Microsoft is using the deep penetration of SharePoint in companies to sell Copilot license. At least in France it's well and alive and I see much more Copilot licenses than actual OpenAI uses.
Microsoft has a problem: lack of demand for its AI products
121–130 of 385 posts
Re: Microsoft has a problem: lack of demand for its AI products
#122Well, the major problem Microsoft is facing is that its AI products are not only shoddier than average , which is nothing new for them in many categories, but that this time the competition can actually easily leapfrog them. Like, I have a 'Copilot' button prominently displayed in my New Outlook on MacOS (the only platform where the app-with-that-designation is sort-of usable), and it's a dropdown menu, and it has...…
> So, my question to anyone in the Microsoft C-suite: have you ever tried to, like, actually use, like anything that you're selling?
Satya Nadella insists that Bing365Pilot has supercharged his productivity, but determining if he's high on his own supply or lying through his teeth is an exercise for the reader.
> Copilot consumes Nadella’s life outside the office as well. He likes podcasts, but instead of listening to them, he loads transcripts into the Copilot app on his iPhone so he can chat with the voice assistant about the content of an episode in the car on his commute to Redmond. At the office, he relies on Copilot to deliver summaries of messages he receives in Outlook and Teams and toggles among at least 10 custom agents from Copilot Studio. He views them as his AI chiefs of staff, delegating meeting prep, research and other tasks to the bots. “I’m an email typist,” Nadella jokes of his job, noting that Copilot is thankfully very good at triaging his messages.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-05-15/microsoft...
Re: Microsoft has a problem: lack of demand for its AI products
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe the stock market is not a good system to organize ones economy around then?
I've been thinking about this recently. The centrality of the stock market, while historically a great tool to allocate resources efficiently, might actually be a big weakness for the USA today. A capable adversary, like China, can kill entire strategic sectors in the US using the stock market. If they undercut the US companies and are willing to accept low returns on their investments, then the respective USA compet…
Y-yeah. HYPOTHETICALLY, this is something an adversary to the USA might attempt to do, and it would really kneecap the US if they were successful.
But would only happen if USA decided to totally financialize all sectors of its economy and make a small set of oligarchic corporations THE load-bearing element of its strategic capacity, leading us to chase market returns even if those returns totally kneecapped our ability to build anything at all of actual value.
Good thing we haven't done that!
Re: Microsoft has a problem: lack of demand for its AI products
#124Is there an excellent "AI Free" linux distro that one can escape to when AI is inescapable from both Windows/MacOS
All of them? I know of no Linux distros that do anything in particular to integrate AI.
Although knowing Canonical they might add something to Ubuntu sooner or later.
Re: Microsoft has a problem: lack of demand for its AI products
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
I will say that with enough group policy and sysinternals turning absolutely everything off, turning all of the settings to maximum performance lowest flashiness, no web results, killing Cortana with reckless abandon my Windows installation is actually what I would consider to be snappy. I was surprised. It doesn't make it any better that Microsoft does this, but as a piece of practical advice, it seems like it can b…
All that tinkering is getting you dangerously close to daily driving linux. And the advantage there is that the maker isnt actively trying to get in your way
I've got two laptop in my new job. They sent me a windows one, when I asked for a linux one. Had to set up the laptop to begin working.
Honestly, I had to do a lot of workarounds to get comfy. There's annoying stuff I cannot uninstall.
Re: Microsoft has a problem: lack of demand for its AI products
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
The stock market weirdly enough ruins the idea of capitalism. Catering to shareholders hurts the idea that competition would create better and cheaper products.
Competition creating better products isn't an idea that defines capitalism though: the same would apply to cottage industry. Capitalism is defined by having the capitalist, who provides capital, and without the ability to sell their share of stock it's difficult to see what the value would be. So you kind of require stock markets. Edit: which is why it's odd to call China communist. They have 3 stock exchanges. They'…
China uses Capitalism as a tool where the Party feels it would be beneficial (for the Party), and crushes it mercilessly when it gets in the way (other than this real estate problem they have right now).
In the U.S. we have mistaken Capitalism for a religion, and so it wags the dog, so to speak. Since our founding we have made some attempts at finding a balance between our use of the tools of Capitalism and socialism (in more the Democratic Socialism style, rather than the Communism style), and we had a good run in the decades after WWII. But starting with McCarthyism, and really picking up under Regan we have prided ourselves on adopting Capitalism as a religion, and it really shows up in both the income inequality as well as the increasing role of (and corrupting influence of) money in our politics/government.
Re: Microsoft has a problem: lack of demand for its AI products
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
I bet c-suite uses Mac
Yeah, and I also bet their Outlook 'Copilot' button has more-than-zero options in its dropdown menu. But I'd actually love to know how to achieve that, and so far Microsoft AI is awfully silent on the subject...
Nah, they probably just have Copilot as a bullet point on a slide, count that as "using AI", and are psyched for their next board meeting.
Re: Microsoft has a problem: lack of demand for its AI products
#128Satya is doing with AI what Ballmer did with cloud.
Right direction, wrong execution.
Re: Microsoft has a problem: lack of demand for its AI products
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
that's not the idea of capitalism; the idea of capitalism is that you should be able to make money by virtue of owning stuff. it's an inherently rich-get-richer scheme, competition has little to do with it.
I think its obvious the GP means free market capitalism, which is what almost everyone who favours capitalism thinks is the form it should take.
I don't see how free market capitalism fixes that. I looked up a definition to make sure I wasn't missing something and as per investopedia:
"The term “free market capitalism” refers to an economy that puts no or minimal barriers in the way of privately owned businesses. Matters such as worker rights, environmental protection, and product safety will be addressed by businesses as the marketplace demands."
it's basically worship of owning the means of production and not being regulated in its use, e.g. if you own a company you get to dictate all sorts of unreasonable things to your employees, and any benefits gained from automation accrue to whoever can afford the up front money to own the machines.
Re: Microsoft has a problem: lack of demand for its AI products
#130Or is it that nobody wants to use integrated (i.e. force fed) AI products?