OpenAI Leadership Changes, Hugging Face Growth, Microsoft AI Adjustments, and Google Protocol Updates

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[00:01:20] [SPEAKER_01]: It's Tuesday October 1st, 2024 and I'm Dave Sobel. Three things to know today.

[00:01:25] [SPEAKER_01]: The open AI leadership exodus and hugging faces model surge both pointing to shift to focus solutions for ITE's service providers.

[00:01:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Google phases out legacy protocols as Microsoft enhances Defender and Microsoft bolsters Co-Pilot Plus Recall Security

[00:01:42] [SPEAKER_01]: while scaling back 365 AI plans amid customer concerns. This is the business of tech.

[00:01:51] [SPEAKER_01]: Mirar Maradi, open AI's chief technology officer, announced her departure along with two other executives,

[00:01:57] [SPEAKER_01]: marking a significant leadership turnover as the company seeks new funding amid that AI arms race.

[00:02:04] [SPEAKER_01]: Maradi, who joined in 2018, cited a desire for personal exploration as her reasons for leaving.

[00:02:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Her exit follows a series of departures among senior leaders and comes at a critical time

[00:02:16] [SPEAKER_01]: as open AI plans to restructure from a non-profit to a for-profit benefit corporation

[00:02:22] [SPEAKER_01]: while pursuing over $100 billion in investment.

[00:02:26] [SPEAKER_01]: And I'll highlight a bit of analysis in Blood and the Machine.

[00:02:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Quote,

[00:02:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Eventually the chickens come home to roost and the industry will likely be forced to admit

[00:02:35] [SPEAKER_01]: that it doesn't make sense to have a dozen different firms running very similar and highly

[00:02:41] [SPEAKER_01]: intensive models to produce text and image output. Open AI enjoys name recognition

[00:02:47] [SPEAKER_01]: that prime mover status. Adventure Capital and well-healed backers kept Uber afloat for over

[00:02:53] [SPEAKER_01]: a decade before it got anywhere near turning a profit. But generative AI is a much more resource

[00:03:00] [SPEAKER_01]: intensive and expensive technology. How long will those investors and oddly structured partnership

[00:03:06] [SPEAKER_01]: tolerate such high costs in the event that generative AI's use cases wind up much more

[00:03:13] [SPEAKER_01]: limited in a business context than currently promised? Generative AI is not going to

[00:03:19] [SPEAKER_01]: disappear like NFTs, but we can expect a massive right sizing of the industry in coming years to be

[00:03:25] [SPEAKER_01]: sure. End quote. Hugging Face has surpassed 1 million AI model listings reflecting rapid growth

[00:03:32] [SPEAKER_01]: in machine learning. The platform which evolved from a chatbot app to an AI model hub

[00:03:38] [SPEAKER_01]: emphasizes the importance of customized models for specific tasks. The increase in models is

[00:03:43] [SPEAKER_01]: driven by fine-tuning existing models and collaborative contributions from developers worldwide.

[00:03:49] [SPEAKER_01]: So let's throw in a detail from last week's MetaConnect event. Mark Zuckerberg stated that

[00:03:54] [SPEAKER_01]: many creators overestimate the value of their work for AI training, suggesting that Meta will

[00:03:59] [SPEAKER_01]: only pay for content deemed valuable. He highlighted ongoing copyright issues related to data

[00:04:05] [SPEAKER_01]: scraping for AI, and he indicated that Meta may form partnerships for important content

[00:04:10] [SPEAKER_01]: but would refrain from using creators' work if they object. Why do we care?

