I first met Jon Friedman, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of design and research, in 2019, when he was leading a new open approach to design at Microsoft to make its hardware and software appear like they came from the same business. That’s a fairly successful work in progress; therefore, Friedman, like many other Microsoft personnel, is now focusing on artificial intelligence.
I chatted with Friedman last week, before of the revamped Microsoft 365 Copilot app announcement, to gain a deeper grasp of how AI is affecting human designers and artists.
“The change is quite dramatic, and the opportunity is quite dramatic,” according to Friedman. “Our job changed. The entire industry, including Microsoft, was trying to figure out what we could do with this new substance that helps people adapt to computing, and it turns out you can do a lot and do it quickly.”
Friedman’s job has altered in recent months as a result of AI, so he is now focused on both content and design. “Suddenly the design job is how do you edit,” explains Friedman. “Even my job over the past 6-8 months has become an editor-in-chief job of the product, not just the design leader.”
As Microsoft strives to create personalised AI agents or AI-powered apps, the design system must adapt to the very real challenges of achieving this vision, and the tools used to develop that system are continuously changing. Whether it’s Adobe applications or Figma, AI elements are rapidly being integrated into creative tools, ushering designers into an era of editing and using AI as a tool rather than needing to start from zero.
The concern and uncertainty about how AI may affect human creativity has resulted in a very genuine pushback against the use of generative AI in advertising, filmmaking, video games, and other areas. While it was once clear when an artist or designer utilised AI to make art, the technologies are currently evolving so swiftly that it is becoming increasingly difficult to detect “AI slop.”
Microsoft’s visual design team has been working with generative AI tools as part of their production process since 2022, and the team recently announced that it used generative AI to create a Surface ad. Designers developed many top-down stills of a Surface device in various places, which were then fed into generative AI tools such as Hailuo and Kling to add motion to the footage.
The end result is a 55-second advertisement advertising the business versions of the Surface Laptop and Surface Pro that has been published on YouTube for two months without anyone in the comments noticing Microsoft’s usage of generative AI. Microsoft said it used AI for the commercial owing to “an extremely tight deadline, as well as various resource and budget constraints.”
Friedman, like many others in the IT industry, believes that AI will increasingly be used in this way, as an additional tool for artists and designers rather than a replacement. Last year, he illustrated his son’s book about managing childhood anxiety with DALL-E, and he recently edited videos and created a website using a number of AI tools.
“As a creator, I adored it. I have this desire, and I don’t have all of the capabilities, but I do have a lot of them, and sometimes I just want to sit there and move pixels about, and other times I want to express a large notion,” says Friedman. “I believe that in the future, disciplines will melt together in innovative ways. A creative maker’s strength will not just be their unique skill set, but also their ability to think broadly and creatively, and then use that creative thinking to drive positive change in the world.”
Friedman believes that engineers will someday have their own AI designer, while designers will have their own AI engineer, causing these two disciplines to overlap in diverse ways.
However, I do feel guilty about employing AI techniques. I’m still not sure where I stand on the use of generative AI issue. As a technology geek, I’m excited to see what AI can unlock, but as a writer, I’m just as concerned about the future of AI as artists and designers. I’m not sure if my job will even exist in ten years. when a young youngster, I observed my father’s career disappear when print presses transitioned to digital. Back then, you had to re-skill and master digital photography technologies such as Photoshop or risk falling behind.
“I think what we’re going to see is resistance at first because people fear what it means for them on some level,” Friedman says. “I believe it’s a little difficult to get over the hump of what it means for you, but if you see it as another tool in your toolbox, it’s extremely strong, for both the things you enjoy doing and the things you may dislike doing. For me, it fuelled my creativity.”
I’m optimistic that AI will boost human creativity, but at the same time, Microsoft is preparing for a world of automated AI agents that it envisions as “digital colleagues.” The border between AI as a tool and AI as a replacement for competent human occupations appears to be set to be tested, leaving us all wondering what will happen.
The Pad:
Microsoft 365 Copilot has been revamped to include new search, picture, and notebook functions. Microsoft will release a new version of its Microsoft 365 Copilot software soon. The software has primarily been used by enterprises as a centre for accessing Office documents, but Microsoft has been steadily encouraging users to use its AI technologies over the last year. The Microsoft 365 Copilot app will soon get an upgraded AI-powered search, a new Create tool for generating images using OpenAI’s GPT-4o model, and Notebooks that function as miniature AI projects.
