Microsoft a mis en ligne une nouvelle fonction basée sur l'intelligence artificielle : la possibilité de générer des images à partir d'un simple texte. Cette nouveauté s'appuie sur l'IA générative Dall-E au sein de Microsoft Edge.

La firme de Redmond continue de booster son moteur de recherche Bing et son navigateur Microsoft Edge. Alors que le chatbot de Bing est accessible via un onglet "Chat" sur l'interface de recherche de Bing, et qu'il commence à pointer le bout de son nez dans les résultats de recherche, Microsoft est en cours de déploiement de la fonction Bing Image Creator.

Pour générer des images à la volée, Bing Image Creator s'appuie sur Dall-E, un modèle d'intelligence artificielle générative spécialisée dans la génération d'images. Il suffit de décrire en quelques mots l'image que l'on souhaite obtenir, et l'IA va générer un résultat.

En principe, Bing Image Creator est accessible à tout le monde à partir de la barre latérale de Microsoft Edge. L'icône prend la forme d'une image avec un pinceau, et il n'est pas visible par défaut. Pour l'activer, il faut cliquer sur le "+" dans la barre latérale d'Edge et activer cette application. Personnellement, je ne vois pas encore cette icône. Ensuite, il suffit d'écrire quelque chose dans le prompt pour que l'IA génère plusieurs images correspondantes à la description.

Microsoft a investi plusieurs milliards de dollars dans OpenAI, ce n'est donc pas étonnant que l'IA générative soit de plus en plus présente dans les produits et services Microsoft. GPT-4 et Dall-E sont deux "produits" d'OpenAI pleinement exploité par Microsoft.

Au-delà des fonctionnalités basées sur l'intelligence artificielle, Microsoft ajoute de plus en plus d'outils à son navigateur Edge. Par exemple, on peut citer la possibilité d'éditer des images trouvées sur Internet à partir du navigateur avant de procéder à l'enregistrement sur le disque dur. Il y a aussi la possibilité de partager des fichiers via Microsoft Edge. Tout cela est décrit sur cette page.

Pour voir Bing Image Creator en action, vous pouvez regarder cette vidéo officielle :

The post Bing Image Creator, l’IA générative débarque dans Microsoft Edge pour générer des images first appeared on IT-Connect.

Mercredi dernier Microsoft reconnaissait pas la voix de son patron marketing grand public : Yusuf Mehdi, que sa nouvelle recherche Bing basée sur l’IA pourrait affecter les modèles de revenus des éditeurs de contenu, mais a également laissé entendre qu’elle était prête à discuter des conditions : en gros éviter les actions légales qui commencent à se profiler aux USA entre créateur de contenus humains et société qui on produits des IA en les entrainant sur leur modèles… Mais aussi cet article du New York Times, qui fait état des craintes des éditeurs de journaux quant à la manière dont la recherche assistée par l’IA affecterait les modèles de revenus.

Certains éditeurs pensent à juste titre selon moi, que les personnes qui utilisent la recherche basée sur l’IA n’iront plus consulter les sources de contenu, car elles obtiendront un résumé suffisamment bon … Mais cela risque d’être aussi un problème pour Microsoft (et Google demain) car moins de clics sur les sources dit aussi moins de clics sur les contenus publicitaires… Microsoft teste donc aussi en parallèle de tout cela pour Bing le moyen de produire de la publicité sur les réponses de ChatGPT.

Pour rassurer tout le monde, Microsoft précise que son IA inclut déjà des « citations dans le corps des réponses du chat qui sont liées à des sources« . Les résultats de la recherche comprennent également des liens « en savoir plus« . Mais comme cela ne sera sans doute pas suffisant l’entreprise propose des idée pour reconnaître le contenu de l’éditeur récupéré par ses technologies d’IA, comme :

• Des liens vers le contenu de l’éditeur qui afficheront d’autres liens lorsqu’un utilisateur les survolera.
• Des « légendes enrichies » pointant vers le contenu sous licence « Microsoft Start » (flux de contenu de Microsoft utilisé par des fournisseurs de contenu rédactionnel qui fait également partie du bureau Windows en tant qu’expérience « Actualité » dans la barre des tâches de Windows 10 et « de Widgets » dans Windows 11) , qui pourraient apparaître à côté des réponses au chat.
• Placer des publicités dans l’expérience de chat afin de partager les revenus publicitaires avec les partenaires dont le contenu a contribué à la réponse au chat.