[00:04:17] [SPEAKER_01]: Let's combine two insights here. First, Hugging Face indicates that a lot of those models are

[00:04:22] [SPEAKER_01]: private one-user ones, meaning they are customized for a particular organization or user. At first

[00:04:28] [SPEAKER_01]: glance you might think that there are many models. No, there aren't. The push for specialized

[00:04:34] [SPEAKER_01]: fine-tune models directly responds to the inefficiency of one-size-fits-all solutions

[00:04:39] [SPEAKER_01]: as the industry moves towards a more modular approach. Now we combine that with the instability of

[00:04:46] [SPEAKER_01]: OpenAI's leadership indicative of a startup having growing pains and the potential right

[00:04:51] [SPEAKER_01]: sizing of this market where we could see consolidation, market exits, or a reduction in the number of

[00:04:58] [SPEAKER_01]: players trying to sell AI solutions. The industry will likely shift towards practical

[00:05:03] [SPEAKER_01]: AI applications with demonstrative ROI rather than general purpose solutions. Now that's a good place

[00:05:10] [SPEAKER_01]: for service providers to be. I also threw in Zuckerberg's comments to remind us that we may

[00:05:15] [SPEAKER_01]: be overvaluing the datasets. That's only worth what someone will pay for it.

[00:05:22] [SPEAKER_01]: Thread has declared death to the ticket. Did you know tickets date back to the 1800s

[00:05:29] [SPEAKER_01]: and customers hate tickets? Thread uses an approach for connecting, communicating,

[00:05:34] [SPEAKER_01]: and ultimately collaborating. Thread allows people to come together around a topic they

[00:05:40] [SPEAKER_01]: can discuss and make decisions they can share and invite the right people. The future of service

[00:05:45] [SPEAKER_01]: is collaborative. Supercharge your service experience by seamlessly integrating AI and

[00:05:51] [SPEAKER_01]: automation to meet your customers where they are in teams, Slack, and desktops,

[00:05:56] [SPEAKER_01]: not in tickets. With instant updates to and from ConnectWise, Autotask, and Halo PSA,

[00:06:02] [SPEAKER_01]: keep all communication in one place where it should be with people. Decrease time to resolution 30%

[00:06:10] [SPEAKER_01]: with chat-based support by visiting getthread.com slash msp radio to declare death to the ticket.

[00:06:20] [SPEAKER_01]: Microsoft has announced significant changes to its controversial recall feature for Windows 11

[00:06:25] [SPEAKER_01]: co-pilot plus PCs, which aims to provide an AI powered memory tool. The feature will only be available

[00:06:32] [SPEAKER_01]: on secured co-pilot plus devices opt in by default and includes enhanced privacy settings to prevent

[00:06:39] [SPEAKER_01]: sensitive data from being saved. The revised architecture incorporates multiple layers of

[00:06:44] [SPEAKER_01]: security including biometric authentication and encrypted data storage addressing previous

[00:06:49] [SPEAKER_01]: privacy concerns. Microsoft has conducted thorough security reviews and will begin

[00:06:53] [SPEAKER_01]: insider testing in October to gather further feedback. Recall will only function on co-pilot

[00:07:00] [SPEAKER_01]: plus certified PCs with a full release expected late this year or next.

[00:07:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Microsoft has postponed its plans for a significant AI overhaul of its 365 software suite,

[00:07:12] [SPEAKER_01]: opting instead to conduct pilot tests to gauge customer willingness to pay for new AI features.

[00:07:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Concerns about the value of the co-pilot AI tools and their impact on license purchases

[00:07:24] [SPEAKER_01]: influence this decision. The company is cautious due to the importance of 365 products for revenue

[00:07:30] [SPEAKER_01]: and the risks associated with major changes. Customer complaints about the cost and effectiveness

[00:07:35] [SPEAKER_01]: of co-pilot have also been noted, raising concerns and questions about the future

[00:07:40] [SPEAKER_01]: integration of AI capabilities. Why do we care? Microsoft is struggling to find that

[00:07:46] [SPEAKER_01]: tangible ROI that businesses are looking for in broad based solutions. Rather than rush new AI

[00:07:52] [SPEAKER_01]: features into products that are core to its revenue, Microsoft is now testing the waters with pilot

[00:07:57] [SPEAKER_01]: programs. This approach shows concern about how customers will receive these features,

[00:08:02] [SPEAKER_01]: both in terms of their actual utility and the pricing. Critically, complaints about the cost

[00:08:08] [SPEAKER_01]: and efficacy of co-pilot tools suggest that early feedback has not been universally positive.

