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Microsoft has built an AI-powered autocomplete for code using GPT-3
In September 2020, Microsoft purchased an exclusive license to the underlying technology behind GPT-3, an AI language tool built by OpenAI. Now, the Redmond, Washington-based tech giant has announced its first commercial use case for the program: an assistive feature in the company’s PowerApps software that turns natural language into readymade code.
The feature is limited in its scope and can only produce formulas in Microsoft Power Fx, a simple programming language derived from Microsoft Excel formulas that’s used mainly for database queries. But it shows the huge potential for machine learning to help novice programmers by functioning as an autocomplete tool for code.
“There’s massive demand for digital solutions but not enough coders out there. There’s a million-developer shortfall in the US alone,” Charles Lamanna, CVP of Microsoft’s Low Code Application Platform, tells The Verge. “So instead of making the world learn how to code, why don’t we make development environments speak the language of a normal human?”
Autocomplete for coders
Microsoft has been pursuing this vision for a while through Power Platform, its suite of “low code, no code” software aimed at enterprise customers. These programs run as web apps and help companies that can’t hire experienced programmers tackle basic digital tasks like analytics, data visualization, and workflow automation. GPT-3’s talents have found a home in PowerApps, a program in the suite used to create simple web and mobile apps.
Lamanna demonstrates the software by opening up an example app built by Coca-Cola to keep track of its supplies of cola concentrate. Elements in the app like buttons can be dragged and dropped around the app as if the users were arranging a PowerPoint presentation. But creating the menus that let users run specific database queries (like, say, searching for all supplies that were delivered to a specific location at a specific time) requires basic coding in the form of Microsoft Power Fx formulas.
“This is when it goes from no code to low code,” says Lamanna. “You go from drag and drop, click click click, to writing formulas. And that quickly becomes complex.” Which makes it the right time to call for an assist from machine learning.
Instead of having users learn how to make database queries in Power Fx, Microsoft is updating PowerApps so they can simply write out their query in natural language, which GPT-3 then translates into usable code. So for example, instead of a user searching the database with a query “FirstN(Sort(Search(‘BC Orders’, “Super_Fizzy”, “aib_productname”), ‘Purchase Date’, Descending), 10),” they can just write “Show 10 orders that have Super Fizzy in the product name and sort by purchase date with newest on the top,” and GPT-3 will produce the correct the code.
It’s a simple trick, but it has the potential to save time for millions of users, while also enabling non-coders to build products previously out of their reach. “I remember when we got the first prototype working on a Friday night, I used it, and I was like ‘oh my god, this is creepy good,’” says Lamanna. “I haven’t felt this way using technology for a long, long time.”
The feature will be available in preview in June, but Microsoft is not the first to use machine learning in this way. A number of AI-assisted coding programs have appeared in recent years, including some, like Deep TabNine, that are also powered by the GPT series. These programs show promise but are not yet widely used, mostly due to issues of reliability.
Programming languages are notoriously fickle, with tiny errors capable of crashing entire systems. And the output of AI language models is often haphazard, mixing up words and phrases and contradicting itself from sentence to sentence. The result is that it often requires coding experience to check the output of AI coding autocomplete programs. That, of course, undermines their appeal for novices.
But Microsoft’s implementation has one big advantage over other systems: Power Fx is extremely simple. The language has its roots in Microsoft Excel formula, explains Lamanna, and is very constrained in what it can do. “It’s data-binding, single-line expressions; there’s no concept of build and compile. What you write just computes instantly,” he says. It has nothing like the power or flexibility of a programming language like Python or JavaScript, but that also means it doesn’t have as much room to commit AI-assisted errors.
As an additional safeguard, the Power Apps interface will also require that users confirm all Power Fx formulas generated from their input. Lamanna argues that this will not only reduce mistakes, but even teach users how to code over time. This seems like an optimistic read. What’s equally likely is that people will unthinkingly confirm the first option they’re given by the computer, as we tend to do with so many pop-up nuisances, from cookies to Ts&Cs.
