6 ms·

Heres something I just don't get. Microsoft just got their ass handed to them by the US Government because os (lapses in) security. Extremely more than coincide

Heres something I just don't get. Microsoft just got their ass handed to them by the US Government because os (lapses in) security. Extremely more than coincidentally, Satya Nadella told the entire Microsoft org that if anyone had to choose between features and security, to choose security. I'm hearing from Microsoft people that all product roadmaps are deferred for a few months while security features are addressed. Their whole corporate spiel is "Microsoft runs on trust" (see the famous standards of business training on youtube). And then someone goes and invents Recall. This is not the work of a lone engineer and a principal PM fishing for Impact or whatever they call success at Microsoft. This had to have gone through multiple levels of review. Microsoft PMs, CVPs, their corpo legal people, marketing approval. And yet no one stopped to say, "wait, this could blow up in our faces"?

lucianbr 2y ago
What's so hard to get? Security and trust are lip service. Corporations lie to make a buck. How is it not obvious? Actions speak louder than words.
- consumer451 2y ago
  The user data is just too juicy a potential profit center to pass up on. So many models to create, to theoretically replace many of us. We should assume that everyone is on their worst behavior going forward. Zoom, Slack, MS, Apple, etc.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- HeavyStorm 2y ago
  Untrue. Employees are asked to focus on sec. The org tells you that the company runs on trust. This is not lip service - it's not that internally they state otherwise, and it's certainly naive to think so. What happens is that, meanwhile, business is happening. People are making (small) decisions that adds up to big things, and leadership tends to trust those below to make the right calls and implement technology correctly. Which, time and time again, doesn't happen. Yes, maybe it need to be more of a priority, but, it also isn't a conscious decision.
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disqard 2y ago
I'll take a shot (not at MS, so I have no inside info). GenAI is hotter than anything else right now. As Satya publicly stated, "we made them dance" -- which shows how high-priority it is to maximize "AI innovation" at MS. If you disagree, think about how badly "Tay" blew up in MS's face and yet they still went ahead and bundled OpenAI LLM tech into all of Office365, just so they could have bragging rights about beating Google to it. At this point, it's a race (to where? who knows) and no Big Tech Corp wants to be seen as "not at the forefront". That's my $0.02, anyway :)
- Timber-6539 2y ago
  You are absolutely right. This AI race has been sort of funny to watch among the big tech incumbents. Google kept on launching faked demos and hurriedly released an openly race biased image generator all in a bid to catch up with OpenAI. Meanwhile Apple has been sort of lethargic. Recently annouced a deal with OpenAI to add GPT to their devices. They seem happy to continue playing catch up in this regard. I think Meta is probably the only big tech giant that has kind of got their execution right straight from the jump. Can't point to any slip ups from their "AI announcements".
  - disgruntledphd2 2y ago
    Note that Meta aren't trying to sell AI services to most people (with the exception of advertisers, for whom it kinda makes sense). Much easier to avoid messing up, given this.
    - viraptor 2y ago
      Llama 3 is available and in your face when you open WhatsApp these days. They're very much trying to get everyone to tell them / the AI their secrets.
  - copperroof 2y ago
    You forgot Amazon eating paste in the corner.
  - 2y ago
hulitu 2y ago
> Heres something I just don't get. > And then someone goes and invents Recall Maybe you should read about the history of Microsoft, especially about its security. But people forget easily.
rishav_sharan 2y ago
Wasn't recall out in preview before the whole security snafus happened?
rishav_sharan 2y ago
Wasn't recall out in preview before the whole security snafus happened?
- navjack27 2y ago
  No. Microsoft very frequently puts out new features into the normal releases of Windows 11 at the same time as insider testers get rollouts.
pollyturples 2y ago
the reason they did this is because if they succeed in sneaking this out, MS would have been 'drinking the milkshake' of google, adobe, facebook and everyone else trying to do the same thing at an app level. it would be the holy grail of training data -- they could replace or simulate the entire user at an inter-app level for A/B testing anything they want, or worse. the idea of having full user behavior history of the majority of the worlds computer users is just too tempting not to try for them and im sure theyll try again despite any backlash.
- theGnuMe 2y ago
  People have been “training” models on windows api calls for decades.

lucianbr 2y ago

What's so hard to get? Security and trust are lip service. Corporations lie to make a buck. How is it not obvious? Actions speak louder than words.

consumer451 2y ago
The user data is just too juicy a potential profit center to pass up on. So many models to create, to theoretically replace many of us. We should assume that everyone is on their worst behavior going forward. Zoom, Slack, MS, Apple, etc.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
HeavyStorm 2y ago
Untrue. Employees are asked to focus on sec. The org tells you that the company runs on trust. This is not lip service - it's not that internally they state otherwise, and it's certainly naive to think so. What happens is that, meanwhile, business is happening. People are making (small) decisions that adds up to big things, and leadership tends to trust those below to make the right calls and implement technology correctly. Which, time and time again, doesn't happen. Yes, maybe it need to be more of a priority, but, it also isn't a conscious decision.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]

disqard 2y ago

I'll take a shot (not at MS, so I have no inside info). GenAI is hotter than anything else right now. As Satya publicly stated, "we made them dance" -- which shows how high-priority it is to maximize "AI innovation" at MS. If you disagree, think about how badly "Tay" blew up in MS's face and yet they still went ahead and bundled OpenAI LLM tech into all of Office365, just so they could have bragging rights about beating Google to it. At this point, it's a race (to where? who knows) and no Big Tech Corp wants to be seen as "not at the forefront". That's my $0.02, anyway :)

Timber-6539 2y ago
You are absolutely right. This AI race has been sort of funny to watch among the big tech incumbents. Google kept on launching faked demos and hurriedly released an openly race biased image generator all in a bid to catch up with OpenAI. Meanwhile Apple has been sort of lethargic. Recently annouced a deal with OpenAI to add GPT to their devices. They seem happy to continue playing catch up in this regard. I think Meta is probably the only big tech giant that has kind of got their execution right straight from the jump. Can't point to any slip ups from their "AI announcements".
- disgruntledphd2 2y ago
  Note that Meta aren't trying to sell AI services to most people (with the exception of advertisers, for whom it kinda makes sense). Much easier to avoid messing up, given this.
  - viraptor 2y ago
    Llama 3 is available and in your face when you open WhatsApp these days. They're very much trying to get everyone to tell them / the AI their secrets.
- copperroof 2y ago
  You forgot Amazon eating paste in the corner.
- 2y ago

hulitu 2y ago

> Heres something I just don't get. > And then someone goes and invents Recall Maybe you should read about the history of Microsoft, especially about its security. But people forget easily.

rishav_sharan 2y ago

Wasn't recall out in preview before the whole security snafus happened?

rishav_sharan 2y ago

Wasn't recall out in preview before the whole security snafus happened?

navjack27 2y ago
No. Microsoft very frequently puts out new features into the normal releases of Windows 11 at the same time as insider testers get rollouts.

pollyturples 2y ago

the reason they did this is because if they succeed in sneaking this out, MS would have been 'drinking the milkshake' of google, adobe, facebook and everyone else trying to do the same thing at an app level. it would be the holy grail of training data -- they could replace or simulate the entire user at an inter-app level for A/B testing anything they want, or worse. the idea of having full user behavior history of the majority of the worlds computer users is just too tempting not to try for them and im sure theyll try again despite any backlash.

theGnuMe 2y ago
People have been “training” models on windows api calls for decades.