Free Republic

Microsoft helped Chinese state-run media outlets disseminate propaganda as part of previously unreported partnership agreements, documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show. The nation’s second largest corporation signed collaboration deals with state-run Chinese media outlets including China Daily and People’s Daily, the latter of which is the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese government. Summaries of the deal state Microsoft would provide China Daily with technology that lets the paper target potential readers and gave the People’s Daily access to an artificial intelligence bot specially designed to be controlled and censored by the Chinese Communist Party.The...

A whistleblower has come forward with an explosive new trove of documents, rivaling or exceeding the Twitter Files and Facebook Files in scale and importance. They describe the activities of an “anti-disinformation” group called the Cyber Threat Intelligence League, or CTIL, that officially began as the volunteer project of data scientists and defense and intelligence veterans but whose tactics over time appear to have been absorbed into multiple official projects, including those of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The CTI League documents offer the missing link answers to key questions not addressed in the Twitter Files and Facebook Files....

Look out, Apple (AAPL)! Microsoft (MSFT) is right on your tail and gaining fast. Supercharged by its AI chops, Microsoft's market value is now $2.8 trillion — just 5.7% shy of Apple's at $2.98 trillion. That means Microsoft's share price only needs to hit 400.53 — it's already at 377.80 — to dethrone Apple as the most valuable S&P 500 company. Given Apple's reliance on now-ubiquitous smartphones, it's only a matter of time when it bows out to faster-growing Microsoft, analysts say. "As markets and investors start to wrap up the year, Microsoft seems destined to be the most valuable...

Why is no one talking about what just happened? Quick rundown: >Open AI was created as a non-profit with a core mission to leverage AI to better humanity. >founding constitution has a clause which instructs the handling of a true AGI, should that ever come into existence. >Specifically, the company recognizes the risks of AGI. Should it arrive, the company will lock down deployment and commercialization to allow time to study it. >Enter Sam Altman. >a nobody, who knows very little about tech suddenly receives vast amounts of grant money to develop apps. >Microsoft, who has now become the biggest...

I performed what appeared to be a normal reboot for a normal upgrade. Now I am blocked by the need for a bitlocker password. I do not recall ever messing with bitlocker. Is there a flowchart? I got as far as a system32 Cmv.exe prompt (not very far). Thanks!

And so it begins. In fact, it hardly ever stops – another election cycle in well on its way in the US. But what has emerged these last few years, and what continues to crop up the closer the election day gets, is the role of the most influential social platforms/tech companies.Pressure on them is sometimes public, but mostly not, as the Twitter Files have taught us; and it is with this in mind that various announcements about combating “election disinformation” coming from Big Tech should be viewed.Although, one can never discount the possibility that some – say, Microsoft –...

Palantir Technologies (PLTR.N) has cultivated a powerful mythos worthy of being named for a crystal ball from “The Lord of the Rings.” The data-analysis company co-founded by Peter Thiel and run by Alex Karp fetches a big premium to most of its peers. Financial realities, however, suggest the valuation is the stuff of science fiction. Demand is quickly rising for software using artificial intelligence that can make sense out of voluminous and disparate data to flag suspicious financial transactions or defend against military attacks. Yet Palantir’s top line is only expected to grow 16% this year, according to forecasts gathered...

Tech giant’s Project Natick has shown underwater data centers consume less energy, reduce latency and deter hacking ... Why move data centers under the waves? Underwater data centers promise several advantages over their land-locked cousins. 1) Energy efficiency The primary benefit is a significant cut in electricity consumption. According to the International Energy Agency, data centers consume around 1–1.5% of global electricity use, of which some 40% is used for cooling. Data centers in the ocean can dissipate heat in the surrounding water. Microsoft’s center uses a small amount of electricity for cooling, while Subsea Cloud’s design has an entirely...

The Office 365 at one of my work computers will soon expire. Office 365 Family for 6 devices is about $99 Office 365 Business for 1 device is about $150 It is tempting to get Office Family (less money and works with more computers) but if I do, will Microsoft bust me and send me to the gulag? The other temptation is to work with Open Office. Any experience with that?

Microsoft plans to contest a US Internal Revenue Service request for an additional $28.9 billion in back taxes for the years 2004 to 2013, the company said in a securities filing Wednesday. The demand is the result of a yearslong audit by the IRS into Microsoft’s past accounting practices. In particular, the agency took issue with how the company “allocated profits … among countries and jurisdictions,” Microsoft said in the filing. “The IRS says Microsoft owes an additional $28.9 billion in tax for 2004 to 2013, plus penalties and interest,” the company said. It noted that the IRS’s determination is...

Saying that Islamic countries "should not tolerate the crimes that are being committed by Israel" Iran's Foreign Minister saying... Politics in the US tonight Steve Scalise backing away from... The European Union launching a formal investigation into social media giant "X". The EU alleging disinformation and posting of "terrorist content"... "There can be no justification for the attacks on my brothers in Gaza, which have reached the level of a massacre"...Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaking... Israel striking the Damascus and Aleppo airports in Syria... Also in Syria today 11 attacks on government positions launched from the northwestern Idlib region...

