Microsoft is making significant strides in enhancing its software offerings by introducing new AI-focused tools for Windows and adding cutting-edge features to its Edge browser.
The latest updates include innovative tools designed to streamline the development of AI-integrated Windows software and the addition of real-time video translation capabilities for YouTube and other websites in Microsoft Edge.
These advancements are set to transform user experiences, making technology more accessible and interactive.
Microsoft Promotes New Tools for Making AI-Focussed Windows Software
Microsoft promotes new tools aim at encouraging programmers to build AI-focus technology into Windows software as it races against Alphabet, Amazon and Apple to dominate the emerging field.
At a developer conference in Seattle, Chief Executive Satya Nadella promote new application programming interfaces, or APIs, that make it easier for developers to tap in to AI technology offer by Microsoft.
Microsoft said 1.8 million developers are now using Github Copilot, Microsoft’s generative AI tool that helps computer programmers be more productive.
Satya Nadella said during his keynote address at the Build conference :
“What stands out to me as I look back at this past year, is how you all as developers have taken all of these capabilities and are applying them, quite frankly, to change the world around us,”.
Microsoft detail new features for its Copilot AI software that helps business productivity applications such as email and its Teams video and text chat product.
At its developer conference last week, Alphabet’s Google unveil a similar batch of AI tools to help people with office applications.
Microsoft announce details of its new developer tools last week.
Shares of Microsoft were up 1.2% at $430.67 after hitting a record high of $432.97 earlier in the session.
Microsoft’s stock has now gain 14% in 2024.
Also aim at developers, Microsoft said it would offer its cloud computing customers a platform of AMD AI chips that will compete with Nvidia, whose graphics processing units have become the gold standard for AI computing.
The platform of AMD chips create by Microsoft uses networking technology made by Nvidia call as Infiniband to string the processors together.
OpenAI’s new GPT4-o model, which runs on Microsoft’s infrastructure, is 12 times cheaper for developers to use in their software than earlier versions of the technology, Microsoft’s chief technology officer Kevin Scott said.
Microsoft is the largest investor in OpenAI and uses some of the AI heavyweight’s technology in its own products.
Microsoft debut a line of Copilot+ personal computers with AI features such as software that lets users search through their past actions in nearly any software.
This new computers feature Arm-based processors made by Qualcomm.
Microsoft Edge Will Soon Support Real-Time Video Translation on YouTube and Other Websites
Microsoft Edge will soon support real-time translation of videos on many platforms, Microsoft announce on 21st May 2024.
It was announce just a day after the Microsoft introduce its Copilot+ PCs, which are also capable of translating pre-record as well as live videos in real-time.
Leveraging generative AI, Microsoft says the upcoming feature can not only translate captions on Microsoft Edge but also dub videos in the viewer’s native language, all in real time.
According to an official blog post, the real-time video translation feature will be able to translate spoken content in the form of captions as well as dubbing.
It is aim at making videos accessible to a wider range of people, especially to those with disabilities.
Microsoft says the feature is currently able to translate English to five languages, Hindi, German, Spanish, Russian, and Italian.
It can also translate Spanish to English.
The real-time video translation feature is also capable of translating videos on platforms such as YouTube, Coursera, and LinkedIn.
News websites such as CNBC, Reuters, MoneyControl and Bloomberg will also support this feature.
As per Microsoft, the translation of the content happens on-device with no cloud-based processing involve, which means “no segment of the video or audio content ever exits the machine“.
An unlisted video on YouTube by the official channel of Microsoft Edge gives a glimpse of how this feature might work.
When it is roll out, a new Translate Video option will appear at the top of the video.
You can select the language the video is in, with options such as English, German, Spanish, Italian, Hindi, and Russian, and then select the output language.
A choice will then be offer, whether to provide subtitles or audio.
The subtitle option will provide captions in the chosen language, while selecting the audio option will offer a dubbing of the video, after a few seconds of processing.
As the exact timeline of the rollout of the video translation feature has not announce, Microsoft says that it will soon add support for more languages as well as websites.
