Tag: microsoft

Wife of Ex-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Bails Out NPR With $80 Million Donation After Trump Cut Federal Funding

National Public Radio (NPR) has secured $113 million in donations as it continues to grapple with the fallout from major federal funding cuts under the Trump administration.

The largest donation, $80 million, came from philanthropist Connie Ballmer, the wife of former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

NPR said it is the biggest donation from a living donor in the network’s history.

The company said in a statement:

These gifts will be used to expand audience connection, accelerate digital transformation, and increase the sustainability of the national NPR Network. These gifts are extraordinary and unprecedented commitments that will help secure NPR’s future as America’s premier public service journalism network.

Philanthropist Connie Ballmer has given $80 million to support the digital innovation that is essential to meeting the needs and serving the interests of public media audiences wherever they are and whenever they seek information.

Further gifts from an anonymous donor totaling $33 million will go towards strengthening and increasing the sustainability of the NPR Network, enabling NPR to build and acquire tools and services that will be shared with public media organizations serving communities across the nation.

I support NPR because an informed public is the bedrock of our society, and democracy requires strong, independent journalism,” said Ballmer. “My hope is that this commitment provides the stability and the spark NPR needs to innovate boldly and strengthen its national network.

Despite being a public broadcasting organization, NPR is notorious for its aggressive left-wing bias and support for the Democratic Party.

The funding boost comes after Congress slashed roughly $1.1 billion from public broadcasting last year, putting over 200 NPR stations and hundreds of PBS outlets at risk.

NPR CEO Katherine Maher said the donations would help secure the network’s long-term financial footing.

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Xbox Now Wants Your Face to Let You Play Games You Already Own in Singapore

Singapore gamers who bought and downloaded Xbox titles years ago are now being told they need to prove they’re adults before they can keep playing them.

Microsoft has started rolling out identity verification requirements across its Xbox and Microsoft Store platforms in Singapore, demanding face scans, government ID uploads, or authentication through the country’s national digital identity system, Singpass.

The price of accessing games you already own is now a biometric selfie or a copy of your passport.

The trigger is Singapore’s Online Safety Code of Practice for App Distribution Services, a regulation from the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) that took effect on April 1, 2026.

The rule requires app stores to prevent anyone estimated to be under 18 from downloading apps rated for adults, including dating services and content with sexual material. Five storefronts are covered: Apple’s App Store, Google Play, Samsung Galaxy Store, Huawei AppGallery, and Microsoft Store (which includes Xbox).

Each company has chosen its own methods for compliance. The methods vary, but they all share one thing in common: they collect sensitive personal data that didn’t exist in the platform’s records before this regulation.

Microsoft announced its approach on March 17, 2026, framing the verification as optional, while making it mandatory for anyone who wants full access.

“Microsoft users in Singapore will have multiple options to complete age assurance for our stores, giving people flexibility while prioritising privacy,” the company wrote, listing those options as Singpass verification, “secure facial age estimation using a selfie,” or uploading “an official government ID such as a national ID, driver’s license, passport, or residence permit.”

The company describes this as a one-time process. What it doesn’t describe is who processes the data, how long it exists in transit, or what happens if the system holding it gets breached.

Discord learned this lesson last year when its own partner leaked user data. The company that promises to delete your face scan still has to receive it first.

Singapore residents have started receiving emails from Xbox notifying them about the verification requirement, prompting confusion and concern.

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Microsoft says Copilot is for entertainment purposes only, not serious use — firm pushing AI hard to consumers and businesses tells users not to rely on it for important advice

Microsoft used to push its AI services towards its user base, especially with the launch of the Copilot+ PC, but it seems that even the company itself does not trust its creation. According to the Microsoft Copilot Terms of Use, which was updated in October last year, the AI large language model (LLM) is designed for entertainment use only, and users should not use it for important advice. While this may be a boilerplate disclaimer, it’s quite ironic given how hard the company wants people to use Copilot for business uses and has integrated it into Windows 11.

“Copilot is for entertainment purposes only. It can make mistakes, and it may not work as intended,” the document said. “Don’t rely on Copilot for important advice. Use Copilot at your own risk.” This isn’t limited to Copilot, too. Other AI LLMs have similar disclaimers. For example, xAI says “Artificial intelligence is rapidly evolving and is probabilistic in nature; therefore, it may sometimes: a) result in Output that contains “hallucinations,” b) be offensive, c) not accurately reflect real people, places or facts, or d) be objectionable, inappropriate, or otherwise not suitable for your intended purpose.”