Mitigating bias
The feature accelerates Microsoft’s “low code, no code” ambitions, but it’s also noteworthy as a major commercial application of GPT-3, one of a new breed of AI language models that dominate the contemporary AI landscape.
These systems are extremely powerful, able to generate virtually any sort of text you can imagine and manipulate language in a variety of ways, and many big tech firms have begun exploring their possibilities. Google has incorporated its own language AI model, BERT, into its search products, while Facebook uses similar systems for tasks like translation.
But these models also have their problems. The core of their capacity often comes from studying language patterns found in huge vats of text data scraped from the web. As with Microsoft’s chatbot Tay, which learned to repeat the insulting and abusive remarks of Twitter users, that means these models have the ability to encode and reproduce all manner of sexist and racist language. The text they produce can also be toxic in unexpected ways. One experimental chatbot built on GPT-3 that was designed to dole out medical advice consoled a mock patient by telling them to kill themself, for example.
The challenge of mitigating these risks depends on the exact function of the AI. In Microsoft’s case, using GPT-3 to create code means the danger is low, says Lamanna, but not nonexistent. The company has fine-tuned GPT-3 to “translate” into code by training it on examples of Power Fx formula, but the core of the program is still based on language patterns learned from the web, meaning it retains this potential for toxicity and bias.
Lamanna gives the example of a user asking the program to find “all job applicants that are good.” How will it interpret that command? It’s within GPT-3’s power to invent criteria in order to answer the question, and it’s possible it might assume that “good” is synonymous with white-sounding names, given that this is one of a number of categories favored by biased hiring practices.
Microsoft says it’s addressing this issue in a number of ways. The first is implementing a ban list of words and phrases that the system just won’t respond to. “If you’re poking the AI to generate something bad, we’re not going to generate it for you,” says Lamanna. And if the system produces something it thinks might be problematic, it’ll prompt users to report it to tech support. Then, someone will come and register the problem (and hopefully fix it).
But making the program safe without limiting its functionality is difficult, says Lamanna. Filtering by race, religion, or gender can be discriminatory, but it can also have legitimate applications, and it sounds like Microsoft is still working out how to tell the difference.
“Like any filter, it’s not perfect,” says Lamanna, emphasizing that users will have to confirm any formula written by the AI, and implying that any abuses of the program will ultimately be their responsibility. “The human does choose to inject the expression. We never inject the expression automatically,” he says.
Despite these and other unanswered questions about the program’s utility, it’s clear that this is the start of a much bigger experiment for Microsoft. It’s not hard to imagine a similar feature being integrated into Microsoft Excel, where it would reach hundreds of millions of users and dramatically expand the accessibility of this product.
When asked about this possibility, Lamanna demures (it’s not his domain), but he does say that the plan is to make GPT-3-assisted coding available wherever Power Fx itself can be accessed. “And Power Fx is showing up in lots of different places in Microsoft products,” he says. So expect to see AI completing your code much more frequently in the future.
In Apple Antitrust Trial, Judge Signals Interest in Railroad, Credit-Card Monopoly Cases
The future of digital commerce on your iPhone could be influenced by how courts resolved questions about market control following technological innovations that disrupted previous generations: credit cards and railroads.
With the courtroom battle between Epic Games Inc. and
Apple Inc.
concluded Monday, U.S. District Judge
Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers
must now decide if the iPhone maker has improperly prohibited third-party app stores and forced developers to use its in-app payment system that collects a commission as high as 30%.
As she decides if Apple has operated an illegal monopoly, she’s already made it clear during the trial in Oakland, Calif., that she’s thinking about how previous precedent-setting cases involving
American Express Co.
and a St. Louis railroad apply to the new digital economy in the 21st century. Her decision in the trial that lasted three weeks and a day is expected in the coming months, and it could sway a new generation of commerce.
“It’s safe to say she’s not just convinced that there’s an easy win for Apple,” said David Olson, an associate professor at Boston College Law School who has been following the case. “She’s thinking hard about this and seems to be bothered by the lack of in-app or in-game…payment systems.”
