Last November 16 (local time 15), Microsoft's major fall technology announcement event, Ignite, took place.
Ignite 2023 Home Page
Microsoft
Since there were so many stories presented at Ignite, I think you should check out CEO Satya Nadella's keynote to get an overview of the entire content.
(Of course, this keynote is over an hour long.. )
Unfortunately, I was down with the flu during the week Ignite was held, so I couldn't bring myself to look for and watch it. However, after a week passed and my body had recovered a bit, I was able to take a look at it belatedly.
Summarizing this Ignite event, it can be broken down into two main points.
- AI
- There is a lot of it.
Yes. First off, as everyone expected, there were more talks about AI than at any other Microsoft event, and it felt like it started with AI and ended with AI.
Of course, rather than just talking about AI, the focus was on how MS is establishing AI technology and integrating it with its Azure cloud system and Windows and Office systems, and how it plans to launch and utilize its own solution, Copilot. However, ultimately, to summarize, it was all about AI.
However, regarding this discussion on AI, I was left with the impression that rather than just saying 'AI is the best!!', they seemed to be emphasizing that 'since it's Microsoft, they can do it!!' There was a lot of content covered, so I recommend watching the video.
First, the conversation turned to chips. There were discussions about the AI-related chipset, Azure Maia 100, designed for LLMs, and the cloud CPU, Cobalt 100.
虽然希望能有机会详细探讨微软为何要自行开发芯片并将其应用于 Azure 解决方案中……但粗略一想，这大概是因为为了提供基于 AI 的解决方案，现有的系统已无法达到足够的效率。
Perhaps, as MS has likely already operated large-scale, high-user-base AI services, this is a choice and investment they could make.
In this regard, the event emphasized not only providing proprietary solutions and building systems but also collaboration with many companies such as AMD and Meta, with the highlight being Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang appearing to have a dialogue with Satya.
Actually, this part sounded a bit chaotic, but since they were CEOs of major companies responsible for the biggest axis of AI, maybe they just wanted to talk about what they wanted to talk about.. or maybe it was because there wasn't enough time to align beforehand.. I don't know, but they did talk about things that made me think, "Why are they even saying that here..?"
However, the fact that Nvidia's CEO, representing one of the two companies currently performing best in the AI-related solutions and hardware sectors, appeared at an MS event to speak suggests several things.
Aside from that, the most important takeaway from this Ignite presentation was "there is a lot of it." As I listened, Satya Nadella's CEO oratory skills were so impressive that I started to lose my mind thinking, 'What am I listening to?'..
In short, services like MS's Copilot didn't just pop out of thin air; they were released based on over 100 updates!! It seems like that was the story they wanted to tell.
Unfortunately, most of the stories seemed to be aimed at businesses or users already using MS's existing business solutions, rather than at individual users like me.
And because there is so much to talk about within it, many parts are not well understood just by watching the keynote, so I think I need to take some time to review the details by catching a session and looking through the specific sessions again.
Among them, the parts I found particularly interesting and engaging were the Mesh section, which entered Teams as a virtual solution, and the AI x Mixed Reality section utilizing the HoloLens, which has been revived (?) in recent times.
I think that even with the addition of Mesh to Teams, there may still be barriers for existing users to utilize it, and this case demonstrates using Copilot to make it easier to access.
I consider this a representative example of how MS utilizes Copilot.
Furthermore, regarding Mixed Reality, I believe it demonstrated good utilization of AI itself rather than Copilot. Since its release at the recent Meta Connect event, where AI covered the lack of computing performance in Ray-Ban glasses, it appears to be a good attempt to effectively utilize HoloLens 2, which still lacks performance.
(Of course, you would need to actually use it in conjunction with D365..)
I believe the HoloLens MR glasses have a clear advantage in usability compared to other similar hardware. Of course, there is a major drawback in the high price and insufficient performance for the cost.. I hope MS's interest in the somewhat neglected MR sector will grow with this approach. (Since I am an MS MR MVP, I am hoping for a lot.. It's pure selfishness..)
This concludes a brief look at the content of this year's Microsoft Ignite 2023 event.
There were so many different stories, and since I haven't looked at the detailed sessions yet, I'll have to look into them more, but it felt like an event where Microsoft's path forward became much clearer.
Additionally, I am amazed by the massive changes taking place in MS's productivity over the past year, and I also have doubts about whether it will actually work well if I try it out.
Finally, watching CEO Satya deliver that story non-stop for an hour... I realized that being the CEO of a giant company like MS isn't something just anyone can do.