Les salles de rédaction ont déjà été décimées par le passage au contenu en ligne, qui a affecté les revenus des éditeurs de presse. Cependant, les résultats des recherches ont toujours renvoyé les lecteurs vers les sites des fournisseurs de contenu. Cette situation pourrait changer avec les recherches basées sur l’IA.

Des solutions légales sont en train d’être mis en place aux USA pour apporter des réponses économiques :

• La « Journalism Competition and Preservation Act of 2022, » présentée l’année dernière , permettrait aux « fournisseurs de journalisme numérique de négocier collectivement avec les grandes plateformes en ligne » sur l’utilisation du contenu, ce qui serait exempté des lois antitrust fédérales, d’après la description de la loi.
• Fait notable, souvent en avance sur le reste des USA (nous l’avons vu avec un équivaillent du RGPD), la Californie a sa propre version législative, appelée « The California Journalism Competition and Preservation Act« , qui « obligerait les géants de la publicité numérique à payer aux organes d’information une ‘taxe d’utilisation du journalisme’ lorsqu’ils vendent de la publicité avec du contenu d’information »

It’s an exciting time in technology, not just for our industry but for the world. The Windows PC has never been more relevant in our daily lives, and this is increasingly the case as we approach the next wave of computing led by the mass adoption of AI. Today’s major update to Windows 11, that I am pumped to introduce, meets this new age of AI and reinvents and improves the way people get things done on their PCs. Launched just over a year ago, Windows 11 gave the PC a modern refresh and all new experiences that enable each of us to connect, participate, and be seen and heard. Since the launch, Windows 11 users continue to be more engaged than Windows 10 users and our US consumer customer satisfaction is higher than any version of Windows ever. In the last three weeks, we also launched the new AI-powered Bing into preview for more than 1 million people in 169 countries, and expanded the new Bing to the Bing and Edge mobile apps as well as introduced it into Skype. It is a new era in Search, Chat and Creation and with the new Bing and Edge you now have your own copilot for the web. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jm3Y_UA2qUo Today, we take the next major step forward adding to the incredible breadth and ease of use of the Windows PC by implementing a typable Windows search box and the amazing capability of the new AI-powered Bing directly into the taskbar. Putting all your search needs for Windows in one easy to find location. The search box is one of the most widely used features on Windows, with over half a billion users every month, and now with the typable Windows search box and the new AI-powered Bing front and center to this experience you will be empowered to find the answers you’re looking for, faster than ever before. We’ve been inspired by people’s stories of how they are using the new Bing. For example, a first-generation grad student from a developing country shared how the new Bing gives him access to information and resources that were previously inaccessible and difficult to find. Stories like these energize and inspire us. With the new Bing in the Windows taskbar, you will be more empowered to harness the world’s information. For me personally, this technology is having incredible impact on how my kids, and I communicate with my dad, their grandfather, in Greek. It’s important for us to stay connected to where we’re from, including speaking the language, and with the new Bing chat experience we can learn and practice writing and speaking in Greek with my dad. It’s inspiring and changing the way we communicate and connect in ways we never imagined. Soon hundreds of millions of Windows 11 users can get access to this incredible new technology to search, chat, answer questions and generate content from right on their Windows taskbar. If you’re in the Bing preview, all you’ll need to do is install today’s Windows 11 update to access the new search box. To join the new Bing preview sign up on the waitlist. We can’t wait to see how the new Bing in Windows inspires you.

