microsoft

Big Tech Backs Small Nuclear

December 10, 2024
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

When Meta announced last week that it’s looking for a nuclear energy developer to power its future AI operations, it joined a growing cadre of tech companies all suddenly repeating the same refrain: We need more power—preferably carbon-free—and lots of it. Electricity demand in the United States is expected to…

October 2, 2024
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

Data centers’ need for clean electricity is so ravenous that a shuttered nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island—the site of the worst nuclear disaster in U.S. history—may be revived just to power them.Constellation Energy in September announced that it plans to restart Unit 1 at Three Mile Island, which will…

July 24, 2024
Computer & Information Technology

A version of this post originally appeared on Tedium, Ernie Smith’s newsletter, which hunts for the end of the long tail. These days, computer users take collaboration software for granted. Google Docs, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Salesforce, and so on, are such a big part of many people’s daily lives that…

July 9, 2024
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

For the first time in history, there’s a good chance your next Windows laptop won’t have an x86 chip inside.Microsoft launched a new generation of AI-focused Windows laptops, called Copilot Plus PCs, in June of 2024. Controversy surrounding one of Microsoft’s key AI features made for a shaky debut, but…

June 3, 2024
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

Microsoft recently caught state-backed hackers using its generative AI tools to help with their attacks. In the security community, the immediate questions weren’t about how hackers were using the tools (that was utterly predictable), but about how Microsoft figured it out. The natural conclusion was that Microsoft was spying on…

May 23, 2024
Computer & Information Technology

Buy any new Windows PC and you might notice an unfamiliar key: the Copilot key. Launched in January, it promised quick access to Microsoft’s AI Copilot. Yet features were limited, causing critics to wonder: is this it?Microsoft Build 2024, the company’s annual developer conference, had a reply: No. On 20…

May 8, 2024
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Metallurgy & Material Science

Augmented-reality glasses can upgrade our view of the world with digital images and data. However, even industry titans such as Google and Microsoft have failed to devise augmented-reality headsets that aren’t bulky, cause headaches, or both. Now, with a combination of 3D holograms, artificial intelligence, and the kind of physics…

03 Apr 24

Microsoft Tests New Path to Reliable Quantum Computers

Computer & Information Technology

Qubits, the fundamental component of every quantum computer, are currently very error-prone pieces of technology. What’s called fault-tolerant quantum computing could need 1,000 or more of such iffy “physical” qubits to yield just one potentially useful “logical” qubit. Now Microsoft and the quantum computing firm Quantinuum have announced a system…

17 Feb 24

The Quest for a DNA Data Drive

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

How much thought do you give to where you keep your bits? Every day we produce more data, including emails, texts, photos, and social media posts. Though much of this content is forgettable, every day we implicitly decide not to get rid of that data. We keep it somewhere, be…

24 Jul 23

Meta’s Llama 2 Elbows Into a Still-Open Field

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

Last week, Meta introduced Llama 2, a new large language model with up to 70 billion parameters. The new generative AI system represents a spectacular shot across the bow of OpenAI, which shares few details about most AI models including GPT-3/3.5 and GPT-4. Llama 2’s release—with 40 percent of the…

Big Tech Backs Small Nuclear

How to Restart a Nuclear Reactor

The Rise of Groupware

Windows on Arm Is Here to Stay

How Online Privacy Is Like Fishing

The Latest Windows PCs Remember Everything

Augmented Reality Slims Down With AI and Holograms

Microsoft Tests New Path to Reliable Quantum Computers

The Quest for a DNA Data Drive

Meta’s Llama 2 Elbows Into a Still-Open Field

Google won two major awards at MWC Barcelona 2025.

Expanding AI Overviews and introducing AI Mode

This MRI Can Run on Batteries

The Tiny Star Explosions Powering Moore’s Law