Apple’s main manufacturing partner, Foxconn, has announced it is working with Nvidia to build digital twins that it says will reshape the future of manufacturing and supply chain management.
Nvidia and Foxconn last year announced plans to use Nvidia’s Omniverse platform to create 3D digital twin tech with which to plan and simulate automated production lines. The scheme was first put into effect at Foxconn’s Hsinchu factory in Taiwan and will be scaled out to Foxconn factories worldwide.
What happens in Hsinchu…
Apple’s connection with the Hsinchu facility isn’t particularly overt, but it certainly exists. There’s an Apple Store currently hiring in the city, and Apple also has an R&D facility there. In 2020, Apple confirmed plans to build a new plant in Hsinchu Science Park to supplement the operations it already had in place.
As far as we know, Apple’s Hsinchu-based R&D teams are working on next-generation monitor technologies such as low-temperature polysilicon displays and metal-oxide-semiconductor screens, along with quantum film image sensors, according to earlier reports. (Who knows, it’s not impossible that new tech used in the latest MacBook Pro displays might have been developed there.)
While a bit of a long shot, some of Apple’s server development team might also be based there, given the company is developing its own servers to support its Private Cloud Compute systems for Apple Intelligence. It was recently reported that Apple has asked Foxconn to make AI servers based on Apple Silicon in Taiwan, and given the proximity of the Hsinchu digital twins project, it is hard to ignore the overt opportunity for additional cooperation between the firms.
When it comes to manufacturing, Apple has a pressing challenge to scale up the capacity to build iPhones at factories outside China. Some of this work is already taking place in India where the company is rapidly ramping up production, but it is possible Apple wants some manufacturing taking place elsewhere, such as in Mexico.
Foxconn’s move to build heavily automated production facilities could help Apple with those efforts.
Industry 4.0 and the Apple supply chain
I see the latest news with Nvidia as part of a continuum. Foxconn has already built a growing network of eight Industry 4.0 lights-out factories in Taiwan, China, and Mexico. In China, the steady move toward additional automation means Foxconn has been able to reduce its workforce by more than a third while maintaining production levels.
Foxconn’s entire Shenzhen, China, Guanlan factory operates without lighting as it is automated and controlled by a cloud-based AI. The vision of that latter project is that it will become possible to simply tell the cloud AI what products need to be made and how they are to be manufactured, and the system will adjust itself to automatically churn those products out.
There’s a ways to go before that becomes possible, but it sounds like Foxconn will use Nvidia’s tools to track existing manufacturing processes so they can be more easily replicated at factories situated elsewhere.
“Through this technology, Foxconn can replicate and establish production lines across diverse geographical locations with unprecedented speed and precision,” the company said. “This capability enables Foxconn to swiftly deploy high-quality production facilities with unified standards in strategic markets worldwide, significantly enhancing the company’s competitiveness and adaptability in the global landscape.”
Digital twin tech is also very good at identifying bottlenecks and inefficiencies in existing production processes, while the ability to more easily take manufacturing lines to new nations also help build resilience into manufacturing systems. “When facing supply chain disruptions or sudden market demands, Foxconn can quickly simulate manufacturing process changes and adjust production strategies to flexibly allocate resources across different regions for itself and its clients, ensuring production continuity and stability,” Foxconn says.
Resilience and flexibility
To some extent, the writing has always been on the wall. Supply chains globally buckled during the height of the CoVID-19 pandemic, and Apple’s decision to widen its manufacturing base to new nations was a direct response to this. Apple — and quite clearly, Foxconn — now understand the need to build resilience into the supply chain, and one way to do that is to turn to using heavily automated manufacturing systems that can be easily set up and made productive in new locations. This seems to be the game in play here, particularly in the wake of Apple’s purchase of Darwin AI earlier this year.
The other part of that game reflects the challenge of staffing manufacturing operations at the scale Apple demands. Hundreds of thousands of people globally are now involved in building Apple hardware, and the job is skilled enough that recruiting all those workers can pose problems for the company. This is likely why in June it was revealed that Apple intends to replace 50% of iPhone related assembly line workers in the next few years. That ambition logically requires the kind of productivity enhancements Foxconn and Nvidia are working on now, so logically it makes sense that Apple’s production processes are part of the plan.
Designed by Apple, built by robots
Achieving this is not going to be easy. But where Apple goes, others inevitably follow, which itself means that future employment is going to become even further deindustrialized at about the same time as AI itself leads to mass scale changes in working practices elsewhere. It’s hard to see where this is going, but the other side of that story is that iPhone manufacturing will itself become a movable feast.
Microsoft has introduced a new tool in Microsoft 365 Copilot to automate repetitive tasks, part of a drive to make the generative AI (genAI) assistant more useful to users.
Copilot Actions, announced at Microsoft’s Ignite conference Tuesday, features a simple trigger-and-action interface that Microsoft hopes will make the workflow automations accessible to a wide range of workers.
The company offered up a few examples for Copilot Actions in a blog post. It can be set to create an automatic summary of important action points at the end of the workday, gather inputs from a team for a weekly newsletter, or summarize recent interactions with a client ahead of a meeting. The feature is now in private preview.
A Gartner survey of digital workers indicated that 51% have customized and built their own workflows, apps and automations, “so the demand is certainly there for business users (aka citizen developers) to build their own AI agents,” said Jason Wong, vice president analyst at Gartner.
Microsoft’s low-code and no-code tools, including Power Apps and Power Automate, have already “paved the way for Copilot Studio for citizen development,” Wong said. “However, Copilot Studio is still an immature product, and organizations have only started to upskill their employees to understand how to build generative AI powered apps or agents.”
Other new features announced at Ignite include an update to Copilot Pages, the recently-launched document editor tool connected to M365 Copilot. Microsoft will add “rich artifacts” to Copilot Pages, which lets users share a wider variety of information generated in Copilot, such as blocks of code or flow charts, and share them to a Pages document.
Copilot Pages is due to be generally available in early 2025, Microsoft said.
Copilot in Teams will soon be able to analyze visual content shared on-screen during a video call, and users can ask the assistant for a quick summary of files shared in Teams Chat. Both features will be in public preview early next year.
There’s also an “interpreter” function coming to Teams that Microsoft claims will translate meeting participants’ speech in real-time during a video call. Available in public preview in early 2025, Microsoft said it will also be possible simulate a user’s voice in the translated audio.
The feature, currently in private preview, is one of several examples of AI agents coming to M365 Copilot and M365 apps.
Microsoft also announced AI “agents” for M365 Copilot — including the general availability of the previously announced agent builder functionality in SharePoint; the latter essentially lets users created a tailored chatbot to respond to queries related to a specific set of files stored in the content management application. To help manage and secure data accessed by M365 Copilot, Microsoft will make the SharePoint Advanced Management add-on (which previously cost $3 per user a month) available at no extra cost starting early next year.
There’s an Employee Self-Service Agent for BizChat — the chat interface for M365 Copilot –— whereemployees can ask HR and IT-related questions, such as requesting a new laptop. The agent, now in a private preview, can be customized in Microsoft’s Copilot Studio app.
There’s an agent to automate project management processes in Microsoft’s Planner app (in public preview now), with plans in place to open up access to third-party agents from the likes of ServiceNow in the coming months.
