ChatGPT was created by the technology company OpenAI. Microsoft is now testing the AI language as an enhancement to its Office suite of products, including Word, Outlook and PowerPoint.

OpenAI has had a lot of press lately given that their AI products ChatGPT and Dall-E 2

For their ability to produce text and images, OpenAI's intuitive technology products, such as ChatGPT and Dall-E 2, have become online sensations. Many people have made assumptions about the ethical and practical use of ChatGPT. Microsoft is attempting to make better use of the company's AI models, though. According to The Information, the business has already updated its autocomplete feature with a version of the OpenAI GPT text-generator model.

Microsoft has been testing GPT AI model functionality in Outlook and PowerPoint. These include tools that enable users to locate Outlook search results in email inboxes using speech-like AI-driven commands rather than keywords. Additionally, AI models for Outlook and Word will propose email responses or offer edits to documents to improve writing abilities. There is no information yet on whether this use will eventually be incorporated into consumer-facing versions of Microsoft Office or if the company is merely exploring the GPT model's potential.
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Microsoft invested $1 billion in OpenAI in 2019, and according to the report, "acquired an exclusive license to the underlying technology behind GPT-3 in 2020," before this practical application of the GPT technology.
Microsoft may aim to integrate the GPT AI model into its Bing search engine besides its Office suite to compete with Google. According to The Verge, this could be the item that is most likely to be released, with a potential release date of March.

Making data-driven decisions is becoming more and more understood by companies in every industry as a requirement for competing today, in the next five years, in the next twenty, and beyond. According to current market research, the worldwide artificial intelligence (AI) market will "increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 39.4% to reach $422.37 billion by 2028," driven by the exponential expansion of unstructured data in particular. The era of data overload and AI has arrived, and there is no turning back.
This reality implies that AI can truly sift and handle the deluge of data–not just for big giants like Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta with their massive R&D departments and tailored AI tools, but for the typical corporation and even some small and medium-sized businesses.

Well-designed AI-based systems quickly filter through enormously vast datasets to produce fresh insights, which fuel fresh sources of income, adding significant value to enterprises. But without the new kid on the block, vector databases, none of the data expansion really becomes operationalized and democratized. Vector DBs represent a paradigm shift in database management and a new category for using the exponential amounts of unstructured data that are currently untapped in object stores. In particular, vector databases provide a mind-numbing new degree of search capacity for unstructured data, but they can also handle semi-structured and even structured data.

Vectors and Search. Unstructured data, which can't be simply sorted into row and column relationships, rarely matches the relational database paradigm. Examples include photos, video, audio, and user actions. Unstructured data management methods that are incredibly time-consuming and unreliable frequently include manually labelling the data (think labels and keywords on video platforms).

The real problem is that human methods make it very hard to perform a semantic search that comprehends the context and meaning of a picture or other unstructured piece of data, in addition to a search query.
Enter embedding vectors, often known as feature vectors, vector embeddings, or just embeddings. They are numerical values, or sort of coordinates, that represent unstructured data features or objects, such as a part of a picture, a section of a person's purchasing history, a few frames from a video, geospatial information, or anything else that doesn't neatly fit into a relational database table. These embeddings enable scalable, snappy “similarity search.”

Quality Data and Insights. An AI model, or more precisely, a machine learning (ML) or deep learning model, trained on very large amounts of high-quality input data, produces embeddings as a computational byproduct. A model is the computational result of an ML algorithm (method or procedure) conducted on data, to further draw crucial distinctions. Sophisticated, widely used algorithms include STEGO for computer vision, CNN for image processing and Google’s BERT for natural language processing. The resulting models turn each single piece of unstructured data into a list of floating-point values—our search-enabling embedding.

Therefore, a neural network model that has been properly trained will produce embeddings that are consistent with particular content and may apply to a semantic similarity search. A vector database, specifically designed to manage embeddings and their unique structure, is the instrument to store, index, and search through these embeddings.