Bethesda has officially revealed Oblivion Remastered, which is available today. Oblivion Remastered, the worst-kept secret in gaming, was finally revealed this week. After developer Virtuos revealed pictures of the game earlier this month, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered was shadowdropped on Tuesday for Xbox Series X / S, PS5, and PC. It’s already proving popular on Steam, with fans of the Elder Scrolls series flocking to play a remastered version of the nearly 20-year-old game.
When the globe connected via Skype. Microsoft is discontinuing its Skype service next month, after more than two decades. Rest of World has compiled a selection of readers’ stories of how Skype helped them keep in touch with friends and family. Skype did significantly contribute to the evolution of our communication methods.
Microsoft’s Xbox app is now accessible on LG smart televisions. If you want to play Xbox games on your LG TV but do not have an Xbox console, there is now an app for that. The Xbox TV app is now available for select LG smart TV models, including 2022 OLED TVs, 2023 smart TVs, and newer models and smart monitors running webOS24 or higher. To stream Xbox games to your TV, you’ll need an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership, a compatible LG TV, and a Bluetooth controller.
If you live in the EU, you can now use an iPad to run Windows 11. The Digital Markets Act (DMA) has enabled emulation software to operate on iPadOS, and YouTuber NTDev has showed how to run Windows 11 on an M2 iPad Air.
Windows for the Game Boy features a playable version of Minesweeper. RubenRetro has made a Windows version for the Nintendo Game Boy. It even includes an MS Paint software for use with the Game Boy Printer, a playable version of Minesweeper, and a built-in media player. I love it.
Microsoft Copilot can now’see’ what’s on your screen in Edge. Microsoft is offering Copilot Vision, an AI technology that can interpret what you see on your screen, free to use in the Edge browser. You may use Copilot Vision to compare things on a website, help with recipes, or even discuss cover letter ideas. The more capable mobile version of Copilot Vision still requires a Copilot Pro subscription, but the screen viewing experience is now free of charge.
Xbox will soon allow you to purchase games using its mobile app. Xbox is finally allowing users to purchase games and DLC, as well as sign up for Game Pass, directly from the mobile app. To enable this, Microsoft had to remove remote play from the Xbox mobile app in order to comply with app store requirements. Due to a court ruling, Microsoft originally intended to give the opportunity to buy a game and immediately stream it via its Xbox mobile app for Android. However, Google appealed the order, forcing Microsoft to alter its Xbox mobile software while waiting for a final decision.
Xbox has released several new Doom Slayer accessories. Doom: The Dark Ages is only a few weeks away, and Microsoft is prepping for its release with two special edition Xbox controllers. You can purchase a conventional Xbox controller with the Doom Slayer’s armour for $79.99, or a transparent red top Xbox Elite 2 controller for $199.99. There’s also a $54.99 Xbox Series X wrap.
Microsoft issues a progress report on its security strategy. Security has been Microsoft’s top focus for nearly a year, and the company is now offering an update on its Secure Future Initiative (SFI). Microsoft is currently employing a “Secure by Design UX Toolkit” that has been evaluated by 20 product teams and distributed to 22,000 employees to help design more secure products. Microsoft claims that its current regulations, investigation methodologies, and behavior-based detection algorithms have stopped $4 billion in fraud efforts.
New Copilot Plus PC features are currently being tested. With Recall’s upcoming release, Microsoft is now focussing on improving Click to Do on Windows 11 Copilot Plus PCs. Two new text actions are presently being tested: a reading coach that helps you practise reading aloud and an immersive reader that creates a distraction-free zone around whatever text you choose on your screen.
How secure is Microsoft’s Recall feature? Kevin Beaumont, a security researcher, has been testing the version of Recall that is due to be released and has discovered that it has been significantly better this time around, but there are still some problems. Microsoft claims that Recall requires fingerprint or face recognition to function, but Beaumont discovered that it can be opened using Windows Hello’s four-digit PIN unlock option. The sensitive data filtering also does not appear to be reliable, as I have seen firsthand.