Microsoft has struggled to convince Microsoft 365 customers that it’s worth investing in its various genAI tools, many of which launched last year. The latest updates provide an opportunity to show the business value of the genAI assistant, which costs $30 per user each month.
While Microsoft’s “Wave 2” of M365 Copilot features announced in September can be viewed as an attempt to win over undecided buyers, Wong said the new agentic capabilities announced at Ignite are “really more for their current M365 Copilot customers to extend the business value of generative AI beyond individual productivity to show greater ROI.
“Copilot customers [don’t] just want content creation and summarization,” he said. “They want Copilot to replace manual work, impact team workflows and drive process improvements.”
Microsoft Ignite 2024 kicks off in Chicago and runs Nov. 19-22. If you can’t make it to Chicago, no worries. First, the physical event is sold out, according to the Ignite event page. Second, it’s a hybrid event, so you can attend Ignite virtually.
Whether you’re there physically or online, expect to learn more about the latest technologies from Microsoft — everything from artificial intelligence (AI) to cloud computing, security, productivity tools, and more In the keynote address, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Microsoft leaders — including Charlie Bell, executive vice president of Microsoft Security, and Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of the Microsoft Cloud + AI Group — will share how the company is creating new opportunities across its platforms in this rapidly evolving era of AI.
You can also network with industry experts and Microsoft’s team, IT leaders, and other tech enthusiasts; gain hands-on experience and learn from experts at technical sessions; and learn about new products and services. (Microsoft often announces new products and features at Ignite.)
Here are highlights from the 2024 show, followed by a look back at some of our previous Ignite coverage, as well as recent articles that touch on related topics. Remember to check this page often for more on Ignite 2024.
Microsoft Ignite 2024 news and insights
Microsoft upgrades Copilot Studio agent builder tools
Nov. 20, 2024: Microsoft unveiled new Copilot Studio features aimed at both expanding the functionality of AI agents created with the application and improving the accuracy of outputs. Customers will be able to connect Copilot Studio agents to third-party apps, and tools for building autonomous agents are now available in a public preview.
Microsoft partners with industry leaders to offer vertical SLMs
Microsoft brings automated ‘agents’ to M365 Copilot
Nov. 19, 2024: Microsoft has introduced a new tool in Microsoft 365 Copilot to automate repetitive tasks, part of a drive to make the genAI assistant more useful to users. Copilot Actions features a simple trigger-and-action interface that Microsoft hopes will make the workflow automations accessible to a wide range of workers.
Microsoft looks to genAI, exposure managment, and new bug bounties to secure enterprise IT
Nov. 19, 2024:Microsoft announced a host of new security measures at its annual Ignite conference, with the goal of strengthening its existing data protection, endpoint security, and extended threat detection and response capabilities. Notable improvements include the introduction of a dedicated exposure management tool, an upgrade to insider risk management (IRM) tailored to GenAI usage, new data loss prevention (DLP) features, and integration of genAI into security operations center (SOC) processes.
Microsoft and Atom Computing claim breakthrough in reliable quantum computing
Nov. 19, 2024: The companies have announced what they claim is a significant step forward in reliable quantum computing, unveiling a commercial quantum machine built with 24 entangled logical qubits. The system, achieved through a combination of Atom Computing’s neutral-atom hardware and Microsoft’s qubit-virtualization technology, aims to address the critical challenge of error detection and correction in quantum computation.
Microsoft adds major upgrades to Power Apps at Ignite
Nov. 19, 2024: The company announced a series of low-code product enhancements, targeted at developers, that ranged from new agent-building capabilities in Power Apps and Power Pages to new AI and governance features in the codeless automation tool Microsoft Power Automate.
Microsoft’s Windows 365 Link is a thin client device for shared workspaces
Microsoft rebrands Azure AI Studio to Azure AI Foundry
Nov. 19, 2024: The toolkit for building generative AI applications has been packaged with new updates to form the Azure AI Foundry service.
From MFA mandates to locked-down devices, Microsoft posts a year of SFI milestones at Ignite
Nov. 19, 2024: The company shared a progress report on its Secure Future Initiative (SFI), introduced a year ago, which included significant measures such as enforcing multifactor authentication (MFA) by default for new tenants, isolating close to 100,000 work devices under conditional access policies, and blocking GitHub secrets from exposure.
Nov. 15, 2023: Microsoft’s 2023 Ignite conference might as well be called AIgnite, with over half of the almost 600 sessions featuring AI in some shape or form. Generative AI (genAI), in particular, is at the heart of many of the product announcements Microsoft is making at the event, including new AI capabilities for wrangling large language models (LLMs) in Azure, new additions to the Copilot range of genAI assistants, new hardware, and a new tool to help developers deploy small language models (SLMs) too.
Microsoft partners with Nvidia, Synopsys for genAI services
Nov. 16, 2023: Microsoft has announced that it is partnering with chipmaker Nvidia and chip-designing software provider Synopsys to provide enterprises with foundry services and a new chip-design assistant. The foundry services from Nvidia will be deployed on Microsoft Azure and will combine three of Nvidia’s elements — its foundation models, its NeMo framework, and Nvidia’s DGX Cloud service.
As Microsoft embraces AI, it says sayonara to the metaverse
Feb. 23, 2023: It wasn’t just Mark Zuckerberg who led the metaverse charge by changing Facebook’s name to Meta. Microsoft hyped it as well, notably when CEO Satya Nadella said, “I can’t overstate how much of a breakthrough this is,” in his keynote speech at Microsoft Ignite in 2021. Now, tech companies are much wiser, they tell us. It’s AI at heart of the coming transformation. The metaverse may be yesterday’s news, but it’s not yet dead.
Microsoft Ignite in the rear-view mirror: What we learned
Oct. 17, 2022: Microsoft treated its big Ignite event as more of a marketing presentation than a full-fledged conference, offering up a variety of announcements that affect Windows users, as well as large enterprises and their networks. (The show was a hybrid affair, with a small in-person option and online access for those unable to travel.)
Related Microsoft coverage
Microsoft’s AI research VP joins OpenAI amid fight for top AI talent
Oct. 15, 2024: Microsoft’s former vice president of genAI research, Sebastien Bubeck, left the company to join OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. Bubeck, a 10-year veteran at Microsoft, played a significant role in driving the company’s genAI strategy with a focus on designing more efficient small language models (SLMs) to rival OpenAI’s GPT systems.
Microsoft brings Copilot AI tools to OneDrive
Oct. 9, 2024:Microsoft’s Copilot is now available in OneDrive, part of a wider revamp of the company’s cloud storage platform. Copilot can now summarize one or more files in OneDrive without needing to open them first; compare the content of selected files across different formats (including Word, PowerPoint, and PDFs); and respond to questions about the contents of files via the chat interface.
Microsoft wants Copilot to be your new AI best friend
Oct. 9, 2024: Microsoft’s Copilot AI chatbot underwent a transformation last week, morphing into a simplified pastel-toned experience that encourages you…to just chat. “Hey Chris, how’s the human world today?” That’s what I heard after I fired up the Copilot app on Windows 11 and clicked the microphone button, complete with a calming wavey background. Yes, this is the type of banter you get with the new Copilot.
The new MacBook Pro is everything you expect: faster, better and more capable than before. While you can say that about every new Mac, the move to Apple Silicon means Apple can introduce vastly improved systems almost every year — something that was not always possible before.