The fact that developers from everywhere may now incorporate a vector database into AI systems, with its production-ready features and lightning-fast unstructured data search, is crucial in the industry.
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Organizationally, a crucial component of standardizing the usage of vector databases is assisting business teams and their leadership in understanding why and how they can benefit. The concept of vector search has been around for quite a while, but only on a very small scale. Many businesses aren't really accustomed to having access to the kind of data mining and search capabilities that contemporary vector databases provide. Teams sometimes struggle with knowing where to begin. Therefore, their creators continue to place a high focus on spreading the word about how they operate and why they are valuable.

A new, highly dangerous malware called “Erbium” has been making the rounds over the last couple of months, and it’s highly likely that it will spread exponentially to new channels.

Erbium is an information-stealing tool that targets passwords, credit card information, cookies, cryptocurrency wallets, and more.

Today, this malware is being shared under the disguise of pirated games and cheats for popular titles. However, because of its nature, it can spread like wildfire, because Erbium is a Malware-as-a-Service (MaaS)—essentially subscription malware.

Initially, Erbium was priced at just $9 per week, but now it’s $100 per month or $1,000 for a year-long license. This pricing is still cheap (it costs about a third of RedLine stealer, according to Bleeping Computer), and it’s getting a lot of praise on lots of hacker forums.

The license they buy entitles threat actors to customer support, updates, and the tool itself, with its rich set of capabilities.

Cyfirma, a threat identification and cyber-intelligence business, made the initial discovery of Erbium after finding the virus discretely tucked away among game cracks.

Erbium may also steal cold cryptocurrency wallets for a variety of cryptocurrencies, including Exodus, Atomic, Bytecoin, Ethereum, and more. Additionally, it can steal 2FA codes from a variety of password and 2FA managers, including Trezor, EOS Authenticator, Authy 2FA, and Authenticator 2FA.

Erbium steals Telegram authentication files, Steam and Discord tokens, and screenshots from each connected monitor. Threat actors are supplied a detailed breakdown of everything that was taken from the victim in real time.

Given how versatile it is, it is likely that someone will ultimately include it into something other than gaming cracks, and at that point, it will probably spread more widely.
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Right now, all you need to do to ensure that you're not at risk is to not download any unlawful downloads (such as cracked games or bots for games). It's also a good idea to be cautious and to use the best antivirus software, keep it updated, and scan every file you download. If you possess cryptocurrency, think about switching from a desktop wallet to a fully offline cold wallet.

The BlackByte ransomware gang appears to have made a comeback after targeting at least three U.S. critical infrastructure sectors, according to an advisory from the FBI and the Secret Service.

BlackByte is a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation that leases out its ransomware infrastructure to others in return for a percentage of the ransom proceeds. The gang emerged in July 2021 when it began exploiting software vulnerabilities to target corporate victims worldwide. While BlackByte had some initial success—security researchers tracked attacks against manufacturing, healthcare, and construction industries in the U.S., Europe, and Australia—the gang hit a rough patch months later when cybersecurity firm Trustwave released a free decryption tool that allowed BlackByte victims to recover their files for free. The group’s simplistic encryption techniques led some to believe that the ransomware was the work of amateurs; the ransomware downloaded and executed the same key to encrypt files in AES, rather than unique keys for each session.

Despite this setback, it appears the BlackByte operation is back with a vengeance. In an alert posted in mid-February, the FBI and the Secret Service (USSS) warned that the ransomware gang had compromised multiple U.S. and foreign businesses, including “at least” three attacks against U.S. critical infrastructure, notably government facilities, financial services, the food industry, and agriculture.

The advisory, which provides indicators of compromise to help network defenders identify BlackByte intrusions, was released just days before the ransomware gang claimed to have encrypted the network belonging to the San Francisco 49ers. BlackByte disclosed the attack the day before the Super Bowl by leaking a few files it claims to have been stolen.

Brett Callow, a ransomware expert and threat analyst at Emsisoft, says that while BlackByte isn’t the most active RaaS operation, it’s been steadily racking up victims over the past few months. However, he adds that because of recent action by the U.S. government against ransomware actors, the gang might take a cautious approach.