These may sound common sense for people familiar with how LLMs work, but, unfortunately, some people treat AI output as gospel, even those who are supposed to know better. We’ve seen this with Amazon’s services, after some AWS outages were reportedly caused by an AI coding bot after engineers let it solve an issue without oversight. The Amazon website itself has also been hit with a few “high blast radius” incidents that were linked to “Gen-AI assisted changes,” resulting in senior engineers being called up in a meeting to resolve the matter.

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Energy bills set to spike for Washington state residents — while Microsoft gets rate cut: report

Electric bills are set to jump more than 16% for 1.25 million Washington state residents — even as Microsoft gets a rate cut under a special deal, according to a report.

Puget Sound Energy, a utility company that is owned by a consortium of Canadian and Dutch pension funds, is seeking state government approval for rate hikes of 16.75% next year, 3.76% in 2028, and 8.81% in 2029.

The request, which is subject to approval by Washington’s state regulators at Utilities and Transportation Commission, also includes a proposed rate cut for Microsoft, according to the local news site Zoned Out PNW.

If PSE gets its way, the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant, which as of Wednesday boasted a market capitalization of $2.76 trillion, will see its rates slashed by 12.49% next year; 2.04% in 2028; and 3.06% in 2029.

The UTC board is chaired by Brian Rybarik, who held various roles at Microsoft before he was appointed to his current position by Gov. Bob Ferguson, a Dem.

Microsoft reportedly qualifies for the rate cuts because the tech giant falls under the category of a “special contracts” customer.

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Microsoft confirms it will give the FBI your Windows PC data encryption key if asked — you can thank Windows 11’s forced online accounts for that

Microsoft has confirmed in a statement to Forbes that the company will provide the FBI access to BitLocker encryption keys if a valid legal order is requested. These keys enable the ability to decrypt and access the data on a computer running Windows, giving law enforcement the means to break into a device and access its data.

The news comes as Forbes reports that Microsoft gave the FBI the BitLocker encryption keys to access a device in Guam that law enforcement believed to have “evidence that would help prove individuals handling the island’s Covid unemployment assistance program were part of a plot to steal funds” in early 2025.

This was possible because the device in question had its BitLocker encryption key saved in the cloud. By default, Windows 11 forces the use of a Microsoft Account, and the OS will automatically tie your BitLocker encryption key to your online account so that users can easily recover their data in scenarios where they might get locked out. This can be disabled, letting you choose where to save them locally, but the default behavior is to store the key in Microsoft’s cloud when setting up a PC with a Microsoft Account.

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The $134 Billion Betrayal: Inside Elon Musk’s Explosive Lawsuit With OpenAI

Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft has evolved into a high-stakes dispute over whether OpenAI stayed true to the mission it was founded on or quietly outgrew it while relying on that original promise.

Musk is seeking between $79 billion and $134 billion in damages, a figure derived from an expert valuation that treats his early funding and contributions as foundational to what OpenAI later became. While the number is enormous, the heart of the case is simpler: Musk argues he helped create and fund a nonprofit dedicated to AI for the public good, and that OpenAI later abandoned that commitment in a way that amounted to fraud.

According to Musk’s filings, his roughly $38 million in early funding was not just a donation but the financial backbone of OpenAI’s formative years, supplemented by recruiting help, strategic guidance, and credibility. His damages theory, prepared by financial economist C. Paul Wazzan, ties those early inputs to OpenAI’s current valuation of around $500 billion.

The claim is framed as disgorgement rather than repayment, with Musk arguing that the vast gains realized by OpenAI and Microsoft flowed from a nonprofit story that attracted support and trust, only to be discarded once the company reached scale, according to TechCrunch. 

Much of the public attention has centered on internal documents uncovered during discovery, particularly private notes from OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman in 2017.

One line has become central to Musk’s argument: “I cannot believe that we committed to non-profit if three months later we’re doing b-corp then it was a lie.”

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Microsoft Shifts All Activations to Online Accounts

Microsoft’s removal of phone activation for Windows and Office is another signal that the company is locking users into a fully connected, account-bound environment where privacy and ownership steadily fade.

In the past, activating Windows could be done privately without linking the computer to any online profile. Users could install the system, call an automated number, and receive a confirmation code. No internet, no account, no tracking.

That layer of independence is gone. Today, activation demands a Microsoft account and an active connection to the company’s servers.

The change surfaced when YouTuber Ben Kleinberg tried to activate Windows 7 and Office 2010 with an OEM key.

Expecting the old process, he found that the phone number now plays a recorded message telling callers that “support for product activation has moved online.”

A follow-up text message pointed him to the Microsoft Product Activation Portal, where sign-in is mandatory.