I tested a beautiful Space Black MacBook Pro with the new M4 Pro chip and 48GB memory (which I would treasure if it belonged to me). The 3-nanometer chip it uses has 14 cores, consisting of 10 performance and four efficiency cores; it has a 2TB drive; a Liquid Retina XDR nanotexture display; and it costs $3,349.
What you already know
You already know everything you need to know about the all-new M4-series MacBook Pro systems. You know what they look like, that they are considerably faster, deliver extensive battery life, and are packed with more memory than Apple has pre-installed in Macs before. These AI PCs, of course, will run Apple Intelligence and any third-party generative AI systems you want to throw at them and are capable of handling incredibly intensive tasks. (When they do, they do not become hot enough you can fry an egg on them.)
You also know they run macOS, and (as virtual machines) run Windows really well if you also install Parallels. They also run most popular flavors of Linux in VM. They’re the most stable and inherently secure PC’s you can get, and if you are running a fleet of them you also know they’re less expensive to run in terms of tech support and other costs of ownership.
That’s the reputation these new Macs carry, and every single claim is true; it is why these Macs almost always win the PC group tests.
Test scores
I ran a few tests.
Geekbench 6
Open CL: 69,201
Single Core: 3,964
Multi Core: 22,952
There are multiple scores for these systems (Mac16,8) now available on Geekbench. These all confirm this kind of power.
Cinebench
I ran the Multi Core test using CinebenchR23. CPU results yielded 22,056 points for multi-core performance and 2,188 for single-core. The Mac utterly dominated single-core testing and comfortably took third in multi-core tests, eclipsing most AMD and Intel chips.
Blender
Blender has its own benchmarks, which it has aggregated from users of its software. These give the equivalent Mac a median score of 2,547.97, which basically means Blender performance will be only slightly slower than what you can expect from a much more expensive Apple system running an M2 Ultra chip.
Valley
I even tested the Mac using Valley. That test forces the Mac to render a selection of graphically intensive moving images, which makes it a neat way to put the GPU through its paces. This is no longer a fair test, however, as Valley isn’t optimized for Apple Silicon and relies on Apple’s Rosetta technology to work. Despite which, the Mac flew, reaching an average 127.9 fps without switching on the fan.
Apple wins the race
This level of performance — and annual improvements in that performance — could never have been achieved before the introduction of Apple’s M-series chips. Apple Silicon stands far ahead of the pack of Intel Core Ultra 200 chips or AMD Ryzen AI 9HX 370s (catchy name) — even the widely praised Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite.
Really, truly, Apple now leads in the processor wars. Dollar-for-dollar, and most especially, watt-for-watt, you can absolutely expect Macs running these M4 Pro chips to handle pretty everything you throw at them — in a portable Apple supercomputer you can use on battery and trundle to your next destination tucked away under your arm. Capable of delivering 8.6 teraflops of performance, it’s the computer most in the AI development industry are using; they need this level of performance and know Apple’s Macs deliver.
What all the performance data really means is that these Macs are more powerful than the superpowered Mac Studio or Mac Pro desktop models introduced in 2023. Want to edit a movie using pro apps like Adobe Premier or Apple’s Final Cut Pro? These machines are for you. It doesn’t stop at editing — they’re solid performers for color grading, motion graphics creation, CAD applications, RAW image editing, data modeling, structural engineering, advanced statistical analysis, even building, compiling, and testing new AI models.
That performance also means that if you must run some legacy apps using Windows, you can — and you might find that even in emulation mode, the Mac runs Microsoft’s OS faster than most PCs. If you’re a gamer, you’ll be happy; World of Warcraft: The War Within performs 16.7 times faster than it did on an Intel-based MacBook Pro, Apple said. And these computationally intensive tasks can be done wherever you happen to be, thanks to the battery life of 24 hours.
What about the display?
The test system I used had a nano-texture display to reduce glare and reflections. This is great for using the Mac outdoors in sunlight, and while the technology does make for a slight reduction in contrast if you look closely, this is more than offset by the image clarity. If you intend to use your new Mac when out and about, the $150 extra for nano-texture is a good investment.
When it comes to image clarity and color accuracy, you get a display capable of outputting color at the same degree of accuracy as reference systems users paid $40,000 or more for just five years ago. That’s the beauty of the Liquid Retina XDR display, which also means you can look at the display side on and still discern what it is showing. Apple has also switched to a Quantum Dot film in the display, which is a layer of phosphorescent crystals situated between the backlight and the display’s color filter that help make color more vibrant, accurate, and bright.
Otherwise, you can expect industry-leading 1600 nits of peak brightness and 1000 nits of sustained brightness for HDR and SDR content. The Mac is smart in other ways, too, and can adjust brightness all the way down to 1 nit in low-light situations. Put all of this together and what you get is a professional display in a professional notebook, which matters if your work requires staring at that display all day.
Want to use an external display? You can. While I was only able to test this with one external display, the MacBook Pro with an M4 Pro chip can drive up to two external displays in addition to the built-in display
Battery life
“Oh,” you exclaim, “but the bright display and powerful processor must eat away battery life.” While it depends on what you do, that isn’t necessarily so. Apple promises this MacBook Pro can handle up to 22 hours of video streaming and up to 14 hours of wireless web browsing.
In my experience, Apple’s battery life claims easily stand up – the only way you’ll really see battery life drop fast is if you want your Mac to start rendering large video files or preparing massive data sets for export. Oddly enough, the best way I found to easily test this was to set Valley’s test onto an endless loop. After eight hours, my beautiful Space Black Mac was still happily chugging away.
I humbly suggest that means unless you’re really pushing those processor cycles, your Mac will carry on doing whatever it is you need for a return journey between London and New York, even if you forget to bring your power cable with you. Oh, and one more thing, if you unplug your Mac, you’ll see no reduction in performance.
Speaking to friends
Of course, if you’re staying across the ocean you might want to speak with your colleagues, family, or friends. The good news there is that the 12-megapixel webcam (1080p HD) brings Apple’s on-board camera a little further into the 21st Century.
The follow up good news is that it’s the AI Apple created in support of that camera that really does that job. Contrast will be good, even when you are backlit by a window; Center Stage will keep you in the frame without getting in the way; and Desk View gives people you speak with a good perspective on what your fingers are doing.
Of course, a good camera for video conferencing is one thing, but you also need good sound; again, Apple’s deep investments in digital sound tech is easy to hear in these Macs. The six-speaker system delivers a beautiful wide stereo sound, which means whether you’re listening to music, watching a Dolby Atmos movie, or listening to someone who loves the sound of their own voice blaring on during an endless weekly meeting, you’ll be cocooned in a cloud of sound. And if you want to output sound to a bigger system, you’ve even got a headphone port.
Summing up
Power users will be thrilled that these Macs support up to 128GB of high-bandwidth memory, which will make a big difference to 3D and AI professionals. It’s also true that users shifting video assets between multiple codecs will find they can do that while still handling tasks like color and effects processing — and if you’re trying to open a large file, the speed of the SSD is as “Pro” as everything else in this machine.
These really are pro machines, with an illuminated keyboard, outstanding built-in microphones, the productivity-boosting tools in Apple Intelligence, and the now iconic (thin and light) MacBook Pro design. You even get a polishing cloth!
The only snag? You might not need one.
