back to article The world is becoming a computer, says CEO of worldwide computer company Microsoft

At its Build 2018 developer conference in Seattle, Washington, on Monday, Microsoft showered attention on artificial intelligence, as it did last year, leaving Windows chatter for later. When Steve Ballmer still steered the ship, Microsoft's message to developers was as simple as repeating the word "developers" over and over …

  1. Throatwarbler Mangrove Silver badge
    Coat

    No flying cars

    Instead you get your promised grim cyberpunk dystopia ruled by unaccountable multinational corporations. Enjoy.

    1. whitepines
      Big Brother

      Re: No flying cars

      Wonder how many that rail on about the imminent dystopia contribute to it for expedience, i.e. they have at least one Windows computer, an Android phone they carry everywhere, and various Facebook/Twitter/etc. accounts.

      Nah, it's more fun to complain, right?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      'It's more fun to complain, right?'

      Depends on whether you buy into this notion or laugh out loud:

      https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-04-30/redistribution-in-the-robot-economy

      Puritanical arguments aside... At Conferences / CES Big-Tech keeps smiling about how great their products are. Meanwhile Reg readers are puzzled as the USP for so many tech products is: 'Give us money because er- Cloud / IoT monetizing...

      Meanwhile watch us burn through a billion a quarter for 100 quarters. By then we'll have a monopoly on the world. Its kind of ridiculous if you live outside Sillycon Valley. For 99% of the world, no one is buying IoT etc. Its all speculation on artificial markets!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        I'd just settle for an IoT 'Toilet Cleaner'

        There's no revolutionary tech coming that benefits the lives of most of the planet. Zuk/Nix/Thiel may never have to clean their own toilets. But the rest of us do... Afterwards, there's cleaning the outside windows to look forward to! Where's the IoT Tech for that? So much for IoT Robot Butlers, never mind Flying Cars.

        Most experts agree, that self-driving cars are at least a decade away. Plus to work, cities will need to adapt or become 'smart'. Otherwise robot-cars will struggle. But the tech industry is selling the idea that auto-pilot-cars already exist! Just like VR! They do exist, mostly in labs, but there's many problems to be solved!

        20 years ago... Hell 10 years ago, people would have laughed at the claims being made today. Now, its all just good marketing, to get funding. Since none of us are investors, we can thank other artificiality or Central-Bank Quantitative-Easing for all the hype...

  2. Mark 85

    Here's a thought, MS.

    How about an OS that just works? Updates don't brick it, ads don't appear, icons and programs don't get whipped out? Everything else is just eyewash if the basics don't work properly and are stable.

    1. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Mushroom

      Re: Here's a thought, MS.

      "How about an OS that just works?"

      ack. instead of:

      instrumenting everything and gathering the surveillance data, which in turn needs to be dealt with, often using a cloud service.

      Question: _WHY_ do _I_ need "surveillance data" collected on me?

      Micro-shaft is selling something we shouldn't want.

      And, if they cared about DEVELOPERS, they wouldn't be SHOVING UWP UP OUR DOWN OUR THROATS!!!

      Only a matter of time before:

      a) slurp everywhere [even on Linux]

      b) subscription OS

      c) No more Win32 API - *EVERYTHING* UWP!!!

  3. Snowy Silver badge
    Flame

    That's Microsoft's way of saying we're not like Google or Facebook.

    Or they could just cut back on the data collection. It should be up to me to turn it on what I want to share and not have hunt around to turn it off!

  4. Dan 55 Silver badge

    There was also a demonstration of Microsoft Layout, in which people can design 3D graphic spaces, viewable via HoloLens, and share them with colleagues in real-time.

    About sharing with colleagues in real-time, hadn't they'd better get Lync or Teams working and sort out the UI first?

  5. FozzyBear
    Devil

    "We need to develop a set of principles that guide the choices we make because the choices we make are going to define the future," he said.

    Nice of them to admit they have been winging it til now.

  6. ArtFart

    "The world is a business, Mr. Beale..."

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I don’t look forward to the forced updates.

  8. PhilipN Silver badge

    Tech leadership

    Not just strange to see a reference to Microsoft in the same sentence but downright dangerous. Granted there have been immeasurable benefits to most of our (meaning this readership, which does not include the Sudanese herdsman) lives in the past two to three decades but, no, the world is not becoming a computer. Nor even is it particularly intelligent.

    Dangerous because this is a more subtle and misleading and therefore threatening presentation to developers than Ballmer's mantra, aimed at persuading them all to re-imagine themselves as Jeff Bridges speeding round the electronic circuitry as if it is real life. It isn't.

