The Hidden Costs of Free AI Tools: What Microsoft’s Recent Challenges Reveal
Written by
Cameron Diiorio
Edited by
Cory Dudak
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Microsoft, one of the tech giants, has recently become a target for attacks that threaten the company’s safety.
But that is just one of many challenges that Microsoft faces. Beyond the hacking threats, Copilot, which is Microsoft’s artificial intelligence tool, has come under scrutiny for allowing violent and, oftentimes, disturbing AI-generated images.
Copilot’s Violent AI
Microsoft engineering manager Shane Jones has brought to light the pressing issue that Copilot is facing at present.
“[Jones has been] testing the AI image generator since December and has found flaws and security vulnerabilities that could allow users to generate harmful images that could be offensive and inappropriate for consumers,” reported The Wall Street Journal.
Examples of Copilot AI’s harmful images include graphic violence, sexually explicit photos and drug use.
For those interested in purchasing Copilot’s AI, coming in at $365 a year or $30 a month, you may want to consider investing your money into another AI platform.
Issues with censorship in AI is just one problem that Microsoft currently faces — and the other problem directly affects Microsoft’s higher ups.
Cybersecurity Threatened
Russian hacking group Nobelium, or Midnight Blizzard, launched a cybersecurity attack on Microsoft at the beginning of 2024. In this attack, the executive’s business emails were hijacked and secrets were threatened to be leaked by the Russian hacking organization.
Then, in March, Microsoft released another statement that revealed that parts of the company’s source code were secured by the hacking group Midnight Blizzard. This poses to be a serious issue for Microsoft, as source code is essential for Microsoft’s products’ functionality.
“Source code is coveted by corporations — and spies trying to breach them — because it is the secret nuts and bolts of a software program that make it function,” reported CNN.
Microsoft is still trying to deal with the damage the hackers have done.
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