Additional new Windows 11 features in the update, designed to make your everyday easier

We're also excited to introduce a host of new features from across the team that will make your everyday easier on Windows 11. For example, you will be able to link your iPhone® mobile device directly to your Windows 11 PC using a new preview of Phone Link for iOS. Additionally, you'll notice improved touch experiences, full screen widgets, and quick access to the Windows 365 app. Windows 11 also includes new AI features in Start, as well as ongoing updates to make the operating system more accessible and sustainable and delivering on our continued commitment to quality and ease of use across the system and applications. We look forward to hearing your feedback on these new updates.

Introducing Phone Link for iOS in preview

Today, we share the next step on our journey to remove barriers for those of you who have iPhones with the introduction of Phone Link for iOS. With Phone Link for iOS you’ll never have to worry about missing that important call or text while you are concentrating on your Windows 11 PC. This builds on our continued efforts to bring you closer to what’s more important, like easier access to the photos on your iPhone with iCloud integration in the Photos app. Launching first as a preview to Windows Insiders, you can learn more about getting started with the preview of Phone Link for iOS by visiting the Windows Insider Blog.

Android® phone users get an even richer experience

Phone Link capabilities have been available to Android users for quite some time and we’re happy to share that we’re making the connection even stronger between an Android device and a Windows PC. With hundreds of thousands of reviews in the Microsoft Store, we are energized to hear that people are enjoying having instant access to everything they love on their phone on their Windows PC. For those of you with a Samsung phone, we’ve made it easier to activate your phone’s personal hotspot with a single click from within the Wi-Fi network list on your PC. And with the Recent Websites feature, Samsung users can also now easily transfer their browser sessions from their smartphone to their Windows PC, allowing them to continue browsing effortlessly—a great way to stay in your flow.

Broadcast your best self, right when you need to with advanced AI

Whether you are taking a conference call in a busy lobby, giving the pitch of your life to an investor halfway around the world, or meeting your newest family member, we all can relate to wanting to look and sound our best so we can connect in the most meaningful way possible. Last year we launched Windows Studio Effects¹. Enabled by advanced AI, this collection of audio and video effects enables you to customize your audio and video for any situation you are in. Effects like eye contact, background blur, automatic framing and voice focus, available to use with your built-in camera and mic, enhance your video calling experience. With this update, we are making it even easier to find and adjust your Windows Studio Effects settings directly from the taskbar in quick settings. Now you can instantly adjust background blur, eye contact and automatic framing, and apply them to your favorite communications applications, with seamless integration into Microsoft Teams. Our partners are continuing to deliver exciting new devices that light up these features, like the previously announced Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 2 360 and the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s. Check out other new device announcements that our partners including Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo and our gaming partners made at CES.

Connect in more ways with a simple click

When we launched Windows 11, we included integration with Microsoft Teams through the Chat feature available from your desktop on the taskbar, making it easier for you to make the connections you seek. With this update, the Chat signature experience has been fully revamped to make it easier to preview your video and jump straight into a call or share a call link through any app with those you care about most. You can also get faster, easier access to all of your conversations, with the ability to navigate between conversations in Chat—all in one window.

Providing help is easier than ever with the redesigned Quick Assist app

Are you on the receiving end of the technical assistance call—from your brother whose computer “just stopped working,” your neighbor who can’t login to an important app, or your parent who just can’t find that thing they saved yesterday? For those of you who provide technical assistance to family and friends, we know how challenging it can be to help. You can open Quick Assist right from the Start menu and get connected more quickly than before, and even take advantage of the new capability to switch between screen sharing and full control during a session to give or get help the way you want. And you’ll love this, there’s a new laser pointer you can use to highlight an icon, menu, or anything else on screen so that you can help guide people through the learning process.

More of the news and information you care about is just a swipe away

Sometimes you just want to quickly see the latest headlines, get the score of the big game, check your stocks, the weather, or even your schedule—but you don’t want to have to juggle multiple devices. With Widgets, you don’t have to; news and information you want is within reach and without disruption. We are excited to introduce the expansion of Widgets to include Phone Link, Xbox Game Pass, and partners like Meta and Spotify, so it has never been easier to stay up to date on the things that matter. By simply clicking the weather icon in your taskbar or swiping from the left, Widgets delivers important information at a glance. With the launch of new Widgets, we are creating a better experience for you, and new ways for developers to reach Windows customers. Get more information on developer tools to get started.