These are astonishingly portable, amazingly powerful computers that look great and sound better. However, most of us aren’t doing the computational equivalent of joining the queue to climb Everest or investigating vast data sets toward building a vaccine against cancer. Instead, we’re playing some games, surfing the internet, shifting our identities to BlueSky from Twitter, and writing a couple of word processing documents.
Think of it this way: I’m writing this using a beautiful MacBook Pro that I can only ever aspire to.
This computer is born for speed, bred for performance, and hungry to handle some really demanding tasks. But perhaps you only really need a MacBook Air. The way I see it, if Apple were a horse breeder, then M4 Pro MacBook Pros are outstanding thoroughbreds absolutely born for world-class performance and speed, while the MacBook Air is a slightly slower but also desirable long distance runner.
I think almost every Mac user will continue to aspire to owning a thoroughbred. These Macs deliver everything we expect and cement Apple’s reputation as the world’s best racehorse breeder. No one else is consistently churning out such champions today.
At Microsoft Ignite 2024, which began Tuesday in Chicago, the company announced a series of low-code product enhancements, targeted at developers, that ranged from new capabilities in Power Apps and Power Pages to new AI and governance features in the codeless automation tool Microsoft Power Automate.
According to a release from Microsoft, the Power Apps upgrade is designed to help build intelligent apps and give users more ways to leverage AI for greater productivity in low-code apps.
The capabilities, which will be in preview next month, include a new way to build complex offerings on the Power Platform. Developers, supported by the Copilot in Power Apps, will be able to define a business problem and then step through and review proposed roles and requirements, working alongside Copilot to help ensure it reflects the true business problem, Microsoft said.
Copilot, it said, “will iteratively build a solution architecture from apps, pages, automations, and agents as possible assets. This iterative and outcome-focused development cycle will happen within a single view in Power Apps Studio, but can enhance the way solutions are built across the breadth of low-code apps.”
Other enhancements include:
Agent builder in Power Apps that Microsoft said will give developers “a fast and convenient way to bring their apps into the agentic era by being able to build agents for their app from within Power Apps Studio, using the lightweight Copilot Studio experience. The app-specific agents will leverage the logic, knowledge and actions already existing in the apps to execute tasks autonomously.” App users can oversee the actions that the agents took in the app and take action if necessary.
AI-generated record summary card with a custom prompt that will enable developers to “enrich the user experience in low-code apps with several generative AI features, including adding a custom prompt to their apps to help users easily gain insights from their records.”
The ability for users to fill out forms using files and emails as a source of data, making assistance in apps more useful out of the box. “Model-driven app users will be able to add a file or email to generate form field suggestions, saving valuable time on a tedious task,” the release stated. “The form filling experience has been improved based on user feedback, giving more control over suggestions.”
The ability for Snowflake data to be brought into Dataverse, Microsoft’s enterprise data platform for Copilot, through a new Snowflake Power Platform connector, which the release said will allow sales teams to analyze purchase patterns in Snowflake and track leads in real time within Dataverse.
Kyle Davis, VP analyst at Gartner who specializes in areas related to application modernization using low-code and genAI, said the “major changes that will help Power Platform customers are the new managed capabilities aligned to roles within an organization, the change to data policies, and the new capacity management capabilities.”
The new AI and governance features in Power Automate, the platform’s codeless automation tool, Microsoft said, will “span Copilot for Power Automate cloud automation and robotic process automation (RPA). These updates will enable users to build more intuitive, reliable, and fast authoring automations.”
Scheduled for preview in December, the offerings include generative actions that will accept natural language input and let cloud flows create AI-powered steps from it, and a Copilot expression assistant, currently in preview, that will help developers build expressions by describing what they want to create and referencing the dynamic data in the flow.
According to Davis, “nearly all the built-in governance capabilities have fallen under Managed Environments. The feature list has grown over time and was due for a revamp. The new approach includes new capabilities, but also breaks out the governance capabilities that existed under Managed Environments into three areas: managed governance, managed operations, and managed security.”
These areas, he said, “align with typical roles within an organization. For example, managed operations are where you’ll find backup and recovery, ALM, testing, and monitoring capabilities. Managed Security is where you’ll find IAM, network isolation, advanced data policies, and encryption.”
Davis added, “the major change to data policies is that they have been simplified. The blocked, non-business, and business categories have been removed. Now, an organization can choose which connectors to make available and which to block. Also, all connectors are now blockable.”
Also launched on Tuesday were:
New capabilities in Power Pages that Microsoft said are designed to enhance the user experience, streamline operations and provide secure, intelligent solutions to meet evolving business needs. These capabilities, in preview, include agent-enabled workflows that “will allow users to empower their digital presence through autonomous agents, secured by robust access controls.”
An update to the SaaS-based Power Platform admin center, currently in preview, that Microsoft said will “include pages to help users manage low-code assets and explore resources, view and help with agent adoption in Microsoft Copilot Studio, manage capacity and licenses and monitor reliability and optimize latency. The updated security page will allow IT admins to gain visibility, get recommendations and utilize the controls needed to improve their security posture.”
Davis said, “the new capacity management capabilities allow admins to allocate Copilot Studio messages, Dataverse capacity, and other capacity-based features to different environments. This has been a pain point in the past, especially when an organization has elected to use a chargeback model but has had no way to protect capacity accrued at the tenant level for those business units or departments that had paid for it. Now, if different business units or departments have their own environments, those environments can have the capacity they paid for allocated to them.”
Microsoft will start selling a thin client device that lets workers boot directly to Windows 365 “in seconds,” the company announced on Tuesday.
Windows 365 Link will cost $349 when it launches next April, but businesses can contact their Microsoft account team and request a private preview. The preview program is open to customers in a handful of countries: the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, New Zealand.
“As cloud adoption has been growing, we’re starting to receive asks from customers for a Windows 365 endpoint that is secure, simple to manage, and gets them directly to Windows 365,” said Jalleen Ringer, product leader for Windows Cloud Endpoints, “and it gets them there fast.”
Measuring 4.72 inches square and just over an inch thick, the device can easily be mounted behind a desktop monitor or under a desk, Microsoft said.
The Link will particularly suit organizations that have hybrid work arrangements in place, according to Microsoft, with employees sharing the same desks and monitors. With Link devices, workers can turn up to work without a laptop and access their own Windows 365 desktop via the cloud.
“This would also be a great fit for call centers … and front-line workers who need to be able to log into their desktop from different areas around the factory, hospital, warehouse, etc,” said Tom Mainelli, IDC group vice president for device and consumer research. “What’s potentially very appealing about this relatively low-cost hardware is that it should drive a very good Windows 365 experience while helping to accentuate many of the manageability and security benefits of Windows 365.”
The device may not be a good fit for organizations that need more flexibility, however. “Those managing a mix of virtual desktop technologies, including Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop, will need to consider alternative endpoints, as Link exclusively supports Windows 365,” said Stuart Downes, vice president analyst at Gartner.
The Link comes with 8GB of RAM — more than enough to handle the 4GB minimum requirement Teams video calls. Microsoft also plans to support other video meeting software apps such as Cisco’s Webex.
There’s also support for dual 4K monitors; four USB ports (three USB-A 3.2, one USB-C 3.2); one HDMI port; one DisplayPort; a 3.5mm headphone jack; an ethernet port; and a Kensington lock port. The device supports Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi 6E.
The Link uses an Intel chip, but Microsoft declined to provide further detail on the processor and other hardware specs.
