A fundamental pivot Amid a flurry of hype, Microsoft reorganizes entire dev team around AI Shift ensures the majority of Microsoft's developer resources will focus on AI. Samuel Axon Jan 14, 2025 4:00 pm | 172 Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Credit: Microsoft Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Credit: Microsoft Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreMicrosoft CEO Satya Nadella has announced a dramatic restructuring of the company's engineering organization, which is pivoting the company's focus to developing the tools that will underpin agentic AI.Dubbed "CoreAI - Platform and Tools," the new division rolls the existing AI platform team and the previous developer division (responsible for everything from .NET to Visual Studio) along with some other teams into one big group.As for what this group will be doing specifically, it's basically everything that's mission-critical to Microsoft in 2025, as Nadella tells it:This new division will bring together Dev Div, AI Platform, and some key teams from the Office of the CTO (AI Supercomputer, AI Agentic Runtimes, and Engineering Thrive), with the mission to build the end-to-end Copilot & AI stack for both our first-party and third-party customers to build and run AI apps and agents. This group will also build out GitHub Copilot, thus having a tight feedback loop between the leading AI-first product and the AI platform to motivate the stack and its roadmap.To accomplish all that, "Jay Parikh will lead this group as EVP." Parikh was hired by Microsoft in October; he previously worked as the VP and global head of engineering at Meta.The fact that the blog post doesn't say anything about .NET or Visual Studio, instead emphasizing GitHub Copilot and anything and everything related to agentic AI, says a lot about how Nadella sees Microsoft's future priorities.So-called AI agents are applications that are given specified boundaries (action spaces) and a large memory capacity to independently do subsets of the kinds of work that human office workers do today. Some company leaders and AI commentators believe these agents will outright replace jobs, while others are more conservative, suggesting they'll simply be powerful tools to streamline the jobs people already have.Nadella doesn't sound particularly conservative on this front, though. His blog post opens with this extraordinarily lofty series of statements:As we begin the new year, its clear that were entering the next innings of this AI platform shift. 2025 will be about model-forward applications that reshape all application categories. More so than any previous platform shift, every layer of the application stack will be impacted. Its akin to GUI, internet servers, and cloud-native databases all being introduced into the app stack simultaneously. Thirty years of change is being compressed into three years!Those are some big promises and expectations. If we take his words at face value, it appears he expects agentic AI to be at the heart of a global transformation and considers it Microsoft's core objective over the next three years to be making sure its software and services are the ones that underpin that.Agentic AI is imagined as the next big turning point for the tech industry, and for the world of work in general. It's seen as a step forward from general purpose LLM chatbots like ChatGPTwhich aren't really specialized in anything and require informed users to work to get the most out of themand limited-scope, feature-specific applications of deep learning, like Apple has introduced in its platforms and software.Most observers believe some kind of widespread application of agentic AI is likely, but Nadella's grandiose vision of completely transforming software development, and by extension the entire industry, with this reorganization suggests he's one of the most bullish voices on agentic AI, to say the least.Samuel AxonSenior EditorSamuel AxonSenior Editor Samuel Axon is a senior editor at Ars Technica. He covers Apple, software development, gaming, AI, entertainment, and mixed reality. He has been writing about gaming and technology for nearly two decades at Engadget, PC World, Mashable, Vice, Polygon, Wired, and others. He previously ran a marketing and PR agency in the gaming industry, led editorial for the TV network CBS, and worked on social media marketing strategy for Samsung Mobile at the creative agency SPCSHP. He also is an independent software and game developer for iOS, Windows, and other platforms, and heis a graduate of DePaul University, where he studied interactive media and software development. 172 Comments

The Russian central bank has dismissed rumors of freezing retail bank deposits.Freezing deposits would harm financial stability and undermine trust, the bank said.Last year, the central bank hiked rates to 21% in an attempt at cooling Russia's wartime economy.Russia's central bank has taken to Telegram to publicly dismiss rumors that its citizens' bank deposits may be frozen.The idea that retail bank deposits could be frozen is "absurd" and "unthinkable," the Central Bank of Russia wrote in a Telegram post on Monday."In addition to the fact that this is a gross violation of the right of citizens and companies to manage their assets, such a step will undermine the foundations of the banking system and the financial stability of the country," the regulator wrote.The concerns came after Elvira Nabiullina, Russia's central bank governor, hiked rates to 21% late last year in a bid to cool soaring inflation an economic pain point President Vladimir Putin has acknowledged.The high interest rates attracted a flood of bank deposits. Recently, rumors emerged that retail deposits could be frozen, prompting Russians to swarm the central bank with questions, the bank wrote in its Telegram post."It is quite obvious that in any market economy, of which bank lending is an integral part, such a step is unthinkable," the bank wrote in the post dismissing the rumors.The rumors about frozen deposits are a reflection of the nervousness in Russia's wartime economy. This is not the first time Russia's central bank has addressed concerns that Russians' savings could be frozen and interest withheld.In November, Nabiullina dismissed such concerns as "nonsense," Russia's RBC news outlet reported. She was responding to a question from the lower house of Russia's parliament.Russia has been under a slew of Western sanctions since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022. It has managed to avoid going bankrupt thanks in part to growth from its massive spending on military and defense activities. It has also managed to pivot to alternative export markets such as China and India.However, the Russian central bank has warned that the economy is at risk of overheating.Russia's economy faces multiple issues like high inflation, a decline in the value of the ruble, and a severe manpower shortage.In November, the country's inflation rate hit nearly 9%. Prices of staples from butter to potatoes in the country have risen sharply, putting a strain on the finances of ordinary citizens.As the war in Ukraine nears its fourth year, Russia's economy could run out of cash before the end of this year, a Swedish economist wrote on Tuesday. This could hit its ability to continue financing the war and its economy.

