UPDATE 5/23: Here's what Microsoft and its partners have revealed so far:
- ChatGPT Adding Bing as Its Default Search Experience
- Windows AI Copilot Rolls Out in Preview Next Month, Plug-Ins Coming to Bing AI
- Qualcomm Revs Up AI Capabilities for Snapdragon Laptops and Tablets
- Nvidia, Microsoft Open the Door to Running AI Programs on Windows PCs
Original Story:
Microsoft Build kicks off in Seattle on Tuesday, and since Microsoft has already made lots of news around AI, Bing, and ChatGPT, the conference may not include any major news.
Build is fundamentally a conference for developers to learn about new tools and techniques, rather than a venue for unveiling hot new products, and it's been this way for the past few years. With Microsoft's massive incursion into artificial intelligence, programming that uses that new technology is the centerpiece of this year’s conference, but other topics will play out as well.
The conference is a hybrid in-person-and-online event that runs from May 23-25. It's free for remote attendees, who can sign up at build.microsoft.com. Or stream it live on YouTube.
Getting the Show Rolling
It’s possible to divine some topic trends from the session schedule Microsoft posted online. In addition to the expected keynote from CEO Satya Nadella, which begins at noon ET on Tuesday, we’ll hear from OpenAI President Greg Brockman, which kicks off that AI theme right away. Windows fans will be happy that Panos Panay will be speaking as well. He’s now Chief Product Officer, but has been the point person for new Windows announcements in recent years. As always, programming guru Scott Guthrie will be talking that developer talk, and a slew of Azure leaders are also on the schedule.
As in the past few years of Builds, the Imagine Cup, which recognizes young student developers’ outstanding programming achievements, will feature in the proceedings. In fact, it’s the very first entry on the schedule, showing the importance to Microsoft of future generations of coders.
We’ll no doubt hear about the wide world of new terrific things AI will make possible, but also about responsible AI. One session, for example, is about “Building and using AI models responsibly," and aims to show “how Microsoft builds responsible AI and safety features with Azure AI and how Azure Machine Learning enables you to evaluate your own applications of LLMs.” There’s also “How to build models to check for fairness.”
Copilot
The second keynote is called “The era of the AI Copilot,” during which Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott will talk about Microsoft’s and OpenAI’s full-stack AI platform powered by the Azure cloud. Another compelling session is titled “Shaping the future of work with AI," in which Panay will show developers how they can use the Copilot AI feature in Windows and Microsoft 365.
Azure AI and Hardware
Emblematic of the conference’s feel is this session title: “Build, Customize, and Deploy LLMs At-Scale on Azure with Nvidia NeMo.” It shows how large language models have become a cause célèbre for hardware companies like Nvidia, as well as Qualcomm and AMD.
Surprisingly, Intel doesn’t show up in any session info, though that company’s processors power most Microsoft OSes (AMD is gaining ground). But there are sessions for beginners in AI, like “Learn Live: Get started with AI on Microsoft Azure.” Surprisingly, only five Build sessions include the term ChatGPT in their title.
There are other aspects of AI than generative, and good-old machine learning is among them. Microsoft will show how developers can use the ONNX runtime to include AI in their Windows apps. Another session highlights the role of Windows in the AI revolution: “Deliver AI-powered experiences across cloud and edge, with Windows,” featuring Jeff Mendenhall, Principal Product Manager AI Frameworks Hybrid & Edge. Note that Edge here is not talking about Microsoft’s browser, but the concept of combining cloud computing with computing on local hardware.
We’ll hear more about the Microsoft Dev Box, a cloud-based, managed development virtual computer that coding teams can use, saving them from local physical hardware setup.
Windows on Arm and Qualcomm
At last year’s Build conference, Microsoft unveiled Project Volterra, an Arm-based windows desktop sporting AI processors. Microsoft if far from giving up on the spotty-historied Windows on Arm. A session this year is called “Learn how to build the best Arm apps for Windows” and another is called "Optimizer your apps for Arm.” And Qualcomm experts will be on hand to show off the capabilities of the Snapdragon 8cx Gen3 Compute platform, which can run Windows. In fact, Qualcomm features in four of the conference's sessions. Last fall, the company announced Oryon, a new processor that it says will deliver “groundbreaking technology will usher in a new class of incredibly powerful and efficient devices.”
Microsoft 365
We’re all still getting used to the demise of the name Office for Microsoft’s productivity offering, now called Microsoft 365, though the apps themselves are still referred to as “Office apps” in the company’s documentation. Build includes at least 10 sessions on developing for Microsoft 365, many of which focus on the beta Copilot, and AI assistant for Office, sorry, Microsoft 365 users.
Teams
Microsoft Teams continues to see development, and 26 sessions touch on it either primarily or tangentially. Teams now supports WebView2, Microsoft’s browser-rendering engine that powers Edge and embedding web-accessing applications. Sessions will cover how to build chatbots inside teams and leverage AI and Copilot.
Surface and Xbox
If the past few Build conferences are anything to go by, Microsoft’s PC and gaming devices won’t get more than passing mentions. The move to WebView 2 is likely to prompt a mention of Xbox, and I’d be shocked if we don’t see Surface mentioned in some of the keynotes.
Keep tabs on all the announcements on our Microsoft Build event page.