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Microsoft has a problem: lack of demand for its AI products

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Re: Microsoft has a problem: lack of demand for its AI products

#261

Post by chasd00 »

isodev wrote: post #258
btbuildem wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> lack of real integration is basically the core design of most Copilot products I would wager a month's wages that this is the doing of some internal Security Review, wherein a bunch of out-of-touchers decided that the customers will want to prefer to be Safe and Secure instead of getting some actual value from integrating copilot into shell workflows. Meanwhile people are yolo'ing it with various janky DIY wires an…

> a bunch of out-of-touchers decided that the customers will want to prefer to be Safe You mean the other way around, right? Because what could possibly go wrong when we let a language model hallucinate its way through which terminal command rhymes best with your prompt according to that SO comment from training data.

i mentioned this upthread but an LLM with enough access to be fully integrated into all apps/services/files in an enterprise managed workstation sounds like privilege escalation attacks just waiting to happen.

Re: Microsoft has a problem: lack of demand for its AI products

#262

Post by 5kh »

Maxatar wrote: post #139
brookst wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying they would rather double stock price than double revenue?

If you're someone who owns Microsoft, what option would you prefer? 1. Stock price remains the same but revenue doubles. 2. Revenue stays the same, but stock price doubles. Assuming all else equal, and recognizing that this is absolutely a simplification, but if these were the two choices then it seems a no brainer that you'd go with option 2. Revenue is a means of increasing stock price.

A long term investor would prefer 1. Most likely option 2 would shortly be followed by halving of the stock price. Option 1 lets someone buy shares in a company that is greatly undervalued and will lead to long terms gains.

Re: Microsoft has a problem: lack of demand for its AI products

#264

Post by BizarroLand »

ZeroConcerns wrote: post #62

Well, 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...…

The other thing is that they're FORCING it on the users. Its invasive and creepy and assaulty and it has multiplied my loathing of Microsoft infinitely.

Someone in Microsoft needs to watch a lecture on affirmative consent.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy playing with AI, both local and online. If you tell me its available if I want it, I might come dabble a bit.

But cram AI into every facet of my machine? That's a 1 way ticket to never being installed on any system I ever own in the future ever again.

Companies should treat AI like a madam treats the workers in a whorehouse. You don't make them go door to door. You let the johns come to you.

Re: Microsoft has a problem: lack of demand for its AI products

#265

Post by ThrowawayB7 »

sylens wrote: post #116

I think the biggest revelation of the last 3 years or so is that Microsoft does not have either the will or the talent (or both) to effectively execute anymore. Everything it currently stands on is a legacy product with roots in the Ballmer or Gates eras. They owe their Azure footprint and "success" today to Ballmer. Their inability to produce anything useful with Copilot is the largest example of this, but there are…

We've been hearing empty punditry like that for the last several decades all while they've been a poster child for "number go up": https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/MSFT/microsoft/rev...

These predictions about the decline of Microsoft are like the Year of Linux on the Desktop; neither is going to happen anytime soon. Y'all can start predicting doom when there's a multi-year trend of declining revenue for MSFT and then maybe there's something to discuss.

Re: Microsoft has a problem: lack of demand for its AI products

#266

Post by salt-thrower »

sylens wrote: post #116

I think the biggest revelation of the last 3 years or so is that Microsoft does not have either the will or the talent (or both) to effectively execute anymore. Everything it currently stands on is a legacy product with roots in the Ballmer or Gates eras. They owe their Azure footprint and "success" today to Ballmer. Their inability to produce anything useful with Copilot is the largest example of this, but there are…

Another example: the complete surrender of the Xbox platform. They spent the last 10 years buying up game studios and then closing them, failing to develop any good exclusive titles, and letting Sony eat their lunch. Now they are officially giving up and will just let Sony own the console space altogether.

Xbox was THE gaming console 20 years ago. Playstation was always a contender but Xbox Live was synonymous with the online console gaming experience. Halo was an untouchable juggernaut of a series for the first 3 titles.

It's mind boggling that Microsoft just let all that die without a fight. Worse, they seem to have actively shot themselves in the foot and then given up.

Re: Microsoft has a problem: lack of demand for its AI products

#267

Post by watwut »

_DeadFred_ wrote: post #148
watwut wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is not what stock market is. A company does not have to focus on stock price and stock price is not its primary product.

Name a major U.S. public company in recent years that has consistently prioritized improving its product over boosting short term stock price or extracting maximum profits. If capitalism were truly a healthy system about building strong products to create healthy markets, this should be the norm (and enshitification shunned), not the exception. What we actually see is a system of chartered extraction. Corporate execu…

Why it must be "major"? Major is counted by stock price, you created a circular test.

And that still does not make stock the product.

Re: Microsoft has a problem: lack of demand for its AI products

#268

Post by Beijinger »

dudneet wrote: post #238

It seems to me that America is a great big nomenclature butchering machine. If they can butcher what words like crypto or AI mean, they’re willing to put their whole economy behind that. I need to rethink my investment strategies.

Would you be so kind to elaborate this?

Re: Microsoft has a problem: lack of demand for its AI products

#269

Post by rcxdude »

lll-o-lll wrote: post #253
outside1234 wrote: post #8

Microsoft has a problem that they hire the middle block of talent in the market. They do not chase the top 20% most expensive nor the bottom 20% least expensive. But this also means they end up with average products. They don't have the talent to do something exceptional. This has worked well for them when they can just come in and copy something (say AWS in Azure) and not pay the innovation cost, but AI seems differ…

> Microsoft has a problem that they hire the middle block of talent in the market. They do not chase the top 20% most expensive nor the bottom 20% least expensive. This is such a BS attitude. A person’s ability doesn’t map directly with their salary. The very best developers I’ve ever worked with? Small companies outside of major cities (for life style reasons). Not everyone is trying to max their income; some want a…

Sure, but Microsoft isn't attracting those devs either.

Re: Microsoft has a problem: lack of demand for its AI products

#270

Post by ripvanwinkle »

big-and-small wrote: post #67
ripvanwinkle wrote: post #25

I see mentions of Gemini as a fast growing alternative to ChatGPT. Isn't anyone troubled by the fact that for consumers there is no way to keep your data from being used for model training if you want to maintain history of your Gemini chats. ChatGPT respects privacy and allows for maintaining history while also opting out of using ones data for model training

I trust Google ad monopoly to keep my data actually secure. They have a great track record of not sharing their datasets with anyone because this gives them an edge pushing ads down people throats. Google is honest about what they doing. Google also not going away anytime soon so they also not going to sell off their datasets to highest bidder. And I don't trust Sam Altman and AI.com at all since their whole thing wa…

It's not just about protecting data in the old sense - typically from other corporate entities. It would suck if your information somehow made it into a generally available model that then leaked some of that anyone asking a question
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