“The FBI and Secret Service advisory states that BlackByte has been deployed in attacks on at least three U.S. critical infrastructure sectors, including government. Interestingly, no such organizations are listed on the gang’s leak site, which could indicate that those organizations paid, that no data was exfiltrated or that BlackByte chose not to release the exfiltrated data,” he said. “That final option is not unlikely: since the arrests of members of REvil, the gangs seem to have become more cautious about releasing data, and especially with U.S. organizations.”

Callow said that while all signs suggest BlackByte is based in Russia, since the ransomware, like REvil, is coded not to encrypt the data of systems that use Russian or Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) languages. That “shouldn’t be taken to mean the attack was carried out by individuals based in Russia or the CIS.”
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“Affiliates may not be located in the same county as the individuals who run the RaaS,” he added. “They could be based anywhere—including the U.S.”

Here are a few FinTech firms that are emblematic of how technology innovation is shaping the future of money across a variety of financial services.

Versapay—Accounts receivable
In its quest to rid companies of paper checks, Toronto-based Versapay has developed one of the first collaborative accounts receivable platforms, combining advanced invoicing, automation, and payments technology to deliver improvements and efficiencies for its 250,000 business clients. It has mushroomed during the pandemic, which fueled a demand for digital payments, including the digitizing of accounts receivable services. In a recent interview, Versapay CEO Craig O'Neill said a large majority of finance leaders will adopt digitized payments in the next few years. "Surveys show that 93% of finance leaders are saying they're going to digitize how they do business on both the accounts payable and accounts receivable side. There's going to be a sea change over the next couple of years, which will really change the face of business: paper goes away completely, including check stock, and will set people free to work wherever they want," he said.  

BestEgg—Personal lending and financial management resources
This Wilmington, Del.-based FinTech, is on a mission to help people feel more confident about their everyday finances by making money accessible through fast, simple, and easy personal loans. BestEgg has created a proprietary AI platform to deliver digital products including loans for debt consolidation, credit card refinancing, home improvement, moving, vacation and baby adoption. BestEgg recently introduced an online financial health platform to bolster confidence for consumers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has had a debilitating effect on many peoples' finances. "The future of digital finance is human," says Sabrina DeVito, chief strategy officer for Marlette Holdings, which operates BestEgg. "Digital can come across as cold, but the winners are going to be those who not only use digital to create extraordinary experiences but also are human in how they come across," she said.

Kabbage—Small business financing
Small businesses took a beating during the coronavirus pandemic—large numbers shut down permanently, crippling local communities both economically and socially. Fortunately, more small businesses are forming in the shadow of the pandemic, and one FinTech is helping to make that possible. Kabbage, backed by American Express, is a one-stop FinTech resource for small businesses, providing access to cash flow solutions such as business checking, flexible funding, and payment processing services. It recently launched Kabbage Funding, which provides flexible lines of credit between $1,000 and $150,000, and Kabbage Checking for online business checking accounts.
"We saw a technology opportunity; a way to use an API to automate serving a business that couldn't have been served previously," said Kathryn Petralia, co-founder of Kabbage. Petralia says what she's seeing with small businesses is that there's more support by many other companies to serve these unserved small businesses. "They're a vital part of the economy—a vital part of job growth and so now we can do that using technology where we couldn't do it before because it was always hard to market to small business. But thanks to the data and these new technology platforms, we can do it," Petralia said.

UpTip—Cashless tipping
This new startup replaces cash tipping with an e-payment platform and enables users to provide ratings on service providers such as wait staff and limousine drivers. Companies are given a QR code after registering with UpTip. Customers scan the code on their smartphone to view the company's profile, give a star rating, leave feedback and, of course, provide a tip. Tips are deposited directly into a debit card or bank account of choice.
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The travel and hospitality industry is still struggling in the wake of COVID and so are the people whose lives and livelihoods have depended on tipping. Eric Plam, UpTip's founder, believes the pandemic has been a catalyst to help people figure out how much they value people who serve them and the services they provide. UpTip will help collect the data used to determine how much service staff are valued. "We really believe that personality, enthusiasm and merit should be rewarded and so this is one reason we enjoy tipping and that's one thing we do with our service and ratings platform—we try to raise people who are doing a great job because we want to help them advance in their careers", Plam said.