Enhancing your touch experience

Sometimes we need a break from our desks and want to use our PCs in a more casual setting like sitting back and relaxing on the couch to watch a movie. In times like those, when your keyboard and mouse get left behind, you want to maximize your screen experience and make it more responsive to your touch. Windows customers love the easy way they can quickly and intuitively navigate their Windows touchscreen devices without a mouse and keyboard. Recent enhancements like touch controls for Snap to get your windows perfectly arranged with just a touch, and new touch gestures that allow you to easily open and close Start, Widgets and quick settings, have made getting things done on touch devices effortless. Now, you can maximize screen real estate and flexibility when using your device without a keyboard with the collapsed taskbar. When you detach your screen, the taskbar instantly slides away. Need to open another app or check your Widgets pane? Simply swipe up to expand it for easy navigation.

Screen recording in Snipping Tool

A picture might paint a thousand words, but a video can tell a story. For all the teachers, creators, students, marketers…you get the picture video. Easily capture what you are doing with a new built-in screen recorder in Snipping Tool. We’re continuing to expand the capabilities of this fan-favorite app, so now you can easily capture, save and share your Snipping Tool creations – all right in the app. To use the screen recorder functionality, you can search and launch Snipping Tool through Search on the taskbar and select record. Your screen captures are now automatically saved to a default folder, so you won’t have to worry about losing them. Want to snip something quickly? Here’s a keyboard shortcut: Windows key + Shift key + S.

Tabs make navigating Notepad easier than ever

For developers out there who love a quick way to capture lines of code for easy reuse, Windows 11’s Notepad app is here for you. We are enhancing Notepad, bringing tabs to the app experience. Notepad tabs will provide a quick and easy way to keep your data organized and enable you to switch between notes so you can create ready-to-compile code without formatting issues. Simply open the Notepad app and click the + icon to create a new tab.

New accessibility features include Braille display support and enhanced voice access in key apps

We believe the world is a better place when everyone can participate, so we are continuing to make Windows 11 the most accessible version of Windows yet. We’re pleased to deliver enhancements to Narrator that extend support for more Braille displays, which includes three new Designed for Surface displays from HumanWare. Now switching between Narrator and other screen readers while using your Braille display is a seamless experience. This crucial functionality means Narrator can effortlessly interact with accessible accessories, ensuring people who are blind are able to use Windows with ease. We’re also bringing voice access functionality out of preview and delivering a more flexible and enhanced solution when using voice on Windows 11. You can use voice access with your favorite Microsoft apps across Windows 11, from working on a Word document to managing files in File Explorer. Whether you’re connecting, collaborating or creating, you can easily use your Windows device to do more, with or without a keyboard and mouse. Here’s a full list of voice commands.

New energy recommendations make it easier for you to control your environmental impact

Windows wants to empower people to more easily take action to reduce their carbon footprint on our journey to invest in sustainable technology. With new toggles and recommendations directly in your system settings, you can more easily understand your choices and take action to adjust your settings so you can make the best choice for your personal PC usage and for the environment.

Harness the power of AI to find the files you need recommended in your Start menu

For those of you who use Windows in a business setting, we are helping you get to what you need more quickly and easily—whether that be a file you need in an instant, or your cloud PC so you can work the way you want. Available on Windows 11 Pro devices and higher that are Azure Active Directory (AAD) joined, we are personalizing your experience by delivering AI-powered recommended content within your Start menu. Simply click to open the Start menu and find related content to help you prepare for upcoming meetings, quickly access files you're collaborating on, and more. You’ll also find even more to love in File Explorer—from our fastest ever file search to recommended local and cloud files, right where you need them.

Access your Cloud PC with the new Windows 365 app

For quick access to your Cloud PC, we have made the Windows 365 app generally available in the Microsoft Store. With the Windows 365 app, you can go from your desktop straight to your Cloud PC, which provides you with a personalized experience tailored to your settings, profile and work style. It also reduces friction for IT administrators who can enable employees with a single sign-on experience. You can download it now at https://aka.ms/Windows365app.