The question of how to define a market in the case is a central issue. Is the market confined to distributing apps on the iPhone as “Fortnite” videogame creator Epic argues? Or, as Apple contends, is the market just devices on which videogames can be played?
A comment by Judge Gonzalez Rogers on Friday suggests she may be looking at it as an app-distribution market. “The gaming industry seems to be generating a disproportionate amount of money relative to the [intellectual property] that you’re giving them and everybody else,” she said when questioning Apple Chief Executive
Tim Cook.
“In a sense, it’s almost as if they’re subsidizing everybody else.”
On Monday, however, she raised the notion that the market might be the mobile videogame market—an option that neither party raised.
Judge Gonzalez Rogers has also suggested on multiple occasions that she doesn’t believe Apple is setting its commission of as much as 30% based on competition, but rather has made its decision arbitrarily.
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If she’s signaling a willingness to consider some of Epic’s claims, she also seems unwilling to blow up Apple’s business. During her comments Monday, she expressed concern that Epic’s proposals for addressing its claims against Apple went too far. “Give me some example that has survived appellate review where the court has engaged in such a way to either prohibit something or to fundamentally change the economic model of a monopolistic company,” Judge Gonzalez Rogers said.
Throughout the trial, she has indicated an interest in a longtime doctrine of antitrust law called essential facilities, which prohibits a dominant firm from using a bottleneck to block out competition. It comes from a 1912 case involving a group of railroads that blocked rivals with the control of bridges and rail yards in and out of St. Louis.
Several times, Judge Gonzalez Rogers has chided Epic’s lawyers for not providing evidence backing up a claim that Apple has an essential facility. Apple quickly filed a motion seeking to throw out the claim involving the doctrine. On Sunday, Epic argued in a filing that it had made its case.
“What Epic is saying is that we want Apple to allow us to deal on their platform, their iOS, and there are only two of these platforms, and, therefore, because there are only two competitors, all of these competitors can’t succeed without access to these platforms—this one and Google,” the judge told a witness during the second week of the trial. She said the case seemed to revolve around an essential facilities claim.
Richard Schmalensee, the dean emeritus of the business school at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a witness called by Apple, disagreed: Apple’s operating system isn’t a public utility, like a lone rail track into a town.
Rather, he said, the disagreement between Epic and Apple is over Epic’s desire to set up its own competing store. “It could be that Apple nominally gives them access, but the terms are so unfavorable that as a business matter, they can’t function,” he said. “But they’ve made a lot of money going through that store, so I think [Epic has] trouble making the argument.”
Judge Gonzalez Rogers also probed Prof. Schmalensee on another area of legal precedent that suggested she was looking for a potential compromise.
Part of Apple’s terms to developers include a so-called anti-steering provision that prohibits them from sending users in the app outside of Apple’s payment system to save money using a cheaper method. Epic’s lawsuit was preceded by a plot to sneak its own in-app payment system into “Fortnite” aimed at circumventing Apple’s, a violation of the rules that got it kicked out of the store. In response, Epic filed its lawsuit in August claiming Apple was a monopoly.
Apple contends that its anti-steering provision is allowed by judicial precedent in a case involving American Express. In that case, the Supreme Court upheld AmEx’s policy that prohibited merchants that accept its cards from steering consumers to use rival cards, such as
Visa,
so they could avoid fees. AmEx fees charged merchants are often higher.
Prof. Schmalensee noted that AmEx wasn’t part of a duopoly like Apple and Google, to which the judge responded: “When you go into a store, you can see the sign that says, Visa,
Discover, AmEx,” she said. “So there were visual indications of options. Those visual indications of options don’t exist in this circumstance.”
Apple is against the idea of allowing notice or a link to another payment system. Apple equates it to requiring
Nordstrom Inc.
to hang a sign in its store that
Macy’s Inc.
has cheaper prices. Meanwhile, Epic argued it should be more like a mall being unable to prohibit a store from telling customers that another location might have less-expensive offerings.
On Friday, Judge Gonzalez Rogers asked Mr. Cook: “What is the problem with Apple giving them that option?”