SeaTable is software for combined information management. The software allows data of different types to be collected, prearranged, and analyzed. It uses an in-built spreadsheet web interface with customizable web forms for its data entry. 

SeaTable offers over 20 different column types, sorting, filtering, and grouping for its data organization. Besides the charts and pivot tables as traditional evaluation tools, it also offers application-oriented visualizations, including map views, gallery, Gantt charts, and Kanban.

The SeaTable software is available in 3 different versions, including on-premises, dedicated, and cloud variants. The on-premises variant is designed for large and medium-sized companies that don't want to outsource their data but prefer to store their own data center. Besides this, it offers a spreadsheet solution for teams that want flexible ways of working on projects, tasks, and ideas.

The spreadsheet solution doesn't limit users to texts and numbers; it also captures all information and stores documents, emails, URLs, check boxes, images, drop-down lists, etc. According to the CEO & Founder, Christoph Dyllick-Brenzinger, "SeaTable generates enormous added value for teams that want to work together on ideas, tasks or projects. With SeaTable, you have all your data in one place and can access it flexibly from anywhere. Since our launch in July 2020, we have developed rapidly. We generate many new customers every day who have the goal of working in a structured and, above all, more efficient way."

SeaTable Offers Unique Use Cases
SeaTable has different use cases. It can work as a bug, survey software, tracking system, project management tool, archiving solution, and a collaboration platform. Therefore, everyone, including agencies, developers, content creators, project managers, and market researchers, can use SeaTable to consolidate their project details.

The software can work as a collaborative database application. It offers advanced functions beyond what traditional spreadsheets can do. As a web application, it doesn't require any program installation, download, or configuration. All users require is to register on the platform and get their data organized.

"Over 100,000 downloads via Dockerhub and high customer satisfaction speak for our first-class and innovative software. With the development of SeaTable, it is always important to us to offer our spreadsheet solution across as many areas and industries as possible. Our spreadsheet & database hybrid supports many businesses around the world every day, either in the cloud or in their own data center," said Philipp Braun, CMO at SeaTable GmbH.
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As a collaborative tool, it allows the exchange of data with third parties in several ways. Through efficient management and organization, the collaboration between customers and the team is well facilitated and optimized. It allows users to switch to five languages, including English, Russian, Chinese, German, and French. Versions are available from free to €148 per year.

1Password, a leader in enterprise password management, recently launched Secrets Automation, an easy-to-use way to secure, manage and orchestrate the rapidly expanding infrastructure secrets required in a modern enterprise. Secrets such as corporate credentials, API tokens, keys and certificates can number in the hundreds for midsize businesses and many thousands for enterprises. This scale and complexity lead to huge security risks. Besides the new product launch, 1Password also completed the acquisition of SecretHub, a secrets management company that protects nearly 5 million enterprise secrets a month. The SecretHub team and CEO Marc Mackenbach will join 1Password immediately, adding expertise and engineers to speed up the 1Password Secrets Automation roadmap. 1Password Secrets Automation launches with a host of partnerships and integrations that will make it easy for developers and DevOps teams to integrate with the mission-critical tools and libraries they already use.  

1Password is the first line of defense for over 80,000 businesses worldwide protecting their employees, customers and intellectual property by securing passwords, financial details and other sensitive information. Today's launch and SecretHub acquisition signal a major expansion of 1Password, helping enterprises secure their infrastructure and machine-to-machine secrets alongside their human passwords. 

"Companies need to protect their infrastructure secrets as much as their employees' passwords," said Jeff Shiner, CEO of 1Password. "With 1Password and Secrets Automation, there is a single source of truth to secure, manage, and orchestrate all of your business secrets. We are the first company to bring both human and machine secrets together in a significant and easy-to-use way." 

Secrets Security Not Keeping Pace. With the massive expansion of Software as a Service (SaaS) applications, infrastructure secrets are multiplying as never before, scattered across multiple services and cloud providers. Companies often try to protect these secrets through a combination of home-grown solutions and awkward hacks. Human error within IT and developer organizations happens all the time and is compounded by risky shortcuts taken in the name of speed and productivity. 