Fun's over, kids. As Windows Central reports, Microsoft appears to have lobotomized its Bing Image Creator. The DALL-E 3-powered image-generating AI was integrated into Bing's platform last week, prompting netizens to quickly test its guardrails. As it turns out, those guardrails were incredibly ineffective, with users — 404 Media's Samantha Cole notable among them — quickly realizing that they were able to generate problematic, copyright-infringement-laden AI generations of beloved cartoon characters like Disney's Mickey Mouse doing things like wearing bomb-covered vests and perpetrating the 9/11 terror attacks.

Chinese hackers broke into a Microsoft engineer’s corporate account, leading to the unauthorized access of email accounts belonging to senior U.S. officials, casting a shadow over the tech giant’s cybersecurity measures. The hack occurred in June, but the company just completed an internal investigation that pointed the finger at its own sloppy security practices. Bloomberg reports that Microsoft has disclosed that China-linked hackers compromised the corporate account of one of its engineers, then used this unauthorized access to steal a digital key in order to forge authentication tokens. These tokens granted them access to email accounts on Microsoft’s cloud servers,...

Microsoft researchers said on Thursday (Sept 7) they found what they believe is a network of fake, Chinese-controlled social media accounts seeking to influence US voters by using artificial intelligence. A Chinese embassy spokesperson in Washington said that accusations of China using AI to create fake social media accounts were "full of prejudice and malicious speculation" and that China advocates for the safe use of AI. In a new research report, Microsoft said the social media accounts were part of a suspected Chinese information operation. The campaign bore similarities to activity which the US Department of Justice has attributed to...

Summary of Changes to the Microsoft Services Agreement – September 30, 2023 We are updating the Microsoft Services Agreement, which applies to your use of Microsoft consumer online products and services. This page provides a summary of the most notable changes to the Microsoft Services Agreement. To see all of the changes, please read the full Microsoft Services Agreement here. In the header, we updated the publication date to July 30, 2023, and the effective date to September 30, 2023. In the Your Privacy section, we expanded the definition of “Your Content” to include content that is generated by your...

Donald Trump transferred the ownership of his Mar-a-Lago resort to his son just days before the ex-president was arrested in Georgia, RadarOnline.com can report. According to online property records, the former president “sold” his Palm Beach, Florida property for $422,000,000 on August 4. However, a deeper investigation into the Mar-a-Lago sale found that the 1100 S Ocean Blvd, Palm Beach property was sold to a company called Mar-a-Lago, Inc. The Express reported that the owner of Mar-a-Lago, Inc. – and its registered agent – is none other than 45-year-old Donald Trump Jr. Zillow – the online real estate marketplace that...

The ex-wife of a Florida Microsoft executive who was gunned down in front of his 2-year-old daughter last year has been arrested in Washington state and charged in connection with the killing — and prosecutors said they plan to seek the death penalty in the case. Long a suspect in father-of-four Jared Bridegan’s brutal Jacksonville Beach slaying, Shanna Gardner-Fernandez was collared after a grand jury handed down a first-degree murder indictment Thursday morning. “Shanna Gardner’s indictment acknowledges her central and key role in the cold, calculated and premeditated murder of Jared Bridegan,” State Attorney Melissa Nelson said at a press...

Here's how to use Windows To Go and Rufus to set up Windows 11 on a PC that doesn't meet its requirements. Windows 11 system requirements specify that it needs UEFI, Secure Boot and TPM. Many old computers are powerful enough to run Windows 11. Yet, they cannot install the OS because of these requirements. Windows 11 refuses to install and displays the message "this PC can't run Windows 11". There is a way to bypass these requirements and install Windows 11 on any powerful computer, even if it is old. The process is quite simple as well. Unlike earlier...

An FBI investigation is underway after Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo's email was hacked into by Chinese cyberspies. U.S. officials say that Raimondo is the only Cabinet-level official whose account was compromised in the attack, according to The Washington Post – but a congressional staffer, human rights advocate and think tank were also targeted. The State Department discovered a vulnerability in Microsoft's cloud last month. The only two executive branch agencies known to have emails breached are the Commerce and State Departments. The targeted cyber espionage campaign has been mitigated. But not before the hackers had access to the email accounts...

Tech giant Microsoft disclosed on Tuesday evening that it discovered a group of Chinese hackers had broken into some of its customers' email systems to gather intelligence. The company began investigating unusual activity within a few weeks of the initial attack, though the culprits were able to repeatedly manipulate credentials to access accounts. According to the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, one federal government agency first detected unusual activity on its Microsoft 365 email cloud environment last month, and immediately reported the activity to Microsoft and CISA. CISA did not identify the government agency in question...