[00:08:14] [SPEAKER_01]: This reinforces a key issue for IT service providers, the need to manage customer expectations

[00:08:20] [SPEAKER_01]: around AI. The benefits of AI and productivity tools aren't always immediately obvious,

[00:08:25] [SPEAKER_01]: and if the price doesn't justify the impact, customers will bristle. This is a reminder to

[00:08:31] [SPEAKER_01]: avoid over-promising. There's still substantial interest in AI, but it's becoming clear that

[00:08:36] [SPEAKER_01]: overhyped use cases can result in pushback if customers don't see immediate value. The

[00:08:42] [SPEAKER_01]: everywhere narrative is losing some steam, and companies need to be selective about where

[00:08:46] [SPEAKER_01]: they integrate AI, ensuring it solves real business problems.

[00:08:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Starting yesterday, September 30th, 2024, Google Workspace will no longer support older protocols

[00:08:59] [SPEAKER_01]: like CalDAV, CardDAV, IMAP or POP. These protocols pose security risks by requiring

[00:09:06] [SPEAKER_01]: users to share credentials with third-party apps. Users are advised to switch to signing in with Google

[00:09:12] [SPEAKER_01]: using OAuth standard for better security. Affected users should back up their email accounts and

[00:09:18] [SPEAKER_01]: reconfigure their email clients to ensure continued access. Businesses using outdated protocols must

[00:09:23] [SPEAKER_01]: upgrade their network connections, with Google providing detailed transition instructions.

[00:09:29] [SPEAKER_01]: Microsoft Defender now automatically detects and alerts users with Microsoft 365 personal

[00:09:34] [SPEAKER_01]: or family subscriptions about unsecured and unsafe Wi-Fi networks. The updated Defender VPN

[00:09:40] [SPEAKER_01]: encrypts internet traffic and hides users' IP addresses, enhancing privacy and security on

[00:09:45] [SPEAKER_01]: public networks. The feature is currently available on Android, iOS and Windows with

[00:09:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Mac OS support coming soon. Microsoft plans to expand privacy protection to additional

[00:09:55] [SPEAKER_01]: countries and emphasizes that Defender VPN does not collect personal browsing data.

[00:10:01] [SPEAKER_01]: And Connectwise has signed the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency's

[00:10:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Secure by Design pledge, affirming its commitment to high cybersecurity standards for managed

[00:10:10] [SPEAKER_01]: services providers. Why do we care? Well, lots of tactics today. I'm highlighting signings

[00:10:17] [SPEAKER_01]: of Secure by Design because I view it as a key vendor move, Gasea and Ninja both missing

[00:10:23] [SPEAKER_01]: from the list from the MSP platform players.

[00:10:28] [SPEAKER_01]: With as many breaches and security concerns as I report in this show, it should be obvious that

[00:10:34] [SPEAKER_01]: cybersecurity is not just about technology but also the human expertise needed to interpret

[00:10:39] [SPEAKER_01]: and respond to complex threats. Huntress is focused on elevating SMBs and MSPs around the world.

[00:10:47] [SPEAKER_01]: Huntress has a suite of fully managed cybersecurity solutions powered by a 24x7 human-led SOC

[00:10:54] [SPEAKER_01]: dedicated to continuous monitoring, expert investigation and rapid response.

[00:11:00] [SPEAKER_01]: And the proof is the execution. Huntress is the number one rated EDR for SMBs on G2.

[00:11:07] [SPEAKER_01]: Want to know more about the platform? Visit huntress.com slash mspradio to learn more.

[00:12:03] [SPEAKER_01]: The business of tech is written and produced by me, Dave Sobel.

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[00:12:42] [SPEAKER_01]: Once again, thanks for listening to me. I'll talk to you again on our next episode

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