Leaked secrets can have widespread ramifications; when an engineer accidentally placed a secret key into source code at Uber, the names, driver's licenses, and other private information of 57 million users were stolen. A recent GitGuardian report detected over 2 million infrastructure secrets exposed on code sharing platforms, growing 20% over the previous year. This underscores the massive and growing issue of properly managing secrets and protecting sensitive customer data. 

1Password Secrets Automation was developed to address directly these challenges. Key features include:

• The security of 1Password--store credentials, tokens and other secrets fully encrypted, using the same security that made 1Password the No. 1 enterprise password manager. 
• A single source of truth for all your secrets--gain complete visibility and auditability in a way that you can't when secrets are spread across multiple services. 
• Granular access control--define which people and services have access and what level of access they are granted. 
• Ease of use--built on 1Password's intuitive user interface, Secrets Automation delivers administrative simplicity, providing for good secrets hygiene. 
• Integration with your existing tools--Secrets Automation integrates with HashiCorp Vault, Terraform, Kubernetes and Ansible, with more integrations on the way. You'll also find ready-to-use client libraries in Go, Node and Python.

1Password and GitHub are also announcing a partnership: "We're partnering with 1Password because their cross-platform solution will make life easier for developers and security teams alike," said Dana Lawson, VP of partner engineering and development at GitHub, the largest and most advanced development platform in the world. "With the upcoming GitHub and 1Password Secrets Automation integration, teams can automate fully all of their infrastructure secrets, with full peace of mind that they are safe and secure."

A Roadmap Driven by Customer Demand. Kira Systems, an AI-based contract review and analysis software company, was one of many customers that requested 1Password expand its offering to solve their secrets management problems. 
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"We've been a 1Password customer for six years and have long wanted to centralize our secrets management," said Joey Coleman, Kira Fellow and director, systems with Kira Systems. "We store terabytes of sensitive data across many deployments, so it is critical for us to have a secure and efficient way of managing the credentials that give access to that data. Secrets Automation delivers an extra level of security while also removing the manual labor required to manage the volume of passwords and credentials."

Microsoft's new, flat-price version of its Office productivity software will arrive on Oct. 5—the same day Windows 11 begins rolling out, according to a company blog post Thursday. 

Microsoft previously emphasized that while its major focus remains in its subscription offering, Microsoft 365, it will release the onetime purchase Office 2021 for those who aren't ready to move to the cloud.

Office 2021 arrives in two versions: one for commercial users, called Office LTSC (Long Term Servicing Channel), and one for personal use. Office LTSC is available now, the post said, and includes enhanced accessibility features, performance improvements across Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and visual improvements, like dark mode support across apps. It's meant for specialty situations, as opposed to for an entire organization, such as process control devices on the manufacturing floor that are not connected to the internet. 

Meanwhile, Office 2021 for personal use will arrive on Oct. 5, though Microsoft has not yet announced pricing information. 

Both versions of Office will be supported on Windows and Mac, and will ship with the OneNote app. They will also ship both 32- and 64-bit versions, according to the post. Microsoft will support the software for five years and said it does not plan to change the price at the time of release. 

In April 2020, Microsoft transitioned Office 365 into Microsoft 365, a subscription service that added more features to the suite of software tools, but required a monthly payment of $7 for an individual plan or $10 for a family of up to six people (that price will be increasing in March 2022). The company said that its focus will continue to be on the cloud, but it understands that not everyone is ready to take that step. While you can use Microsoft 365 apps like Word, PowerPoint, and Excel online for free with limited functionality, you'll need either a perpetual version or a subscription to take full advantage of their capabilities.
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Some wondered if Office 2019 would be the last perpetual version of the software since Microsoft 365 came along. But then, Microsoft announced its plan for a perpetual release of Office in a September blog post.

What if you could run the full Windows 10 or Windows 11 experience on the iPad you’re carrying around everywhere with you? Microsoft actually has a product that does that: The brand-new Windows 365 lets you create and customize a Cloud PC. You can then access it securely from any device that supports internet browsers. Even an iPad or a Mac.