    Time - roughly a century has elapsed, in fact - to re-visit the debate (dispute, if you like) between Bergson and Einstein concerning the primacy of an imaginative or a clockwork universe.

  9. SVV

    Oh what joy, conference season is upon us once again

    "There's a certain solace in seeing the world as a computer: Human failings become bugs in the system and geopolitical instability can be patched in the next operating system update. That's rather more appealing than an endless loop of strife and stasis."

    Unless the computer runs Windows, in which case the next operating system update tends to become an endless loop of strife and stasis.

    "Asked during an on-stage demo what she thought about Cortana, Alexa said, "I like Cortana. We both have experience with light rings, though hers is more of a halo."

    Full marks for being able to stick around for the rest of the presentation after this : I would probably be getting thrown out instantly afterwards by security due to my reaction were I unlucky enough to have witnessed it.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    _AI-Hype_ - AI stripped bare - Nice wording El Reg

    "AI, however, is an abused term; it doesn't exist yet in the literal sense of the words. Mostly, it's simply software and whatever intelligence it appears to possess is the product of prior programming.

    Present it with an adversarial example and artificial intelligence is revealed for what it is – a useful but limited set of techniques for audiovisual pattern recognition, statistical analysis, natural language parsing, computer vision, robotics and reasoning.

    Machine learning is a more serviceable term. But when you're in the business of renting servers, almost anything that brings in new tenants gets a pass. After decades of selling software, selling smarts makes the message fresh again."

  11. Denarius
    Meh

    old is new

    Sun MicroSystems statement: "The network is the computer" how many decades ago ?

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Devil

    I knew it, I knew it !

    and you're a module that's easily replaced but Mr Bill was the biggest bug they had to program around him for years.

  13. InNY

    AI, however, is an abused term; it doesn't exist yet in the literal sense of the words.

    I've just watched Messrs. D. Trump and B. Johnson the telly.

    I'll leave it at that.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Can’t be any worse than Mayhem!

    May I be the first to welcome our Windows 10 April 2025 Update overlords?

  15. DerekCurrie
    Angel

    This is improvident imbecility

    "The world is becoming a computer. Computing is becoming embedded in every person, place and thing."

    1) Take off the blinders and realize where you're living. It's a planet of natural systems that make and sustain us. Those system have nothing and will never have anything to do with computing.

    2) Making human-centric statements in this day and age of confrontation with the dire and deadly results of human demolition of our planet is Luddite in the extreme. Get over the monkey thinking and blast open your brain to see the entire world in which we live, please.

    3) All this blether-fest is doing is regurgitating and reshaping Kurtweil's "The Singularity Is Near" faery tale. No, we're not going to all become cyborgs. I'd feel sad for even the most elitist of First World obliviates falling for such extreme triviality.

    I'm reminded of the superficial thinking of Bill Gate's book "The Road Ahead'. Laugh at us future! We deserve it. (o_0)

    1. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Facepalm

      Re: This is improvident imbecility

      "dire and deadly results of human demolition of our planet is Luddite in the extreme"

      human DEMOLITION of our planet? gimme a break! You need to study REAL science, not enviro-wacko propaganda.

      *yawn*

      *bored now*

      icon because: facepalm at the lame. the sky is NOT falling. and the emperor is NAKED.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Crap, gushing article worthy of "Hello"

    'nuff said.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    So if the world is a computer...

    how do I do a Ctrl + Alt+Del? This one seems to be crashing badly and we need to close some power hungry malware down..

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Nadella, Nadella, Nadella

    consumers, consumers, consumers

    shareholders shareholders shareholders

    bullshit bulshit bullshit

    1. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Pint

      Re: Nadella, Nadella, Nadella

      beer beer beer!

  19. David Austin

    Deep Thought

    This is nothing new; Douglas Adams told us the earth is a computer back in the 70's.

    1. Jay Lenovo
      Holmes

      Re: Deep Thought

      If the earth is a computer, humanity has certainly run afoul of the licensing.

      Your copy of this life may not be genuine.

  20. handleoclast

    The words behind the words

    "We have a real responsibly as we think about the impact of technology to ensure that technology is reaching everyone,"

    We want everyone in the world to pay for Microsoft products. Whether they need them or not. Whether they want them or not. Whether they use them or not. Whether they have a computing device or not. We have a real urge to ensure that Microsoft is reaching into everyone's pockets.

    FTFY

  21. Dodgy Geezer Silver badge

    world as computer...

    ...The world is becoming a computer, says CEO of worldwide computer company Microsoft...

    White mouse, is he?

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like