Although the Link does not have a neural processing unit (NPU), by connecting to Windows 365, users can access the latest Windows 11 AI features coming to Copilot+ PCs — such as Recall and Click to Do — via the cloud.
The Link runs a lightweight version of Windows — Windows CPC — to authenticate and connect users to their PC running in the cloud, with minimal features such as settings. There are no local apps, no sensitive data stored on the device, and no local admin users. “With the small OS, we’re able to really dial up the security at the endpoint, reducing its attack surface and enabling a high security posture, all without impacting the experience,” said Ringer.
Microsoft has been testing the device with a small number of customers; Ringer claimed they’ve seen a lower total cost of ownership with the Link and Windows 365 (presumably compared to fleets of Windows-based laptops and PCs). That’s due, in part, to less time spent by IT on device setup, maintenance and user issue resolution.
Link customers still have to pay a monthly subscription fee for using Windows 365, but that could still make sense in terms of business costs.
“A Windows 365 subscription will typically cost more than buying a PC outright, but then you have to factor in the cost of managing that device and keeping it secure over its lifetime,” said Mainelli. “Many firms struggle to find enough IT professionals to manage their fleets. W365 can simplify this, and Microsoft’s new hardware may eliminate the roadblock of deciding what it should run on.”
Microsoft said the new device is the first iteration, with other form factors in development. The company also plans to work with original equipment manufacturer partners to develop similar products.
“The launch of Microsoft’s Surface devices previously spurred a wave of innovation among other device manufacturers,” said Downes. “Similarly, Windows 365 Link is expected to ignite advancements in the thin client market, which has seen limited hardware innovation in recent years.”
Gartner predicts that annual spending on Desktop as a Service (DaaS) will grow from $3.5 billion today to more than $5 billion in 2028, he said.
Unemployment in IT fields has been dropping in recent months. Generative AI (genAI) is opening up new career opportunities. Inflation is deflating, and the US economy appears strong.
So, why is it so many people are still finding it hard to land a job in technology?
This year, large enterprises, including tech giants such as Alphabet (Google), Dell, Intel, Microsoft and Cisco, have announced significant layoffs. So far in 2024, 168 tech companies have laid off more than 42,000 employees. That’s still a vastly smaller number than the 262,682 staffers laid off by tech firms in 2023.
One reason for the trend: small to midsize companies that had been starving for workers were scooping up talent left in the wake of enterprise layoffs. According to management consultancy Janco Associates, the IT unemployment rate dropped from 6% in August to 3.8% in September, while some other industry sources estimated it as low as 2.4%.
Last month, according Janco, the number of unemployed IT professionals in the US dropped from 148,000 to 98,000. (Janco derived its findings from a US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report released at the beginning of November.)
More recently, however, hiring has slowed, in part because of a lack of qualified candidates and because the number of job openings shrank as IT positions were quickly filled earlier this year, according to Janco Associates CEO Victor Janulaitis.
“In the last three months the IT Job market shrank by 21,900 jobs,” Janulaitis said. “Overall, that is a flattening of the long-term growth rate pattern of the IT job market. Based on our data and forecast models, there will be no growth in the IT job market in [the remainder of] calendar year 2024.”
Janco Associates
A crisis of confidence for job-seekers?
ZipRecruiter just released its latestJob Seeker Confidence Index; it found that confidence has dropped to its lowest level since the index began in Q1 2022. Forty-one percent of job seekers reported it is now much harder to find a job, and almost half of job seekers (43%) said their job search is going poorly, according to the report. Only 13% of job seekers described their hunt as going well — the widest gap in nearly three years. More than half of job seekers (53%) said there are fewer opportunities compared to six months ago, and 34% said they had to look outside their usual field.
That “flattening” in job growth has led to a dour mood among IT workers. A new survey of more than 1,100 individuals in high-demand tech roles by online hiring platform Indeed found more than a third of tech talent is concerned about layoffs in the next year. Four in 10 believe if layoffs occur, they’ll be impacted, 70% said that they are likely to start looking for roles at other companies if their current company does layoffs, and 79% feel pressure to upskill because of the rise of genAI.
The dynamic of smaller companies hiring more employees also added to the shift in needed skills.
“The economy is slowing,” Janulaitis said. “However, there are a number of jobs unfilled by IT pros. The primary culprit is the lack of qualified individuals to fill the open positions.”
Savi Thethi, who leads tech transformation consulting for the Americas at Ernst & Young, agreed that despite low unemployment, many IT job seekers struggle due to a shortage of skills in crucial areas such as data analytics, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing. The rapid evolution of those technologies has outpaced the availability of qualified professionals, creating a gap between demand and supply, he said.
“In addition, companies are increasingly investing in reskilling and upskilling their current workforce, not only within their IT departments but across the entire organization, to increase digital fluency and better prepare their workforce for the future,” Thethi said.
One of the biggest changes in the IT job market is that companies are less interested in college degrees and more likely to be seeking specific hard and soft skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, communication, and change management. They also want employees who can simply get along with others.
Companies also want candidates who have a mix of business and tech skills, according to Thethi. “Generally speaking, what can IT workers in the hunt for a new job do to increase their odds of landing one? Obtaining certifications in key areas such as AI, data science, and cloud computing is quick in many cases. Additionally, leveraging social platforms to build and expand professional networks can lead to new opportunities and valuable connections.”
It’s also crucial for job seekers to highlight their business acumen, showcasing how their skills and contributions have driven value creation and business outcomes in previous roles, he said. “By combining technical expertise with strong business skills and a proactive networking approach, IT professionals can significantly enhance their job prospects,” Thethi said.
Uneven demand for IT pros, depending on skills
Allison Shrivastava, an economic research associate at the Indeed Hiring Lab, said that while the unemployment is low, some sectors are doing much better than others. For example, many in-person and service sectors have job postings well above their pre-pandemic baselines, while other sectors, including software development and IT, are below.
There are several reasons tech-related sectors aren’t doing as well as others. In particular, the sectors expanded during the post-pandemic boom, with job postings in software development reaching well above pre-pandemic levels, Shrivastava said. The declines in hiring for those jobs could be related to a market correction after several years of rapid growth.
“These sectors are also pretty costly to hire in, both in terms of time and money, so employers could be more cautious in expanding their employee base, favoring a wait-and-see approach while the labor market settles,” Shrivastava said.
Linsey Fagan, a senior talent strategy advisor at Indeed, called the tech job market “unique right now.” With tech job volume down and more talent looking, job seekers can take steps to improve their success.
“First, tech is advancing rapidly, underscoring the importance of upskilling to remain competitive,” Fagan said, adding that the future of work will increasingly be shaped by AI, forcing tech pros to continually adapt to stay relevant.
Employers are currently struggling with the question of how to future-proof their job descriptions, since they are not 100% sure on what skills will be essential, according to Amy Loomis, a vice president analyst with research firm IDC.
“Job seekers need to show experience with current IT required skills as well as those that will be valuable for the future to drive AI-enabled business. Increasingly, enterprises require that job candidates verify their skills in real-world scenarios, like labs,” Loomis said. “Employers take significant stock in badging as a marker of proficiency, but some certifications can only be achieved by being employed somewhere that offers the training to get the badge, so it’s a Catch 22.”
A key difference between last year and this year is the speed with which skills are becoming outdated and the need for employees to undertake continuous learning to stay current, Loomis added.