Windows 365 is a cloud-based Microsoft experience that targets businesses. The product might help companies rethink their strategies for upgrading their fleet of Windows devices. Rather than continuously investing in new hardware, some businesses might want to keep their current PCs and get Windows 365 PCs for their employees.

The Windows 365 Cloud PC comes with customizable hardware. You can choose how many cores, how much RAM, and how much storage a workstation requires. It can all be changed after the fact, in real-time, if a particular Cloud PC needs more resources to get the job done.

That PC is tied to a single user who can then access their remote desktop from anywhere in the world.

How to get the Windows 365 Cloud PC. After configuration, the Cloud PC is always there, ready to let you pick up where you left off. You can access it via a browser or an app. To get back to the iPad example, you can choose between Safari and a dedicated iOS app.

You’d access your Windows 365 PC similarly from any other device that can run browser apps.

The Cloud PC is encrypted, and the data is encrypted as it’s streamed to you. That’s the key thing about Microsoft’s Cloud PC. You need an active internet connection to use it. Microsoft explains that if you can stream video on your current device, then Windows 365 works. And the Cloud PC’s connection is more formidable than most home setups.

But once set up, the Cloud PC will offer you an instant-on experience. You’ll get all your documents just as you left them the last time you “opened” your work PC. And you’ll be able to roll back the Cloud PC to previous states if you’ve deleted anything by mistake.

Windows 365 launched on August 2nd, but it’s only available to businesses. You can expect a per-user monthly subscription cost, in line with what’s available from other 365 experiences.

It’s unclear when commercial users will ever get access to the product. There might be regular Windows users who might want a similar Cloud PC experience without getting one from their employer.

What does a Cloud PC cost? Things aren’t as easy as with Microsoft 365.

You’ll be able to customize the Cloud PC’s hardware depending on your organization’s needs. Or have your company’s IT department configure your virtual Cloud PC based on the performance you require for getting work done.

Cloud PCs start at a single-core CPU, 2GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage, but they can go up to an eight-core CPU, 32GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage.

The idea of running Windows in the cloud isn’t new, and Microsoft already offers an alternative to interested customers. But Windows 365 is going to make the entire thing a lot simpler. IT departments can customize a Cloud PC within minutes, and users can log into their remote workstation as soon after that initial setup.
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You can check out Windows 365 in great detail at this link. There are three configurations priced at $31, $41, and $66 per month per user. A more detailed Microsoft Mechanics video gives you an actual look at what the Windows 365 experience will look and feel like, including on the iPad.

​Microsoft and Google have reportedly ended a six-year truce on legal battles. The Financial Times reports that Microsoft and Google formed an unusual truce in 2015, which expired in April. The pact was reportedly forged to avoid legal battles and complaints to regulators. It meant we haven’t seen Microsoft and Google complaining publicly about each other since the days of Scroogled, a campaign that attacked Google’s privacy policies.

Now the gloves appear to be off once again, and we’ve seen some evidence of that recently. Google slammed Microsoft for trying to “break the way the open web works” earlier this year, after Microsoft publicly supported a law in Australia that forced Google to pay news publishers for their content. Microsoft also criticized Google’s control of the ad market, claiming publishers are forced to use Google’s tools that feed Google’s revenues.

The rivalry between the two has been unusually quiet over the past five years, thanks to this legal truce. Microsoft was notably silent during the US government’s antitrust suit against Google last year, despite being the number two search engine.

The Financial Times reports that the agreement between Microsoft and Google was also supposed to improve cooperation between the two firms, and Microsoft was hoping to find a way to run Android apps on Windows. That obviously didn’t pan out, and Microsoft has turned to Amazon instead to get Android apps running on Windows 11.

Some battles between Microsoft and Google were intense before this agreement, and they’re likely to get heated once again. During the height of Windows Phone in 2013, there was a bitter battle between Microsoft and Google over YouTube. Months later, Microsoft was out selling anti-Google mugs and T-shirts, and acting rather nervous about Chromebooks.
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A lot has changed for both Microsoft and Google since the days of Scroogled — including new leadership on both sides — but Google’s scathing attack on Microsoft earlier this year proves that these tech giants are ready to battle once more.