Brad Smith
Google pauses its ad sales in Russia, Microsoft pauses sales
In further responses from the tech industry to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last week and the country’s continued aggression against its neighbor, Google and Microsoft have both now said they’re…
Microsoft says it will open up the Xbox store in light of the Activision Blizzard deal
Microsoft is working to warm lawmakers up to its plans to bring a collection of the world’s most popular video games under its wing. The company announced its intention to…
Microsoft announces its first Azure data center region in Denmark
Microsoft continues to expand its global Azure data center presence at a rapid clip. After announcing new regions in Austria and Taiwan in October, the company today revealed its plans…
Slack has filed an antitrust complaint over Microsoft Teams in the EU
Workplace instant messaging platform Slack has filed an antitrust complaint against Microsoft in the European Union, accusing the tech giant of unfairly bundling its rival Teams product with its cloud-based…
Featured Article
Affirming the position of tech advocates, Supreme Court overturns Trump’s termination of DACA
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that President Donald Trump’s administration unlawfully ended the federal policy providing temporary legal status for immigrants who came to the country as children. The decision, issued Thursday, called the termination of the Obama-era policy known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program “arbitrary and capricious.” As a…
Microsoft pitched its facial recognition tech to the DEA, new emails show
Microsoft tried to sell its facial recognition technology to the Drug Enforcement Administration as far back as 2017, according to newly released emails. The American Civil Liberties Union obtained the…
SiriusXM acquires Simplecast to double down on podcasts with distribution and analytics tools
Podcasting continues to see a strong trajectory in the world of streamed audio content, and today comes the latest development on that front. SiriusXM, owner of Pandora and backer of…
Microsoft’s new ‘Planetary Computer’ project will use global environmental data to support sustainability
Microsoft is embarking on a new sustainability initiative as part of its overall approach to support environmental protection measures, with a project it calls the “Planetary Computer.” This will actually…
Divesting from one facial recognition startup, Microsoft ends outside investments in the tech
Microsoft is pulling out of an investment in an Israeli facial recognition technology developer as part of a broader policy shift to halt any minority investments in facial recognition startups,…
Bipartisan bill proposes oversight for commercial facial recognition
On Thursday, Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz and Missouri Senator Roy Blunt introduced a bill designed to offer legislative oversight for commercial applications of facial recognition technology. Known as the Commercial…
Microsoft has no problem taking the $10B JEDI cloud contract if it wins
The Pentagon’s $10 billion JEDI cloud contract bidding process has drawn a lot of attention. Earlier this month, Google withdrew, claiming ethical considerations. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos responded in an interview at…
As a teenager in Nigeria, I tried to build an artificial intelligence system. I was inspired by the same dream that motivated the pioneers in the field: That we could…
Microsoft, Facebook and Cloudflare are among a group of technology firms that have signed a joint pledge committing publicly not to assist offensive government cyberattacks. The pledge also commits them…
A Hippocratic Oath for artificial intelligence practitioners
In the foreword to Microsoft’s recent book, The Future Computed, executives Brad Smith and Harry Shum proposed that Artificial Intelligence (AI) practitioners highlight their ethical commitments by taking an oath…
Microsoft calls for establishment of a digital Geneva Convention
As the public grows more concerned with state-sponsored hacking, Microsoft is calling on tech companies to form a so-called “Digital Geneva Convention” by promising to protect users from nation-state attacks…
Microsoft says it will push for diversity and security from the Trump administration
Although Donald Trump’s presidential campaign never netted much support from tech companies, at least one company is now congratulating him on his election victory. “Every president-elect deserves our congratulations, best wishes…
Microsoft’s Brad Smith stands with Apple while passionately defending encryption
Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president and chief legal officer, gave a passionate defense of encryption today, saying his company stood with Apple in its legal battle with the FBI. He made…
