THE FRONT-RUNNER MCCRACKEN P.51

A QUARTER OF A MILLION PEOPLE have gathered to hear Satya Nadella talk about AI.
It's just after 9 a.m. on a Tuesday in May, and Microsoft's CEO is kicking off the company's annual Build developer conference. Attendees have packed a gleaming new high-rise building at the Seattle Convention Center for his keynote, but they're far outnumbered by those streaming it from around the world. The turnout is no surprise. For months, generative AI software that can create text, images, and other content with human like flair has been devouring the tech industry's attention. And, unexpectedly, Microsoft is in the lead.
In fact, Nadella has presided over so many generative AI product unveilings this year that he takes a moment on stage to acknowledge their frenetic pace. "It's not like I came in on January 1 and said, 'Let's start doing press releases," he jokes, wearing a hoodie and high-tops and looking very much like a developer himself. "But it does feel like that."
Microsoft has been at the forefront of the tech world's AI race because of the landmark partnership Nadella struck with ChatGPT creator OpenAI, which-in return for a reported $13 billion investment gives the software giant first dibs at the startup's current and upcoming technologies. As the results have begun showing up in new and upcoming versions of Microsoft products, from GitHub to Bing to Excel to Azure, they've greatly boosted the company's standing in relation to peers such as Amazon and Google. For the first time since its 1990s heyday, the company is widely regarded as the pacemaker in technology's next historic wave of change.
"The fact that Microsoft even has a leadership position is super important," says analyst Patrick Moor-head of Moor Insights & Strategy. "If you'd asked me two years ago, 'Give me 1, 2, and 3 [in AI], I might have put Microsoft at No. 3-or 4."
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September 2023 من Fast Company.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September 2023 من Fast Company.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول

Entangled Publishing
FOR FUELING THE ROMANTASY FRENZY

Homecourt For adding luxury to sustainable, nontoxic household products
CLEANING YOUR home is hardly a sexy undertaking. But when you’re obsessed with design, cleanliness, and things smelling good, it can be joyful.

TOP TEN
“I WOULDN'T WANT TO COME HERE, TO BE honest” is not the first tourism slogan that would occur to most marketers.

HistoSonics
FOR CHANNELING SOUND TO DESTROY LIVER TUMORS

Zero Foodprint For funding "collective regeneration"
EVERY DAY, Americans spend hundreds of millions of dollars on food, yet very little of that money directly changes how food is grown.

Iceye
FOR SEEING THE WORLD, EVEN THROUGH CLOUDS

Duolingo
For finding a common language

WNBA For posting up when it mattered
WHEN BASKETBALL STARS CAITLIN Clark, Angel Reese, and Cameron Brink rolled up to the Brooklyn Academy of Music last April for the 2024 WNBA draft, they signaled the arrival of a new generation of talent—and the league’s cultural ascendance.

Port of Portland
For creating a truly local airport

Crunchyroll For turning anime fandom into an ecosystem
BEING A FAN OF ANIME IN THE aughts meant you either had to know Japanese or rely on the kindness of internet strangers, who would up- load their own subtitled versions of popular series to video-hosting site Crunchyroll, which launched in 2006. In the nearly two decades since, anime has crossed from subculture into mainstream pop culture among Western audiences, with Crunchyroll leading the way.