back to article Microsoft has a digital coworker it wants in your business: Cortana

At its Ignite conference in the US on Monday, Microsoft pitched Cortana as a corporate worker, as the software and cloud biz pushes companies to interact with technology via voice. Javier Soltero, the Microsoft corporate vice president who oversees Cortana, suggested that voice interaction has reached the same level of …

  1. Vimes

    Some of the clients I've dealt with in the past were quite resistant to sharing data with us even when they were using our software & had raised a support ticket requesting the sort of help that required access to it.

    The idea that these same companies would be happy with a microphone switched on all the time listening to everything they're saying and potentially sharing it with Microsoft (which is presumably what any sort of real voice control & using Cortana would entail) seems unlikely in the extreme.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      And that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface when it comes to user's speech where it may be overheard. Loose lips and all that.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Are there any tech people actually left in tech?

      It just seems like the marketers are running the asylum with practicality and security / privacy best practice sacrificed every week at the alter of Cloud & AI PR. Hands up which sane executives if there are any left, want Cortana listening in...

      .....<Insert-Tumbleweed-Here>.....

    3. Inventor of the Marmite Laser Silver badge

      Isnt that already happening with Orifice 365? All your crap belong MS servers.

  2. joed

    but does it finally react

    to f.. off Cortana the way we all expected her to?

    So far it's been the case or pitifully broken AI.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: but does it finally react

      Cortana ... Her?? WTF?

      It is an 'IT". It isn't a sentient being as much as MS would like it to be.

      Yes, I know that 'She' and 'Her' are used for things that are hard and often made of Metal and breathe Fire and Steam but to start calling a thing like Cortana or Alexa or Siri etc 'She' is as if you are accepting that the creators of those things are in charge from now on.

      None of those digital assistants will play any part in my life not now or over if I have any say over it.

      I think that within a couple of years, the use of Cortana will be mandatory for all Windows systems. They'll embed it so deeply that you have no choice but to obey the thing.

      1. Waseem Alkurdi
        Linux

        Obligatory post (was Re: but does it finally react)

        I think that within a couple of years, the use of Cortana will be mandatory for all Windows systems. They'll embed it so deeply that you have no choice but to obey the thing.

        No sir.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: but does it finally react

        Oh no! It IS a real person at the other end.

        There's a whole team of "mechanical turks" responding to whatever you say. But they're not all called Cortana, obviously.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Would you listen to the bullshit from this MS monkey

    ....."Today, we are declaring an end to the era of passwords," gushed Rob Lefferts, corporate VP of security."....

    ....."Of course, it's not that simple - You may not be surprised to learn that Microsoft's declaration doesn't actually get rid of passwords. It means that the company now supports password-free sign-in to Azure Active Active Directory-connected apps, via Microsoft Authenticator. Instead of a password, users can now employ multi-factor authentication that combines a phone number with a fingerprint, face or PIN.".....

    The mantra of Silly 'con' Valley is being deaf, dumb and blind to what users actually want or need. Hence Win10 vs Win7 adoption stats! No wonder Silicon Valley are getting privacy and security all wrong. When the revolution comes, they won't even understand that the pitchforks are for them... WTF?

    1. Teiwaz

      Re: Would you listen to the bullshit from this MS monkey

      The mantra of Silly 'con' Valley is being deaf, dumb and blind to what users actually want or need.

      And yet, most businesses are still firmly on the teat.

      It's no good complaining about the product while standing at the til and still signing the cheques, the target will just nod and smile at the empty words and hold out his hand expectantly.

  4. tcmonkey
    Joke

    The last time Cortana worked closely with someone, she blew herself up, then went insane and finally tried to lock the poor bloke and his friends up in her basement for 10000 years. This seems like a bad idea.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Cortana is fine. At home

    The idea I would disturb the peace of my hard working colleagues, by barking orders at the corporate laptop, is just absurd.

    1. Vimes

      Re: Cortana is fine. At home

      Oh, I don't know about that. There could be entertainment to be found in watching Cortana struggle with accents.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Cortana is fine. At home

      barking orders at the corporate laptop

      Hmm.. well, at least when I say "just work, you piece of shit" there will be a chance slightly higher than %0 of it actually responding.

      1. Vimes

        Re: Cortana is fine. At home

        <HAL 9000 voice>'I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that'</HAL 9000 voice>

  6. Inventor of the Marmite Laser Silver badge

    Can you imagine

    An open llan office full of people wittering at their computers and a good percentage of those conversatioms descending into screaming fits?

    Sorry but the sooner Cortana is led outside and put out of our misery, the better

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      Re: Can you imagine

      An open llan office full of people wittering at their computers and a good percentage of those conversatioms descending into screaming fits?

      Exactly how is that different from any open plan office today?

  7. Pascal Monett Silver badge
    Thumb Down

    "password-free sign-in to Azure Active Directory-connected apps"

    Sounds like purely business-oriented stuff then. Good, one less nuisance I have to worry about at home.

    I can imagine the faces of the Fortune 500 sysadmins when they're told they have to poke this humongous hole into the carefully-managed security they put in place just so that the users can argue with a bot.

  8. Nick Ryan Silver badge

    Seriously? Take potentially sensitive and/or personal data from within a business and send it, with no controls, to a regime that has zero effective data protection laws? No. Absolutely No.

    It's why Cortana on a business desktop is utterly wrong, bordering on illegal, and really must be utterly disablable.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Cortana on a Business Laptop

      Yes I should able to be disabled.

      But for how long eh? How long before a build of Windows 10 leaks out with Cortana front and centre and unmovable just as a test of the water you understand...

      I'm so glad that I've been able to move on from Windows now that I've retired.

      1. Waseem Alkurdi

        Re: Cortana on a Business Laptop

        How long before a build of Windows 10 leaks out with Cortana front and centre and unmovable

        Or with drivers compiled in the kernel for mic 'n' Ethernet (business laptop, so yeah) and sniffs audio 24/7?

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