AI ambitions, Elon Musk and protesters mark Microsoft’s developer conference

During its major software event on Monday, Microsoft unveiled ambitious plans for the future of artificial intelligence against the grim backdrop of layoffs, shaky partners, and outbursts from employee activists.

These odd partners joined Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at the annual Build conference at the Seattle Convention Center, where Microsoft is vying to become the world’s leading AI company.

The business played a recorded exchange between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Nadella about Musk’s xAI models joining a new Microsoft platform. Through live video, OpenAI CEO and industry pioneer Sam Altman joined Nadella.

The cloud computing powerhouse, Redmond-based tech giant, wants to concentrate its Windows platform on AI development. In essence, Microsoft thinks that developers should use Windows AI Foundry, a new platform that enables developers to create and use AI tools on personal computers, when releasing AI products. On Monday morning, Nadella gave the platform’s announcement to hundreds of media members, developers, and tech analysts.

In front of a Senate committee earlier this month, Microsoft President Brad Smith stated that the company wants AI standards to be set. Microsoft, which positions itself as one of the leading experts in AI, has no problem setting the rules.

The AI products that Microsoft is currently developing sound like science fiction. Together, Nadella and the business are laying the groundwork for a network of AI “agents” that communicate with one another and perform tasks assigned by people. But Microsoft can’t help but stir up controversy as it propels itself forward through innovation.

Pro-Palestinian protesters assembled outside the convention center on Monday before marching to the conference entrance. After attempting to break through a rear entrance, the protesters, led by “No Azure for Apartheid,” were pushed back by event security and police, who also arrested one protester.

Last week, Microsoft carried out widespread layoffs before all of the events. More than 6,000 workers were let go by Microsoft, including hundreds of Redmond-based software engineers. Microsoft executives have emphasized the company’s desire for a lean, flexible corporate workforce as it pursues its AI goals.

Welcome back, Elon.

Musk was formerly a Windows developer and intern at Microsoft.

That was the beginning of Nadella’s discussion with the former CEO of Tesla who is now a political operator. Musk, who runs his own artificial intelligence initiative called xAI, participated virtually in Build to help reveal that his AI models would soon be available on Microsoft’s Azure cloud.

Musk has generated controversy of his own, just like Grok. His role in the Trump administration, which included spearheading significant federal government budget cuts through his Department of Government Efficiency, provoked strong criticism of his company, Tesla.

The court dispute between Musk and Microsoft was sidelined by the cordial exchange between Nadella and Musk, which included memories of creating games on Microsoft’s original MS-DOS software.

In an attempt to prevent OpenAI from becoming a for-profit business, Musk filed a lawsuit against Microsoft’s business partner last year. Musk was a co-founder of OpenAI. Musk’s Grok rival is the company’s ChatGPT chatbot.

Being a major supporter of OpenAI, Musk included Microsoft in the lawsuit. Musk charged in the lawsuit that Microsoft was misusing its partnership with OpenAI “to harm competitors or destroy competition.”. “”.

Even though Musk claimed that xAI “has and will make mistakes,” Nadella and Musk also avoided discussing the recent Grok backlash. “”.

technology politics.

Nadella conducted two additional interviews with CEOs of Microsoft’s leading AI competitors.

Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, joined Nadella live via video to discuss how AI tools are becoming more adept at challenging tasks. Additionally, a prerecorded exchange between Nadella and Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, was shown.

Huang and Altman attended an investment summit in Saudi Arabia last week alongside President Donald Trump and a group of tech’s top executives. In order to raise funds for their individual investments, executives from other industries were also present.

Shortly after Trump assumed office, Altman’s OpenAI announced a $500 billion initiative to construct AI infrastructure, or data centers, in the United States, including a $100 billion planned investment for Stargate. S. during the following four years.

AI adoption by tech companies is causing a parallel race for energy and processing power. OpenAI is not the only company looking to expand its data center network; this year alone, Microsoft and Amazon have both committed billions of dollars to the construction of AI infrastructure.

worker pressure.

Dozens of activists assembled in Westlake Park on Monday morning as Nadella concluded his keynote speech in anticipation of a march on Build.

The company’s cloud computing partnership with the Israeli government is causing pressure both inside and outside of Microsoft. At least three public events this year have seen tensions between the company and a group called No Azure for Apartheid flare up, and Build was no exception.

On April 4, Vaniya Agrawal, a Microsoft software engineer at the time, interrupted a panel featuring Nadella, former CEO Steve Ballmer, and founder Bill Gates to express disapproval of Microsoft’s ties to the Israeli government. Additionally, she announced her resignation on April 11 in an email sent to the entire company. Her employment was terminated early by Microsoft.

Agrawal led the rally on Monday, which went straight from Westlake Park to the convention center. Activists on bicycles and cars were part of the group, which blocked traffic to allow the crowd of chanting, banner-carrying protesters to safely ascend Pike Street.

Microsoft had acknowledged in public a few days earlier that its “commercial relationship” with Israel was causing employees and the general public to worry.

Israel Defense Forces are increasingly using tech companies and their cloud systems to store and analyze intelligence data, according to a January Guardian report. The Guardian discovered that the Israeli military used Microsoft’s technology, specifically the Azure cloud platform, to coordinate airstrikes and maintain the Palestinian population registry.

According to a statement released by the company on Friday, it reviewed its technology both internally and externally and found no proof that it was used to harm Palestinians in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas conflicts.

However, Microsoft acknowledged in the same statement that it lacked complete control over its technology when it was utilized on private servers or devices. The business did not disclose the identity of the outside firm it hired to conduct an external review.

Agrawal stated in an interview on Monday, “I believe they made that statement because they were afraid.”. “Despite employees calling them out through both internal and external channels, they have remained silent for more than a year and a half of this genocide. I believe that the pressure we have been able to apply to them is the reason they ultimately choose to issue a statement. “.”.

No Azure for Apartheid took advantage of this, marching up Pike Street and attempting to enter the convention center. Demonstrators were pushed back from an entrance by security and then Seattle police. According to a Seattle police spokesperson, one individual was taken into custody.

Although Nadella only gave one keynote speech on Monday, construction is anticipated to continue through Thursday. Other executives give speeches and give live product demonstrations to the thousands of attendees during the remainder of the week.