News and perspectives on the future of tech, public policy and philanthropic topics for #Microsoft. ➡️ https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/
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Twenty years ago, Microsoft broke ground on our first data center in Quincy, Washington. At a time when so many small towns have been shrinking, Quincy has grown, and the partnership behind that story is one worth telling. Watch how a farm town in Central Washington helped build the cloud, and built a thriving future of its own. https://lnkd.in/ePjWhyQu
Where you live can shape how people use AI. Our new US AI Diffusion Report reveals how adoption is unfolding across states and communities—from differences between urban and rural areas, where usage is 32.9% in metro areas compared with 16.2% in rural ones, to how it’s spreading unevenly across the country. It also highlights standout pockets like college towns, where AI use is higher, and shows how local patterns can vary even within the same state. The report includes an interactive data experience that lets you explore these differences. Read more in Brad Smith's blog: https://msft.it/6045vZXYh
What will it take to reimagine how the infrastructure of AI is shaped? In this month’s Sustainably Speaking, Melanie Nakagawa, Chief Sustainability Officer at Microsoft, and Dawn Lippert, CEO and Founder of Elemental Impact, look at how new technologies being tested and built at datacenters can help shape future innovations needed to build more resilient, affordable, and low-carbon systems. Here’s what you’ll find inside: ⚡ How datacenters can help bring new energy technologies into use 🔧 What more efficient, lower-impact design looks like in practice 💡 Real-world pilots—from hydrogen power to lower-carbon construction 🌍 Why working with local communities matters as infrastructure grows Watch Melanie’s quick overview of this month’s issue:
Across Africa, thousands of languages remain underrepresented in today’s AI systems. That gap can limit access to essential information, from education and healthcare to financial and civic services. LINGUA Africa is our effort to help change that. Through an open call, Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab—working alongside the Gates Foundation, the Masakhane African Languages Hub, and Google.org—is supporting African‑led projects that build open language datasets, tools, and practical applications. Our commitment focuses on early, long‑term investments: supporting open datasets and tools, community partnerships, and real‑world use cases so AI systems better reflect the languages people use every day. 🌍 Learn more about the open call and how to apply: https://msft.it/6040vkWho
Ransomware is a serious risk, but organizations are getting better at protecting themselves, with growing awareness and stronger defenses across teams. Even as cybercriminals become more organized, these teams are working more closely together and sharing what they learn, helping them respond faster and reduce disruption when attacks happen. Here are five things you need to know about ransomware: https://msft.it/6040vpxw0
We now have a complete map of the world’s fields, and it’s a gamechanger for the agriculture industry Microsoft, Taylor Geospatial, and partners have made global agricultural field boundaries openly accessible. By combining AI, satellite imagery, and open science, we’re turning research into practical tools for food security, climate analysis, and decision-making. With this dataset, analysts can now track changes in farmland use from South Africa to Iowa—helping governments and organizations respond more effectively to food security and water challenges. Explore global field boundaries in our interactive viewer: https://msft.it/6043vpxb3
Every day, we decide what software to trust in seconds—guided by simple labels like “verified,” “secure,” and “safe to install.” The problem is those labels can be manipulated. Fox Tempest exploited that trust, helping malicious software appear legitimate and become a pathway for ransomware and other attacks. Microsoft has taken action to disrupt the service, seizing core infrastructure and degrading its ability to operate at scale. Read more about how code signing was abused, how the operation worked, and why services like this matter: https://msft.it/6041vTfZL
Reducing waste at scale takes more than new materials—it requires rethinking how systems work. At Microsoft, teams across engineering, design, and the supply chain are working to simplify packaging and build sustainability into decisions from the start. It’s detailed, technical work, but it’s also where real progress happens. Meet a few of the people behind this work, and learn how Microsoft is working to responsibly manage our environmental footprint: https://msft.it/6041vRMj5 Featuring Nida Ahmed, MPA, Jeffrey Loth, 唐珮耘, and Clarence Ma.
Ransomware is increasingly disrupting essential services. When hospitals, emergency services, or local governments are targeted, the stakes are the safety of communities and the continuity of critical operations. These attacks have surged 5x in the last five years, highlighting an urgent need for stronger global coordination. Microsoft is advocating for international rules that treat attacks on civilian infrastructure as potential crimes against humanity and close enforcement gaps across borders. Building resilience requires collaboration between governments, industry, and civil society because public safety and trust in digital systems depend on it. Explore Microsoft’s approach and actions: https://msft.it/6044vui4A
New AI-generated media is getting harder to spot, and harder to test. That’s why Microsoft researchers, together with Northwestern University and WITNESS, helped develop a new way to evaluate how detection tools perform in real-world conditions. This work focuses on something practical: how well today’s tools hold up once content is shared, edited, or compressed online. Stronger evaluation methods can help policymakers, platforms, and developers better understand what works—and where gaps remain. Read more about the research: https://msft.it/6047vP7k3