Tag: Microsoft

Global technology leader Microsoft has inaugurated its inaugural hyperscale data centre in New Zealand, aiming to provide businesses and organizations with advanced tools designed to significantly enhance productivity.

Vanessa Sorenson, Microsoft’s country manager, highlighted that the New Zealand data centre stands as the most sustainable in the company’s portfolio, which spans over 60 locations worldwide. In 2022, Microsoft invested $300 million in Contact Energy to support the development of the Te Huka Unit 3 geothermal facility, along with a decade-long contract for renewable energy.

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The data centre’s location on Auckland’s North Shore remains undisclosed due to commercial sensitivity. Notable customers include the multinational intelligence alliance Five Eyes, dairy cooperative Fonterra, and ASB Bank. Sorenson noted that keeping New Zealand’s sensitive data within the country addresses a critical security issue, enabling banking infrastructure and public sector systems, such as taxation, to be hosted on public cloud for the first time.

Advanced Technology and AI Integration

Sorenson emphasized that the new centre offers the most advanced technology available, with the potential to integrate artificial intelligence, which is crucial for driving much-needed productivity improvements. She expressed her hope that New Zealand businesses and government fully grasp the magnitude of the launch, stating that the cloud capacity would empower local innovators to expand on a global scale.

“This is a full region, three-zone (buildings) centre, which is something that we never thought would ever come to New Zealand because of our size,” Sorenson remarked.

Significant Investment and Expansion Plans

While the total investment in training and development of the data centre was not disclosed, Sorenson confirmed it to be a large-scale investment in the hundreds of millions of dollars, with potential for further expansion both within the country and in the cloud. Microsoft has acquired additional land for future expansion and views New Zealand as an excellent country for investment, especially with the renewable energy contract with Contact Energy.

“We want to grow. We’ve been in the country for near on 40 years. This investment is going to have us here for the next 50 to 100. This is about the long game… we are definitely a country that Microsoft globally has seen as a worthy investment,” Sorenson concluded.

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To maximize the opportunities presented by the new data centre, Sorenson acknowledged the need for widespread upskilling of the New Zealand workforce. Microsoft is partnering with educational services to provide free online training to upskill 100,000 individuals over the next two years.

“The certifications will be free, they will be online, and we’ll hand-hold and take people through the journey,” Sorenson said. “We see it is an enabler for more organizations to leverage gen-AI (generative artificial intelligence) than ever before.”

Now rolling out to Windows Insiders in Windows 11 is a new Rewrite option for Notepad that promises to spruce up your text with the help of AI. Using an AI model called GPT, Rewrite can revise sentences, modify the tone, or alter the length of your text, explains Microsoft.

To take Rewrite for a spin, you’ll need the latest Canary or Dev build on Windows 11. Assuming you’re already registered with the Windows Insider program with either of these builds, head to Settings, select Windows Update, and click the button for Check for Updates.

You should also make sure you’re running the latest version of Notepad. For that, open the Microsoft Store app, click the icon for Downloads, and then update all your installed apps.

Further, you’ll need to be signed into Windows with the Microsoft account registered with the Insider program. Microsoft says that’s because Rewrite is a cloud-based service that requires authentication and access to the AI credits necessary for generating content.

Now, fire up Notepad and type some text you want to revise, anything from a couple of words to an entire document. 

Windows Insiders can access Rewrite by highlighting text in a Notepad window and right-clicking it in the menu or pushing the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+I. A dialogue box will open showing the AI’s suggested rewrites of the highlighted text and the adjustable features menus including “Longer,” “Tone” and “Format” above the “Replace” button. If you prefer to write with just your fingers and brain, you can turn off the AI feature in the app settings menu, according to the official Windows blog.

In response, the AI overhauls your text and generates three versions of the rewrite. Check each version to find the one you prefer. If you don’t like any of them, tweak the settings and try again. When a suitable draft finally pops up, apply the changes to your original text.

With the Rewrite feature currently limited to the Dev or Canary Windows 11 insider builds, we’ll likely have to wait at least a few months before the option pops up in the standard version of Notepad.