It is easy to miss what has been lost here. Phone activation might have been old-fashioned, but it was more private.

You could install software without revealing your identity or linking it to a broader ecosystem. The new system transforms that private transaction into an interaction within Microsoft’s cloud, where every activation, every license, and every key is associated with an online identity.

This is not isolated. In recent versions of Windows, Microsoft has made it increasingly difficult to create local accounts or complete setup without going online.

Now, even activating a legitimate copy of the operating system has become part of the same pattern: tie every function to a Microsoft account, require internet access, and collect the corresponding data.

That approach quietly redefines what ownership means in the digital age. Buying a license no longer guarantees control over your software; it grants permission to use it under terms that depend on ongoing connectivity.

The computer becomes less of a personal device and more of a terminal inside a managed network.

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Microsoft Adds AI to Windows Despite ‘Novel Security Risks’

Microsoft’s recent introduction of Copilot Actions, an experimental AI agent integrated into Windows, has sparked criticism from security experts who question the safety of pushing new features before fully understanding and containing their potential risks

Ars Technica reports that Microsoft unveiled Copilot Actions this week, a set of “experimental agentic features” that allow AI to perform various tasks such as organizing files, scheduling meetings, and sending emails. While the company touted the AI agent as an active digital collaborator that enhances efficiency and productivity, it also issued a warning about the security implications of enabling the feature.

Microsoft’s warning reads:

As these capabilities are introduced, AI models still face functional limitations in terms of how they behave and occasionally may hallucinate and produce unexpected outputs. Additionally, agentic AI applications introduce novel security risks, such as cross-prompt injection (XPIA), where malicious content embedded in UI elements or documents can override agent instructions, leading to unintended actions like data exfiltration or malware installation.

Security concerns stem from known defects inherent in most large language models (LLMs), including Copilot. Researchers have repeatedly demonstrated that LLMs can provide factually erroneous and illogical answers, a behavior known as “hallucinations.” This means users cannot fully trust the output of AI assistants like Copilot, Gemini, or Claude, and must independently verify the information.

Another significant issue with LLMs is their vulnerability to prompt injections. Hackers can exploit this flaw by planting malicious instructions in websites, resumes, and emails, which the AI eagerly follows without discerning between valid user prompts and untrusted, third-party content. These vulnerabilities can lead to data exfiltration, malicious code execution, and cryptocurrency theft.

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Microsoft Warns Experimental Windows 11 AI Could Install Malware on Your Computer

Microsoft said in an update on Nov. 17 that Windows 11 users who utilize “agentic features” from its AI services should be cautious because the AI agents could potentially download and install malware.

In an alert, Microsoft warned that its AI models could “occasionally hallucinate” and introduce “novel security risks” such as malware because large language models, a type of AI that processes data and generates human-like text, are susceptible to cyberattacks.

“As these capabilities are introduced, AI models still face functional limitations in terms of how they behave and occasionally may hallucinate and produce unexpected outputs. Additionally, agentic AI applications introduce novel security risks, such as cross-prompt injection (XPIA),” the warning stated. A prompt injection attack is a type of cyberattack where an attacker crafts an input to trick the AI into performing malicious actions.

Microsoft added that in the case of Windows 11’s “experimental” AI services, “malicious content embedded in UI elements or documents can override agent instructions, leading to unintended actions like data exfiltration or malware installation.”

The AI features are turned off by default and operate only after the user opts into them, the company said.

The agentic AI setting “can only be enabled by an administrator user of the device and once enabled, it’s enabled for all users on the device including other administrators and standard users,” Microsoft said of the AI services.

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Huge Microsoft cloud crash leaves half the world without internet AGAIN

Microsoft‘s Azure, one of the world’s biggest cloud service providers, is suffering outages, triggering widespread internet disruptions across major companies. 

According to Downdetector, problems began around 11:30am ET, with reports surging from users who could not access cloud-connected services, websites or apps. 

The outage appears to be affecting dozens of platforms that rely on these cloud networks, including Microsoft 365, Xbox, Outlook, Starbucks, Costco and Kroger. 

Even popular developer and data tools like Blackbaud and Minecraft are showing connectivity issues. 

Downdetector has received nearly 20,000 issue reports from Azure users in the US. 

The Microsoft outage comes just days after Amazon Web Services disrupted ‘half the internet.’ 

The incidents have raised concerns about how much of the global online infrastructure depends on these two companies, which host everything from retail and entertainment platforms to business operations and cloud storage. 

Frustrated users have flooded social media to vent, with one post on X reading: ‘First AWS, now Azure goes down. I love it when big companies own half the internet!!!’ 

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