Microsoft Antitrust Violations, Linux Entryism, and Lies
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Vox Media ☛ Microsoft QA workers to become full-time, unionized employees [Ed: Reminder that Microsoft lowballs layoff numbers, by calling them "contractors"]
Microsoft is bringing on 77 formerly contracted quality assurance workers as full-time employees after negotiations with Communication Workers of America, according to Bloomberg. It’s not unheard of for a major company to make a move like this — Activision Blizzard did it in 2022 — but it is uncommon as the industry deals with a layoff crisis.
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Business Insider ☛ Microsoft's $10 billion partnership with OpenAI faces its first big antitrust hiccup [Ed: bribe them?]
Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI is facing its first real antitrust challenge, courtesy of the UK's Competition and Markets Authority.
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India Times ☛ Microsoft, OpenAI tie-up draws UK antitrust regulator scrutiny
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it was also considering if the deal had resulted in the creation of a relevant merger situation. "There have recently been a number of developments in the governance of OpenAI, some of which involved Microsoft," the CMA said.
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India Times ☛ Microsoft, OpenAI tie-up comes under antitrust scrutiny
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is examining the nature of Microsoft's investment in ChatGPT maker OpenAI, and whether it may violate antitrust laws, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing a person familiar with the matter.
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Silicon Angle ☛ Microsoft-OpenAI partnership draws antitrust scrutiny in the UK and US
Microsoft reportedly invested $10 billion in OpenAI at the start of the year for a 49% stake. However, it’s believed the company hasn’t yet officially received that stake. The shares are expected to change hands only after Microsoft recoups its $10 billion investment through a profit-sharing agreement with OpenAI.
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The Register UK ☛ Microsoft's relationship with OpenAI now in competition regulator's sights
In particular, the CMA said it will review whether the partnership between the pair resulted in "acquisition control" - when one party has material influence over the other; de facto control, or more than 40 percent of voting rights; or a change in the nature of control by one over the other.
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NDTV ☛ Microsoft Says No Stake In OpenAI As It Faces Antitrust Probe
Rather than buy a chunk of the cutting-edge artificial intelligence lab, it cut a deal to receive almost half of OpenAI's financial returns until the investment is repaid up to a pre-determined cap, one of the people said. The unorthodox structure was concocted because OpenAI is a capped for-profit company housed inside a non-profit organization.
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The Nation ☛ OpenAI
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[Old] The Washington Post ☛ ChatGPT invented a sexual harassment scandal and named a real law prof as the accused
The chatbot, created by OpenAI, said Turley had made sexually suggestive comments and attempted to touch a student while on a class trip to Alaska, citing a March 2018 article in The Washington Post as the source of the information. The problem: No such article existed. There had never been a class trip to Alaska. And Turley said he’d never been accused of harassing a student.
A regular commentator in the media, Turley had sometimes asked for corrections in news stories. But this time, there was no journalist or editor to call — and no way to correct the record.
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The Register UK ☛ Systemd 255 is here with improved UKI support
A visible one may prove to be the new BSOD service, which is genuinely more welcome than it sounds. Yes, it does stand for Blue Screen Of Death just like in Windows, but the idea is that LOG_EMERG level messages – meaning an inoperable system – will be displayed on the machine's console full-screen. This severity of error usually means that the computer failed to boot, and the new tool can even try to display a QR code, facilitating the first line of recourse of any competent BOFH: looking the error message up on Google.
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Security Week ☛ Russian APT Used Zero-Click Outlook Exploit [Ed: The problem here is Microsoft, not Russia]
Russian threat actor APT28 has been exploiting a no-interaction Outlook vulnerability in attacks against 14 countries.
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Security Week ☛ US, UK Announce Charges and Sanctions Against Two Russian Hackers [Ed: Just people who know Microsoft holes]
The US and UK announce charges and sanctions against two hackers working with Russia’s FSB security service.