James Stanger, chief technology evangelist with IT industry group CompTIA, said hiring managers are looking for more specialized knowledge in potential hires in areas such as automation, cloud computing, data security, and incident response. Hands-on knowledge is essential for demonstrating true skill capabilities.
Remote work is less of an option worldwide than it was last year, according to Stanger, which has led to an increase in security and privacy regulations, such as NIS2 in the European Union, SEC regulations in the United States, and the Cybersecurity Act in Malaysia.
“Hundreds of regulations have appeared, mandating the use of things such as Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) and imposing secure by design requirements,” Stanger said. “They are having an effect on hiring, because they drive hiring managers to look for people with an understanding of these regulations and best practices.”
AI skills are beginning to “creep slowly into serious job role descriptions,” he said.
“Automation is also increasingly important. That’s significant change. Data analytics knowledge and the ability to manage data has also increased in demand,” Stanger added.
According to Indeed’s AI at Work report, AI is expected to impact jobs that require highly technical skills. For IT professionals, staying on top of the evolving needs of the market, especially in areas like AI, machine learning (AI/ML), and cloud computing, will be critical. “At Indeed, we like to say AI won’t replace jobs, but people who can use AI well will,” Fagan said.
Stanger added that job seekers need to learn how to evaluate data as it comes in from AI programs. In other words, AI doesn’t yet create “information,” just just creates the data; it takes a human to interpret that data so that it can be applied to a business use case. If you can demonstrate you know how to do that, Stanger said, “that’ll get you some great interview opportunities.”
“Leaders of organizations in literally every sector have realized that wise use of technology is critical for any organization to stay on mission, or serve its constituencies, or remain profitable,” Stanger said. “As a result, hiring managers are reacting to significant pressure from the challenge to make sure their workers can map technology to business needs.”
In addition to AI skills, technologies like the programming languages Rust and Go, knowledge of Google Cloud Platform, AWS, and cloud management platforms such as Terraform, are all experiencing a surge in demand — with relatively few job seekers to fill those open roles. One place to acquire those skills: IT certifications.
The top IT certifications listed in tech Job postings for Q3 2023 vs. Q3 2024, measured in the percentage of each based on total tech job listings. Despite some certifications growing in demand and others shrinking, there hasn’t been a significant change in demand for certifications overall.
Indeed
According to Indeed, the top 10 certifications ranked by highest salary in job listings are:
CISSP
PMP
IAT Level II
DoD 8570
IAT
Certified Information Systems Auditor
CompTIA Security+
CCNA
CompTIA Network+
CompTIA A+
Certifications directly related to the role someone is being hired for are essential and should be called out in the job description, according to Tamara Larsen, Indeed’s director of IT Infrastructure & Platforms. These typically include certifications from recognized third-party providers such as AWS Cloud, Azure Cloud, Azure Active Directory, PMI Project Management, or CSM Scrum Master, among others.
In addition, certifications that help develop complementary skills, such as Leadership Development, Professional Writing, Toastmasters, or other technical certifications not explicitly required, can be helpful, too. “However, too many certifications that are not relevant can be considered a negative,” said Larsen.
“Learning those skills, and others related to AI, can give candidates a significant advantage in securing roles in what can only be described as a ‘dynamic landscape,’” said Indeed’s Fagan.
The good news for those currently working in IT: training is nearly always free.
“Our research found that 89% of tech professionals use company-provided training opportunities to keep their skills fresh. And with gen AI gaining momentum, 79% of tech professionals feel pressure to upskill,” Fagan said. “Most employers offer tuition reimbursement or upskilling opportunities, so it would be a missed opportunity not to take advantage.
“Additionally, adapting and integrating AI into workflows is becoming essential,” he added.
Flexibility is a priority for many job seekers, with tech professionals favoring remote roles over in-office ones. However, staying open to hybrid or on-site work can help job seekers find jobs faster.
“Our research found that professionals who work on-site about four days per week tend to want to stay with their employers, likely due to the collaboration and sense of community fostered by in-person interactions,” Fagan said. “By staying open to upskilling, particularly in high-demand areas and in AI integration, and considering flexibility in work location, tech job seekers can better navigate today’s tech job market.”
If hiring managers are looking for more evidence of your experience, then find clever ways to get experienced people to vouch for you. And, find ways to lead hiring managers into feeling confident in you.
“That’s more than just tech skill; you need to be a business tech problem solver. The way to prove that is to have a trusted third party do that for you,” CompTIA’s Stanger said. “That’s more than just tech skill; you need to be a business tech problem solver. The way to prove that is to have a trusted third party do that for you.”
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) is intensifying its antitrust actions against Google, proposing a historic move that could reshape the tech landscape. The DOJ has asked federal judge Amit Mehta to force Alphabet to sell its Chrome browser, which is a cornerstone of Google’s dominance in the search market, Bloomberg reported.
This proposal follows a ruling from August 2024 that found Google guilty of illegally monopolizing the search market.
The DOJ’s latest recommendation also includes measures related to artificial intelligence (AI) and the Android operating system, with the potential to impact both Google’s core advertising business and its burgeoning AI ventures. The case, which spans two presidential administrations, aims to address Google’s practices that critics argue suppress competition.
In addition to the sale of Chrome, the DOJ is pushing for data licensing requirements and for Google to uncouple its Android smartphone operating system from its other products, such as Google Search and Google Play, the report said quoting sources who wished not to be named.
These moves are designed to increase competition by giving rival companies more access to essential data and technologies currently controlled by Google, the report added.
“The DOJ’s attempt to force Google to sell Chrome is unprecedented and faces significant legal and practical challenges,” said Xiaofeng Wang, principal analyst at Forrester. “Google’s potential appeals could delay or overturn the decision. In addition, finding a suitable buyer without similar antitrust issues is also difficult.”
In October this year, the DOJ had proposed splitting off Google’s Chrome browser and Android operating system as part of sweeping remedies aimed at curbing the tech giant’s “illegal monopoly” in online search and advertising.
“The DOJ is considering behavioral and structural remedies that would prevent Google from using products such as Chrome, Play, and Android to advantage Google search and Google search-related products and features — including emerging search access points and features, such as artificial intelligence — over rivals or new entrants,” the DOJ said in a court filing then.
Google seems to be deeply disturbed by this development.
“The DOJ continues to push a radical agenda that goes far beyond the legal issues in this case,” Lee-Anne Mulholland, vice president of Google’s regulatory affairs, said in a statement. “The government putting its thumb on the scale in these ways would harm consumers, developers, and American technological leadership at precisely the moment it is most needed.”
A query to the DOJ remains unanswered.
Chrome’s dominance and the push for a sale
The proposed sale of Chrome stems from its critical role in Google’s search business. Chrome, which controls roughly 65% of the global browser market, serves as the primary gateway for users accessing Google’s search engine. By owning Chrome, Google can track signed-in users and better target ads, which form the bulk of its revenue. Additionally, Chrome has been used to funnel users toward Google’s AI-driven products, such as its Gemini AI system.
In an effort to protect consumers and developers, the DOJ’s proposed measures aim to reduce Google’s power to favor its own products. If the sale of Chrome proceeds, it could unlock new opportunities for competitors, potentially creating a more balanced online search market and encouraging innovation in AI.