Write to Tim Higgins at Tim.Higgins@WSJ.com and Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com
Copyright ©2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Biomutant Review – IGN
iFixit looks inside Apple’s new 24-inch iMac
It’s been years since the folks at iFixit have had a new iMac to tear apart but now they’ve attacked Apple’s just-released 24-inch model. When you compare it to 2014’s 5K iMac design the thing that jumps out is how little space the computer parts take up. Apple’s M1 chip, associated hardware, RAM and everything else is stuffed into a narrow logic board that fits entirely within the new desktop’s chin.
An X-ray shot reveals that while it hides its antennas inside the Apple logo, they aren’t shaped like an apple this time. It doesn’t look like there’s any hidden RAM or SSD expansion slots hiding in there, although we weren’t expecting to be able to upgrade the hardware in these machines. iFixit’s teardown is still ongoing, so take a look now and then check back to find out what exactly those metal shields are, or how TouchID works in a wireless keyboard accessory.
All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Team Ninja is Rumored to Be Making a Final Fantasy Souls Game – IGN Daily Fix – IGN
- Team Ninja is Rumored to Be Making a Final Fantasy Souls Game – IGN Daily Fix IGN
- Final Fantasy Origin by Team Ninja rumored for E3 2021 reveal Polygon
- A Dark Souls-style Final Fantasy game might be announced soon PC Gamer
- Final Fantasy Origin, a PS5 Action-RPG Spin-Off, Reportedly Coming at E3 – IGN IGN
- Team Ninja reportedly working on Nioh-like Final Fantasy spin-off for PS5 and PC Eurogamer.net
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Sony’s 75-inch X950H TV is $600 off at Amazon, Best Buy, and BuyDig
If you’re looking for a behemoth 4K TV with impressive motion handling, solid black levels, and vibrant colors right out of the box, it’s hard to go wrong with the Sony X950H series. Sony’s 75-inch HDR display is not cheap at $2,600, however, Best Buy, Amazon, and BuyDig are all currently offering the TV for $600 off the initial list price, bringing it down to $2,000. The X950H model also sports four HDMI ports, compatibility with both Alexa and Google Assistant, and a host of Android TV features. It’s one of the best deals we’ve seen on Sony’s premium LED in recent months, especially when you consider that BuyDig is throwing in a $100 Visa gift card with each purchase.
We’ve gushed about the Sony WH-1000XM4 on many occasions — and why shouldn’t we? The wireless headphones remain our top picks for the best noise-canceling headphones you can buy, namely due to their excellent noise-cancellation capabilities and support for two simultaneous Bluetooth connections. The latest model also features enhanced microphones, allowing for improved voice chats, and the same all-day comfort as its predecessors. If you happened to have missed the previous sales on the WH-1000XMH4, the black option is still available via eBay retailer Pro-Distributing for $260, a $90 discount.
If you prefer noise-canceling earbuds over traditional headphones, you’re in luck. Both Amazon and Walmart are still offering 21 percent off the AirPods Pro, meaning you can pick up a pair of Apple’s iconic earbuds for $197. If you’re unfamiliar with the popular Bluetooth earbuds, just know that they offer superb sound with active noise cancellation, along with deep software integration with iOS and an in-ear design that should accommodate most people. If you’re an Android user or simply prefer an alternative, we’ve also rounded up the best wireless earbuds you can buy.
If you haven’t been following Amazon as closely as us, sifting through its robust catalog of current- and last-gen Echo devices can be overwhelming. If you’re looking for a cheap entryway into the Amazon ecosystem, however, Woot is offering the third-generation Echo Dot Kids Edition for a mere $25. The blue, kid-centric edition of the Echo Dot offers all the same hardware and specs as the generic Echo Dot, along with a two-year warranty and a one-year subscription to Amazon Kids Plus, a package that gives your child access to thousands of hours of kid-friendly content. The parental controls are just a plus.
Microsoft has turned the Surface Duo into a handheld Xbox
Microsoft teased the potential for an Xbox handheld-like experience with the Surface Duo during its unveiling nearly two years ago, and it’s finally appearing today. Microsoft is updating its Xbox Cloud Gaming (xCloud) app for Android, and it includes dual-screen support for the Surface Duo.
