In its Presidency of the G7 in 2024, Italy will play a pivotal role in continuing to advance international AI governance. This includes the Hiroshima AI Process initiated by Japan, the deployment of International Guiding Principles, and a Code of Conduct to manage the risks and benefits of advanced AI technologies and AI’s impact on social and economic challenges. Italy has a unique opportunity to be a leader in this, and to shape global governance mechanisms to ensure AI respects ethical boundaries while fostering AI adoption that can positively serve humanity. Unleashing Italy’s creative gen ..read more

Today, the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise (GFCE), and Microsoft published Cybersecurity and Sustainable Development: A Global Path Forward, a compendium of recommendations on how to ensure cybersecurity does not remain an isolated concern – which is the case today – but gets woven into the very fabric of development work. Digital transformation takes center stage for most economies, and it is critical that cybersecurity considerations are not an afterthought but are implemented in parallel. The workshop ..read more

Following the designation of Windows and LinkedIn under the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), we have been diligently working to implement the DMA, engaging with the European Commission, and testing DMA-compliant features with customers and the industry, to ensure that we fulfill our obligations. Now that the compliance deadline has arrived, we are sharing the steps we’ve taken to comply, as well as our focus on ensuring effective compliance in the months and years ahead. To that end, we have published our annual DMA Compliance Report. The report, based on the European Commissio ..read more

In the age of AI, cybersecurity faces new challenges and opportunities, as both attackers and defenders leverage the power of artificial intelligence to achieve their goals. AI can help improve the security of AI systems and enhance cybersecurity by enabling faster and more accurate detection of threats, automated response and mitigation, and proactive prevention of attacks. However, AI can also pose new risks to cybersecurity, by creating more sophisticated attacks and generating fake or misleading information. In our latest #TechTalk, we are joined by Tom Burt, the head of Microsoft’s Custom ..read more

In 2024, European citizens will vote in elections that will determine how the European Union tackles issues such as reinforcing our democratic values, responding to a changing geopolitical landscape, mitigating climate change, strengthening the economy, and embracing ever changing technology in our evolving world. At Microsoft, we work closely with large and small European businesses, governments, and civil society, as well as the EU institutions themselves. Our technologies touch the lives of millions of Europeans every day – including our nearly 20,000 employees in the region – and we share ..read more

Microsoft is empowering customers by bringing significant enhancements and new features to the EU Data Boundary for the Microsoft Cloud. With today’s update, Microsoft takes another decisive step in expanding its suite of trusted cloud services that respect European values and meet the specific requirements of our commercial and public sector customers in Europe. Today’s announcement is part of a larger initiative aimed at enabling our European customers to thrive in every sector and every country in the region – from implementing our European Cloud Principles to our ongoing work expanding our ..read more

Following the designation of Microsoft as a gatekeeper with respect to Windows and LinkedIn under the Digital Markets Act in September 2023, we have been deeply engaged with the European Commission to ensure that we fulfill our new obligations under the regulation. As the March 2024 deadline for compliance rapidly approaches, we have reached an important milestone for Windows. We have released a full preview build of Windows 11 (Build 2631.2787) with technical changes designed to comply with many of our obligations under the DMA. These changes will gradually roll out to devices in the Release ..read more

Interesting things are happening deep below the seabed in Northern Europe. Preparations are being made for carbon dioxide to make a journey into the earth, first captured from the atmosphere or industrial sources, then shipped across the North Sea and injected into geological formations. There it will stay, prevented from entering the atmosphere in a technology that is decades-old, but is finally gaining widespread recognition. It is a time of increasing attention and investment in the field of carbon management. New carbon dioxide removal and carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects are gett ..read more

On October 13, we welcomed Activision Blizzard into Microsoft and Team Xbox. As Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming noted on Friday when the deal closed: “Together, we’ll create new worlds and stories, bring your favorite games to more places so more players can join in, and we’ll engage with and delight players in new, innovative ways in the places they love to play including mobile, cloud streaming, and more.” Our ambition in acquiring Activision Blizzard has always been to bring more Xbox games to more players on more devices. We have backed this up by committing to the European Commissio ..read more

Last month, the European Commission announced that it had opened a formal investigation regarding Microsoft’s bundling of Microsoft Teams with Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites for business customers. As we said at the time, “we will continue to cooperate with the Commission and remain committed to finding solutions that will address its concerns.” Today we are announcing proactive changes that we hope will start to address these concerns in a meaningful way, even while the European Commission’s investigation continues and we cooperate with it. These changes will impact our Microsoft 365 and ..read more