The DOJ is also seeking to reshape how Google uses data, particularly in relation to its AI products. Google’s AI-driven search results, branded as “AI Overviews,” have drawn criticism from website publishers who argue that these summaries hurt their web traffic and ad revenue by providing answers directly on the search results page. To address this, the DOJ is proposing that Google be required to license its search data and allow websites more control over how their content is used in Google’s AI models.
Another key aspect of the DOJ’s recommendations includes pushing Google to make its search results more widely available to competitors. This could allow rival search engines and AI startups to improve their services using Google’s syndicated search data, which is currently restricted.
Implications for Google’s future
These developments are poised to alter Google’s business operations significantly. While the company has expressed its opposition to these proposals, with Google’s VP calling the DOJ’s actions “radical,” the potential reforms could lead to a more competitive digital ecosystem.
“If the DOJ succeeds in forcing Google to sell Chrome, it would likely impact Google’s ad targeting and measurement capabilities due to reduced data availability,” Wang noted. “This could decrease ad effectiveness and revenue, pushing Google to develop new data collection methods or innovate its ad strategies.”
Despite the far-reaching nature of these measures, the DOJ has stopped short of requiring Google to sell Android, a move that had been considered but ultimately deemed less essential than the changes proposed for Chrome and AI data.
The case, which will see further developments in 2025, is expected to have lasting effects on the tech industry. If the DOJ’s proposals are implemented, they could set a precedent for regulating the power of large tech companies in both the online search and AI markets.
“This action could set a precedent, leading to increased scrutiny of other tech giants like Amazon and Apple,” Wang added.
According to him, successful measures against Google might “encourage regulators to target other dominant players, reshaping the tech landscape.”
OpenAI launched its new AI-powered online search engine — SearchGPT — with the aim of supplanting “for specific search tasks” Google, Microsoft Bing and start-up Perplexity.
But the move is also raising concerns that it could open the door to plagiarism; AI-powered search engines have been accused of intentionally or unintentionally plagiarizing web-based content because the platforms scrape material and data from all over the web in real-time.
They can also generate content that closely mimics pre-existing content, according to Alon Yamin, CEO of AI-enabled plagiarism detection platform Copyleaks. That’s because the large language model engines behind generative AI (genAI) are trained using existing content.
“The trouble with ‘unintentional plagiarism’ is that it creates a gray area that’s challenging for both content creators and search engines to navigate,” Yamin said.
SearchGPT is a front-facing interface built atop OpenAI’s genAI-based ChatGPT chatbot; it will enable real-time web access for up-to-date sports scores, stock information and news. The search engine will also allow follow-up questions in the same search window, and its answers will consider the full context of the previous chat to offer an applicable answer.
The AI-based web crawler is also being touted for its ability to allow questions in “a more natural,” conversational way, according to OpenAI.
OpenAI announced on Oct. 31 that it had launched the SearchGPT prototype after beta testing it since July. Currently, access to SearchGPT is limited, as a list of hopeful free users waits for access.
An example of a search result from SearchGPT.
OpenAI
The pilot version of the search engine will be available at chatgpt.com/search as well as being offered as a desktop and mobile app. All ChatGPT Plus and Team users, as well as SearchGPT waitlist users, will have access from here on. Enterprise and education users will get access in the next few weeks, OpenAI said, with a “rollout to all free users over the coming months.”
One standout feature is the search engine’s ability to allow follow-up questions that build on the context of the original query.
For example, a user could ask what the best tomato plants are for your region; that could be followed up by asking about the best time to plant them.
SearchGPT is also designed to offer links to publishers of information by citing and linking to them in searches. “Responses have clear, in-line, named attribution and links so users know where information is coming from and can quickly engage with even more results in a sidebar with source links,” OpenAI said in its announcement.
Search rivals beat OpenAI to the punch
Last year, Google added its own AI-based capabilities to its search tool; so did Microsoft, which integrated OpenAI’s GPT-4 into Bing. “Big hitters like Google are already developing AI detection tools to help identify AI-generated content. But the challenge lies in distinguishing between high-quality AI-assisted content and low-quality, plagiarized material,” Yamin said. “It’s undoubtedly an ongoing process that will require constant refinement of algorithms and policies.”
For its part, Perplexity said in an updated FAQ that its web crawler, PerplexityBot, will not index the full or partial text content of any site that disallows it using robots.txt code. Robots.txt files are common simple text files stored on a web server to instruct web crawlers about which pages or sections of a website they are allowed to crawl and index.
“PerplexityBot only crawls content in compliance with robots.txt,” the FAQ explained. Perplexity also said it does not build “foundation models,” (also known as large language models), “so your content will not be used for AI model pre-training.”
The bottom line, Yamin said, is that search engines are in a “tricky position” as genAI evolves. “They want to provide the best results to users, which increasingly involves AI-generated or AI-enhanced content. At the same time, they need to protect original creators and maintain the integrity of search results. We’re seeing efforts to strike this balance, but it’s a complex issue that will take time to fully address.”
ChatGPT (i.e., SearchGPT) is probably best positioned among all competitors to upset Google’s dominance in online search, according to Damian Rollison, director of market insights at marketing software company SOCi. Of all the areas where ChatGPT competes with Google, search is where the latter’s 26-year advantage is the strongest.
“The early results of Bing search integrated into ChatGPT have been shaky, and the incredibly complex requirements of maintaining a world-class search platform tap into areas of expertise where OpenAI has yet to demonstrate its capabilities,” Rollison said.
Andy Thurai, a vice president analyst at Constellation Research, noted that Google still owns about 90% of the search engine market, meaning it won’t to be easy for anyone to encroach on that dominance.
An example of a follow-on question in SearchGPT that began with asking: \”What are the best tomatos for my region?\”
OpenAI
But Thurai said SearchGPT’s ease of use and conversational interface, which provides synthesized and more prose-like answers instead of traditional search results like Google, could attract more users in the future.
While Google can provide a personalized search result based on location, and previous searches, it still has limitations in terms of offering concise and conversational-style answers that remain on point, according to Thurai. “The concise nature of the answers, whether accurate or not, might be appealing to some users versus combing through many page search engines like those Google returns.”
Ironically, when ChatGPT was asked the question: Is SearchGPT as good as Google search? ChatGPT’s reply was nuanced.
“Google is great for quickly finding specific, current resources and ChatGPT is better for having interactive conversations, asking detailed questions, or seeking explanations on a wide range of topics,” SearchGPT responded. “The two can actually complement each other depending on what you need!”
When asked whether it’s as good or better than Bing, ChatGPT replied: “In short, if you’re looking for real-time information or need to browse the web, Bing is likely better. If you need detailed, conversational, or creative assistance, ChatGPT tends to be more helpful. Each tool excels in different areas!”
The murky issue of plagiarism
Thurai said he’s unsure whether AI-based search engines or “answer engines” will invite plagiarism on their own.
“They are not all that different from Google search, in which you get many answers instead of the most relevant answer that AI thinks is relevant to your question,” he said. “However, AI for content creation is a big concern for plagiarism. What is more concerning is that the current plagiarism tools don’t catch AI-produced content correctly. They are mostly useless.”
There are, however, tools that can create digital watermark/credentials such as C2PA, which can provide some content provenance and/or authenticity mechanisms, Thurai noted.