Diriyah Biennale Foundation / BRICKLABSave this picture! Laurian GhinitoiuArchitects: BRICKLABAreaArea of this architecture projectArea:16000 mYearCompletion year of this architecture project Year: 2021 PhotographsPhotographs:Laurian Ghinitoiu, Turki Gazzaz Lead Architects: Abdulrahman Gazzaz, Turki Gazzaz More SpecsLess SpecsSave this picture!Text description provided by the architects. The Diriyah Biennale Foundation is Saudi Arabia's primary institution dedicated to promoting contemporary and Islamic arts from the region and beyond. Upon its establishment in 2021, Bricklab won an international competition for the design and construction of its headquarters in Riyadh's JAX creative district. One of the first anchor tenants in the district, the foundation called for the rehabilitation of 8 decommissioned warehouses spanning a total area of 16,000 m2 to host world-class galleries, art handling facilities, public workshop areas, offices, an auditorium, and a multipurpose plaza.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!The architectural language implemented across the site pays homage to the site's industrial past. Most of the warehouse facades were maintained in their original condition, while a continuous band of translucent polycarbonate runs throughout the property to filter out incongruities and establish a strong presence for the foundation within the urban fabric and simultaneously along the valley.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!A series of openings interrupt the once-isolated interiors to frame views across the valley onto the wider JAX district. Organized around a central open-air plaza, the different exhibition spaces are weaved together through a set of ramps and exterior walkways that traverse the disparate warehouses comprising the Biennale complex. This outdoor area has since become the locus of public activities and a compelling series of site-specific art installations.Save this picture!The architecture of the Diriyah Biennale headquarters highlights a sense of urban continuity and a subtle reference to the repercussions of the later stages of the oil boom on the historic town of Ad Diriyah. As such, it is a relatively rare exercise in rehabilitation and adaptive reuse, especially when concerned with a former industrial district. Generally, this demonstrates a shared visionary approach that has proclaimed a marked departure from the contemporary trends towards new construction that Saudi Arabia has become infamous for in the past decade.Save this picture!Project gallerySee allShow lessProject locationAddress:Diriyah, Saudi ArabiaLocation to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.About this officeBRICKLABOfficePublished on January 15, 2025Cite: "Diriyah Biennale Foundation / BRICKLAB" 15 Jan 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1025750/diriyah-biennale-foundation-bricklab&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save!ArchDaily?You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

Nature, Published online: 14 January 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00053-yEpidemiological studies have linked dirty air to dementia and other brain disorders. Now researchers are trying to determine how pollutants do their damage, and how much harm they cause.

Black State, a Metal Gear Solid-style action-adventure with highly realistic visuals and ray tracing developed by Motion Blur, received a new WIP gameplay video.Check it out: https://80.lv/articles/metal-solid-gear-style-action-black-state-received-new-gameplay-video/#videogames #gameindustry #gamenews #gamedev #nvidia #raytracing

Devolver Digital has just revealed a new title, which is an action-adventure with a dark fantasy setting where youll need to solve puzzles by bizarre ways like drinking blood or digging through viscera.Wishlist Moroi: https://80.lv/articles/moroi-an-upcoming-action-adventure-with-dark-fantasy-setting/@GoodShepherdEnt #gaming #gamedev

Former Starfield Designer Dennis Mejillones compared Todd Howard to George Lucas.He said, "geniuses come up with terrible ideas, too," and they need honest feedback to filter them: https://80.lv/articles/former-starfield-designer-compares-todd-howard-with-george-lucas/#videogames #gameindustry #gamenews #bethesda #starfield

.@Blender Ornament Generator allows you to create beautiful ornaments of various styles for your model with few clicks.The full version offers 260 ready-to-use ornaments covering a wide range of time periods: https://80.lv/articles/this-powerful-blender-addon-allows-you-to-create-fancy-ornaments-with-few-clicks/@Peakdreams36449 #b3d #ad #Sponsored

Florian Elie continues the Bloodborne Stylized series with an impressive 3D take on the Bridge of Yharnam made using ZBrush, Maya, Substance 3D, and Unreal Engine 5.More renders and info: https://80.lv/articles/bloodborne-stylized-a-3d-recreation-of-the-bridge-of-yharnam/#bloodborne #3dcg #environmentart #unrealengine5 #videogames

Check out this dynamic simulation of insects running away from light, set up by CFX Artist @LampMilan using Houdini.Breakdown: https://80.lv/articles/houdini-powered-crowd-simulation-of-insects-afraid-of-light/#houdini #houdinifx #sidefx #simulation #3dart #3dcg #gamedev #indiedev #3dsimulation #unrealengine5 #ue5 #3dsim #3d @sidefx