pimples... very suitable during the hot season.  Eating spinach helps clear heat, detoxify, and reduce liver heat According to research, Malabar spinach contains pectin mucus, which is very valuable for preventing and treating many diseases. Pectin mucus and fiber in spinach also have the ability to stimulate intestinal motility, thereby reducing indigestion, bloating, constipation... Malabar spinach is low in calories so there is no need to worry about causing weight gain. Suitable for obese people who easily gain weight. Malabar spinach contains a lot of fiber (about 2.1 in 100g of spinach according to USDA), pectin... has the ability to cool the liver, thereby improving liver function effectively. Furthermore, spinach is rich in vitamin A so it is good for the eyes, and is rich in antioxidants that neutralize free radicals that damage the body. Vegetables Sweet potatoes Similar to other vegetables, sweet potato can be processed into familiar dishes such as stir-frying, boiling, soup... which is both easy to eat and good for health. In Oriental medicine books, sweet potato is a non-toxic, neutral herb. It has the effect of improving health, enhancing eyesight, improving gallbladder, treating jaundice... Sweet potato is a rich source of vitamin B6, vitamin C, riboflavin... Sweet potato vegetables are both easy to eat and good for your health In modern medicine, sweet vegetables have a rich source of vitamins when compared to sweet potatoes because they contain 10 times more vitamin B10, 5 times more vitamin C and 3 times more vitamin B6.  100g of sweet potato contains typical nutrients such as: 22kcal of energy, 91.8g of water, 2.6g of protein, 2.8g of starch, 11mg of vitamin C, 900mg of vitamin BB; minerals such as: 48mg calcium, 54mg phosphorus, 2.7mg iron... The vitamin C content in sweet potato leaves is very high. It is a natural antioxidant that helps fade dark spots, whiten the skin, nourish the skin and prevent aging. Sweet potato leaves contain large amounts of vitamin C and flavonoids, which can help the body detoxify, enhance immune cell activity and improve human immunity. Sweet potato vegetables contain a lot of fiber. If eaten regularly, it can promote gastrointestinal motility, enhance digestive function, and facilitate the excretion of waste. Therefore, if anyone is suffering from constipation, they can eat sweet potato leaves to improve the condition. Modern medicine believes that sweet potato leaves are rich in protein and mucus, which help strengthen the immune system, help prevent arteriosclerosis and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. At the same time, sweet potato leaves are rich in carotene, which can be partially converted into vitamin A in the body, helping to improve vision and prevent night blindness.  

Did you know that seemingly useless peanut shells actually contain countless wonderful uses? Don't rush to throw them away, but discover these interesting secrets to save money and bring many unexpected benefits to yourself and your family! How to make peanut shell tea Enjoying tea made from peanut shells in the evening can help improve the digestive system. Furthermore, peanut shells are rich in antioxidants, capable of preventing free radical activity, thereby contributing to reducing the formation of melanin and slowing down the skin aging process. The way to prepare peanut shell tea is as follows: first, peanut shells need to be washed many times with water mixed with salt until the washing water becomes transparent, to remove all dirt and impurities such as soil. and sand. Next, dry the peanut shells in the sun for about an hour. At the end of the preparation process, put peanut shells in water and boil, then use this water to drink. Enjoying tea made from peanut shells in the evening can help improve the digestive system Use peanut shells as animal feed Peanut shells contain a large amount of fiber, making them very suitable for supplementing the diets of livestock and poultry, especially species such as buffalo, cows, and rabbits. You just need to grind peanut shells into fine powder and mix it into your animals' daily food to provide a rich source of fiber. Peanut shells contain a large amount of fiber, making them very suitable for supplementing the diets of livestock and poultry. Turn peanut shells into organic fertilizer Peanut shells can be recycled into useful fertilizer for plants by the following two methods. The first method involves burning peanut shells to form ash. This ash is then finely ground and applied directly to the soil. Peanut shells are rich in potassium, which helps plants grow strongly, promotes flowering and fruit production, and also helps prevent pests and diseases. In the second method, peanut shells are crushed and placed in a black bag along with an appropriate amount of water. Seal the bag and let it sit for about 2 to 3 hours. Next, filter out the water and dry the peanut shells or leave them in a high temperature place. After about a month, when the shells have decomposed, use them to mix with soil. In particular, in the case of growing orchids, peanut shells can be placed at the bottom of the pot before planting to improve soil ventilation and prevent root rot. Peanut shells can be recycled into useful fertilizer for plants Use peanut shells in product packaging To protect products during transportation, the use of cushioning materials is important. An environmentally friendly option is to use dried peanut shells. Peanut shells can be placed around products in cartons to form a natural cushion. This helps stabilize the product, limit movement, and prevent damage such as cracks and breaks without the need for foam paper or plastic bags.