“As AI tools become more sophisticated and part of our day-to-day lives, distinguishing between AI-generated and human-created content, properly attributing original sources or authors, and empowering overall originality becomes even more critical,” Copyleak’s Yamin said. “This is precisely where the focus needs to remain — providing robust content integrity solutions that are evolving alongside the demands of the AI landscape.”
Microsoft’s November Patch Tuesday release addresses 89 vulnerabilities in Windows, SQL Server, .NET and Microsoft Office — and three zero-day vulnerabilities (CVE-2024-43451, CVE-2024-49019 and CVE-2024-49039) that mean a patch now recommendation for Windows platforms. Unusually, there are a significant number of patch “re-releases” that might also require administrator attention.
There were a few reported issues for the September update that have been addressed now, including:
Enterprise customers are reporting issues with theSSH service failing to start on updated Windows 11 24H2 machines. Microsoft recommended updating the file/directory level permissions on the SSH program directories (remember to include the log files). You can read more about this official workaroundhere.
It looks like we are entering a new age ofARM compatibility challenges for Microsoft. However, before we get ahead of ourselves, we really need to sort out the (three-month old) Roblox issue.
Major revisions
This Patch Tuesday includes the following major revisions:
CVE-2013-390: WinVerifyTrust Signature Validation Vulnerability. This update was originally published in 2013 via TechNet. This update is now made available and is applicable to Windows 10 and 11 users due to a recent change in the EnableCertPaddingCheck Windows API call. We highly recommend a review of this CVE and its associated Q&A documentation. Remember: if you must set your values in the registry, ensure that they are type DWORD not Reg SZ.
CVE-2024-49040: Microsoft Exchange Server Spoofing Vulnerability. When Microsoft updates a CVE (twice) in the same week, and the vulnerability has been publicly disclosed, it’s time to pay attention. Before you apply this Exchange Server update, we highly recommend a review of the reportedheader detection issues and mitigating factors.
And unusually, we have three kernel mode updates (CVE-2024-43511, CVE-2024-43516 and CVE-2024-43528 that were re-released in October and updated this month. These security vulnerabilities exploit a race condition in Microsoft’s Virtualization Based Security (VBS). It’s worth a review of the mitigating strategies while you thoroughly test these low-level kernel patches.
Testing guidance
Each month, the Readiness team analyzes the latest Patch Tuesday updates and provides detailed, actionable testing guidance based on a large application portfolio and a detailed analysis of the patches and their potential impact on Windows platforms and application installations.
For this release cycle, we have grouped the critical updates and required testing efforts into separate product and functional areas including:
Networking:
Test end-to-end VPN, Wi-Fi, sharing and Bluetooth scenarios.
Ensure internet shortcut files (ICS) display correctly
Security/crypto:
After installing the November update on your Certificate Authority (CA) servers, ensure that enrollment and renewal of certificates perform as expected.
Test Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC) and ensure that line-of-business apps are not blocked. Ensure that WDAC functions as expected on your Virtual Machines (VM).
Filesystem and logging:
TheNTFileCopyChunk API was updated and will require internal application testing if directly employed. Test the validity of your parameters and issues relating to directory notification.
I cannot claim to have anynostalgia for dial-up internet access (though I do have a certain Pavlovian response to the dial-up handshake sound). For those who are still using this approach to access the internet, the November update to the TAPI API has you in mind. A “quick” (haha) test is required to ensure you can still connect to the internet via dial-up once you update your system.
Windows lifecycle and enforcement updates
There were no product or security enforcements this cycle. However, we do have the following Microsoft products reaching their respective end of servicing terms:
Oct. 8, 2024: Windows 11 Enterprise and Education, Version 21H2, Windows 11 Home and Pro, Version 22H2, Windows 11 IoT Enterprise, Version 21H2.
Oct. 9, 2024: Microsoft Project 2024 (LTSC)
Mitigations and workarounds
Microsoft published the following mitigations applicable to this Patch Tuesday.
CVE-2024-49019: Active Directory Certificate Services Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability. As this vulnerability has been publicly disclosed, we need to take it seriously. Microsoft has offered some mitigation strategies during the update/testing/deployment for most enterprises that include:
Remove overly broad enroll or auto-enroll permissions.
Remove unused templates from certification authorities.
Secure templates that allow you to specify the subject in the request.
As most enterprises employ Microsoft Active Directory, we highly recommend a review of thisknowledge note from Microsoft.
Each month, we break down the update cycle into product families (as defined by Microsoft) with the following basic groupings:
Browsers (Microsoft IE and Edge);
Microsoft Windows (both desktop and server);
Microsoft Office;
Microsoft Exchange Server;
Microsoft Development platforms (ASP.NET Core, .NET Core and Chakra Core);
Adobe (if you get this far).
Browsers
Microsoft released a single update specific to Microsoft Edge (CVE-2024-49025), and two updates for the Chromium engine that underpins the browser (CVE-2024-10826 and CVE-2024-10827). There’s a brief note on the browser update here. We recommend adding these low-profile browser updates to your standard release schedule.
Windows
Microsoft released two (CVE-2024-43625 and CVE-2024-43639) patches with a critical rating and another 35 patches rated as important by Microsoft. This month the following key Windows features have been updated:
Windows Update Stack (note: installer rollbacks may be an issue);
NT OS, Secure Kernel and GDI;
Microsoft Hyper-V;
Networking, SMB and DNS;
Windows Kerberos.
Unfortunately, these Windows updates have been publicly disclosed or reported as exploited in the wild, making them zero-day problems:
CVE-2024-49019: Active Directory Certificate Services Elevation of Privilege.
CVE-2024-49039: Windows Task Scheduler Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability.
Add these Windows updates to your Patch Now release cadence.
Microsoft Office
Microsoft pushed out six Microsoft Office updates (all rated important) that affect SharePoint, Word and Excel. None of these reported vulnerabilities involve remote access or preview pane issues and have not been publicly disclosed or exploited in the wild. Add these updates to your standard release schedule.
Microsoft SQL (nee Exchange) Server
You want updates to Microsoft SQL Server? We got ‘em: 31 patches to the SQL Server Native client this month. That’s a lot of patches, even for a complex product like Microsoft SQL Server. These updates appear to be the result of a major clean-up effort from Microsoft addressing the following reported security vulnerabilities:
The vast majority of theseSQL Server Native Client updates address the CWE-122 related buffer overflow issues. Note: these patches update the SQL Native client, so this is a desktop, not a server, update. Crafting a testing profile for this one is a tough call. No new features have been added, and no high-risk areas have been patched. However, many internal line-of-business applications rely on these SQL client features. We recommend that your core business applications be tested before this SQL update, otherwise add it to your standard release schedule.
Boot note: Remember that there is a major revision toCVE-2024-49040 — this could affect the SQL Server “server” side of things.
Microsoft development platforms
Microsoft released one critical-rated update (CVE-2024-43498) and three updates rated as important for Microsoft .NET 9 and Visual Studio 2022. These are pretty low-risk security vulnerabilities and very specific to these versions of the development platforms. They should present a reduced testing profile. Add these updates to your standard developer schedule this month.
Adobe Reader (and other third-party updates)
Microsoft did not publish any Adobe Reader-related updates this month. The company released three non-Microsoft CVEs covering Google Chrome and SSH (CVE-2024-5535). Given the update to Windows Defender (as a result of the SSH issue), Microsoft also published a list of Defender vulnerabilities and weaknesses that might assist with your deployments.