The app update allows Surface Duo owners to use a virtual gamepad on one screen of their device and games on the other. It makes the Surface Duo look more like a Nintendo 3DS than a mobile phone, with touch controls for a variety of games.
Microsoft has been steadily adding Xbox Touch Controls to more than 50 games in recent months, including titles like Sea of Thieves, Gears 5, and Minecraft Dungeons. The full list of touch-compatible games is available here, and you can of course just use a regular Bluetooth or Xbox controller to stream games to the Surface Duo.
Microsoft is turning its Surface Duo into a handheld Xbox today. The latest app update for Xbox Cloud Gaming (xCloud) let’s you use one screen for touch controls and the other for the game. It’s like a Nintendo 3DS with Xbox games. Details here: https://t.co/ubbsEAW3r8 pic.twitter.com/aP94t9xgzC
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) May 24, 2021
The benefits of a dual-screen device for this type of mobile experience are obvious. You no longer have touch controls over the top of the game, and your thumbs don’t get in the way of seeing important action on-screen. If dual-screen or foldable devices ever catch on, this is a far superior way to play Xbox games without a dedicated controller.
Microsoft has also tweaked the rest of the Xbox Cloud Gaming to work better on the Surface Duo. Improvements include making it easier to view content, move through menus, and the addition of columned layouts. The updated app is available now in Google Play Store.
LittleBigPlanet Servers Have Been Taken Down Following Targeted Attacks
LittleBigPlanet‘s servers have been temporarily disabled following ongoing attacks that include hackers posting offensive in-game messages.
LittleBigPlanet’s Twitter account shared the update, saying, “Due to the severity of the recent attacks we have no other option than to temporarily disable the game servers. We do not take these attacks lightly especially when they target our loyal community members. Thanks for understanding.”
The decision to take down the servers follows users like u/blueblur98_YT on Reddit noticing that hackers had been targeting specific groups by creating error messages that contain offensive content.
This is another chapter in the unfortunate server woes for LittleBigPlanet, a game that was originally released in 2008 for the PS3. Users noticed that LittleBigPlanet’s servers went down in March 2020 and the community received few updates as to what exactly was causing the issues.
LittleBigPlanet’s Twitter shared an update at the end of April, saying the servers were being taken down to test new security updates, and now these new attacks are impacting the game yet again. While wonderful when it works, this also affects LittleBigPlanet 2 & 3 as all three games are tied together in a way that, when one game has problems, the other two do as well.
Prior to these most recent attacks, the community was split in deciding whether to believe the server issues were due to a single, aggrieved member of the LBP community that stole server keys and claimed to upload thousands of junk levels as a DDOS attack to cripple servers or if it was based on a lack of support for games as they get older.
While there are those who still love playing the original, Sackboy has made his way to PS5 with Sackboy: A Big Adventure. In our review, we said that it “is a charming LittleBigPlanet spin-off that trades its creation tools in for a more straightforward Mario structure.”
Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.
Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
Xbox Developer Easter Egg 20 Years Reveal
Microsoft‘s first-gen Xbox released almost 20 years ago, yet there are some things about it that are still being discovered today. One of its original developers recently revealed an easter egg.
According to sources, the Easter Egg can be found when you burn a CD to your Xbox’s hardware. When a prompt asks you to name the album, type in, “Timmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!” You don’t have to count the number of “y”‘s here; simply fill out the entire field and then replace the last “y” with an exclamation mark. “I didn’t really expect it to be found, not unless the source code leaked or somebody reverse-engineered the Dashboard,” said the developer in an interview. Once the CD is finished being copied, head to “Settings” and hit “System Info.” Xbox will then reel out a screen showing a list of members of the Xbox Dashboard team. The designer mentioned there’s at least one more easter egg that he thinks people haven’t cracked yet, but he hasn’t yet shared its details. Perhaps we’ll need to wait another 20 years.
In case you missed it, Microsoft has admitted that Xbox consoles have been sold at a loss.