US Gov Intervention in Microsoft & Google AI Cloud War

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This Week in IT, Google asks US government to break apart Microsoft’s exclusive deal with Open AI, organizations are struggling to keep up with AI storage requirements, and some Windows news for enterprises and Copilot+ PC owners.

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Episode overview

This week’s IT news covers Google’s request to break apart Microsoft’s deal with OpenAI, storage challenges for AI, and updates on Windows and Outlook.

Exchange Server Update: The final cumulative update for Exchange Server 2019 has been delayed to January 2025, with the server set to reach end of life in October 2025.

Google vs. Microsoft’s OpenAI Deal: Google has asked the US government to break up Microsoft’s exclusive contract with OpenAI, which involves Microsoft providing compute power in exchange for access to OpenAI’s services and intellectual property.

Potential Impact on Cloud Providers: If Google’s request is granted, AWS, and Google Cloud Platform could host OpenAI services, although it’s uncertain if they have the capacity to handle the additional load.

Artificial General Intelligence Debate: OpenAI claims that artificial general intelligence could be achieved by 2025 with current hardware, but Microsoft disagrees. The partnership between the two companies would become void upon reaching this milestone.

Storage Requirements for AI: Organizations might need a 150% increase in storage by 2026 due to AI, as more data is required to train models and ensure trustworthy results.

New Outlook Migration: Microsoft plans to automatically migrate enterprise users to the new version of Outlook by April 2026, with support for the legacy client until at least 2029.

Windows Recall Feature: The Windows Recall feature, initially exclusive to Snapdragon Qualcomm chips, is now available for Intel and AMD Copilot+ PCs, expected to be generally available in early 2025.