Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott on AI copilots, disagreeing with OpenAI, and Sydney making a comeback

Decoder with Nilay Patel

Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott oversees the company's AI efforts, including its big partnership with OpenAI and ChatGPT. Kevin and I spoke ahead of his keynote talk at Microsoft Build, the company’s annual developer conference, where he showed off the company’s new AI assistant tools, which Microsoft calls Copilots. Microsoft is big into Copilots. GitHub Copilot is already helping millions of developers write code, and now, the company is adding Copilots to everything from Office to the Windows Terminal.

Basically, if there’s a text box, Microsoft thinks AI can help you fill it out, and Microsoft has a long history of assistance like this. You might remember Clippy from the ’90s. Well, AI Super Clippy is here.

Microsoft is building these Copilots in collaboration with OpenAI, and Kevin manages that partnership. I wanted to ask Kevin why Microsoft decided to partner with a startup instead of building the AI tech internally, where the two companies disagree, how they resolve any differences, and what Microsoft is choosing to build for itself instead of relying on OpenAI. Kevin controls the entire GPU budget at Microsoft. I wanted to know how he decides to spend it.

We also talked about what happened when Bing tried to get New York Times columnist Kevin Roose to leave his wife. Like I said, this episode has a little bit of everything. Okay. Kevin Scott, CTO and executive vice president of AI at Microsoft. Here we go.

Links:

Microsoft Build - The Verge

Kevin Scott on Vergecast in 2020

GitHub Copilot gets a new ChatGPT-like assistant to help developers write and fix code - The Verge

Hackers made Iran's nuclear computers blast AC/DC - The Verge

Microsoft resurrects Clippy again after brutally killing him off in Microsoft Teams - The Verge

Google’s Sundar Pichai talks Search, AI, and dancing with Microsoft - The Verge

Congress hates Big Tech — but it still seems optimistic about AI - The Verge

Hollywood writers to strike over low wages caused by streaming boom. - The Verge

The 70 percent solution — CNN

Sal Khan: How AI could save (not destroy) education | TED Talk

Why a Conversation With Bing’s Chatbot Left Me Deeply Unsettled - The New York Times

Responsible AI principles from Microsoft

Microsoft has been secretly testing its Bing chatbot ‘Sydney’ for years - The Verge

Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23497429

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Today’s episode was produced by Jackie McDermott and Raghu Manavalan, and it was edited by Callie Wright.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Sr. Audio Director is Andrew Marino, our Editorial Director is Brooke Minters, and our Executive Producer is Eleanor Donovan.

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