How to take advantage of all these new features

Windows is delighted to deliver on our promise to bring exciting new experiences to Windows 11 more frequently in our continuing commitment to innovate in ways that matter to you. With this update, we are bringing the power of the new AI-powered Bing and additional new features to make staying connected—whether it be to the people or information you care about—easier, for everyone. These new experiences will start to become available today, via Windows Update and new apps available via Microsoft Store updates². Users with eligible devices running Windows 11, version 22H2 who are interested in experiencing these new features now, can choose to do so by opening Windows Update settings (Settings > Windows Update) and selecting Check for updates³. We anticipate full availability of the new features delivered via Windows Update in the March 2023 monthly security update release (find more information for commercial customers). We’re pumped about this update and believe there’s never been a better time to experience the magic of the Windows PC than right now; learn more here. ¹ Hardware dependent. ²Click ‘Get updates’ in Microsoft Store > Library – and search your favorite titles or explore our new curated collection of mobile apps and games. ³Device reboot required to enable new features. New feature availability may vary by market. iPhone is a trademark of Apple Inc. Android is a trademark of Google LLC. Editor’s note – March 3, 2023 – Text above has been edited for additional clarity on functionality of the snipping tool shortcut. ___________________________________________________________________________

By Jamison Rantz

This bathroom at my brother and sister in-law’s house was in dire need of a complete makeover. The outdated tile and vanity needed to go and the drop ceiling is out as well. The fiberglass shower insert… come on, we can do better than that. How about a steam shower with body sprayers.. and maybe some speakers and a bidet. Let’s give this thing a spa like makeover. Luckily there are some sweet Kohler products at Home Depot that will do the trick. Check out the video below to see the process from start to finish and read on to get all the details on what products we went with for this amazing transformation.

Project Video

Before

Bathroom Renovation

After

Continue reading at Bathroom Remodel w/ Steam Shower.

SharePoint Location columns have some issues which are pervasive and repeatable. One of the purportedly biggest benefits of using one of these columns is we can type in an address, and it’s looked up in Bing Maps. What’s supposed to happen is the details of that location are then parsed out and made available for use as separate “pseudo-columns”. For example, we might type in ‘111 Coleman Blvd, Savan’ and then select the corresponding location.

Then in the list where we have the column, we can choose to display the City, State, Postal Code, etc. without ever entering them.

All well and good. Many addresses, though, come back with missing parts of their data. In this case, there is no latitude/longitude, which we’d like to have for mapping. This is one if the big benefits of using a Location column! There’s no way to discern in the UI whether the variants one might see for an address is “better” than another. In this case, choosing ‘111 Coleman Blvd, Pooler, GA 31408’, which is the exact same building, yields the latitude/longitude.

But there’s no way in the UI to discern this as we are making the selection. I can only figure it out if I go to the Bing Maps UI and look for the latitude/longitude at the bottom of the left panel.

Alas, my excitement at realizing this variant on the address has a lat/long was short-lived, as the values are not pulled into the list on selection.

As you can see below, even though I have selected an address which has all the values in Bing Maps, only a few of the pseudo-columns are populated. The lat/long are missing as well as the Postal Code.

It’s also very easy to “select” a value which isn’t even coming from Bing Maps. In other words, I can type ‘111 Coleman Blvd’ and hit enter, and that value is stored in the column with no warning that it isn’t “connected” to Bing Maps. Or, even worse, one of the values from the dropdown is selected, and may well be wrong. Here, I’ve mistakenly typed ‘1111 Coleman Blvd’ and I just get that untethered value and there’s nothing in the UI to make that clear. (Yes, the second line is blank, but you only see that if you edit the column.)

Another small annoyance is once an address is selected, we can’t copy it from the field in edit mode. We can’t highlight the address anywhere in the UI I can find. So, if we want to grab that address, there’s no way to do so.

And so forth…

What’s your luck been with Location columns? Do you find you consistently get valid – and useful – data back from Bing Maps?