Microsoft supremacy

about AI levels of intelligence and how these chatbots "could soon overtake the level of information that a human brain holds." A BBC article utilises a useful analogy to explain this: if we were to imagine 10,000 people taught about different topics, it would take considerable time for all this knowledge to become universal, yet with AI this knowledge is able to be shared instantly — as if they were one.

Now, while AI develops at an alarming speed, several in the field share concerns and in March, an open letter was co-signed "including [by] the tech billionaire Elon Musk" calling "for a pause on all development... so robust safety measures could be designed and implemented." Unfortunately, change seems unlikely to follow, as due to international competition, other countries would simply fall behind in progress. Though the current inability to delete the AI frustrates many, perhaps for some it will provide a much-needed source of communication and company.

Oliver Lamb, Deputy Editor, unpicks Microsoft's possible acquisition of Activision

FOR the world of games it has been a tumultuous fortnite. On the 26th April the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority blocked Microsoft’s attempted purchase of Activision Blizzard, the videogame firm behind Call of Duty , World of Warcraft , Candy Crush Saga and Overwatch , among others. The $69 billion (£56 billion) bid was unprecedented both for Microsoft and for the videogame industry. Microsoft branded the regulator’s decision “bad for Britain” and Activision said “the UK is clearly closed for business”. But the UK is not the only country worried about the purchase. There are concerns in Canada, and the US Federal Trade Commission is already taking Microsoft to court.

produce more games for mobile phones. Sony fears that Microsoft intends to rob PlayStation of popular games. That echoes the concerns of regulators, who think Microsoft could make it more expensive, harder or impossible to play certain games on rival consoles.

In a provisional decision in February, the CMA said that the potential purchase of Activision risked stifling competition and innovation in the cloud gaming market. Cloud gaming, or game streaming, allows gamers to play on any device, not just consoles. It is likely to become a major force in the games sector in the near future: by 2026 it is forecast to be worth £11 billion globally and £1 billion in the UK. Microsoft already accounts for 60-70 per cent of cloud gaming services. In an attempt to alleviate the CMA’s concerns, the company proposed to set out which games it must offer to which platforms and under what conditions over ten years, but this was deemed to be insufficient for a rapidly changing market.

Microsoft says it will appeal the British decision. Why, it argues, would it prevent millions of customers from buying the games of which it is the would-be owner? In support of this point, the company can hold up the deal it struck with Nintendo for Call of Duty to be available on the latter’s consoles — an arrangement it says it has offered to Sony. But Microsoft is also planning to make some future games from the videogame company Bethesda — acquired in 2020 for $7.5 billion (£6.1 billion) — exclusive to Xbox.

Gareth Sutcliffe, senior games analyst at Enders Analysis, said the deal "has been in trouble for a while" and that Microsoft "simply didn't do the necessary regulator outreach to get this deal over the line".

In the aftermath of the CMA’s ruling, Microsoft’s rhetoric has been dramatic. If I’d needed to pad out the word count, I could have quoted just about every word of President Brad Smith’s response. He called it the “darkest day in our four decades in Britain”, and said that “People are shocked, people are disappointed, and people's confidence in technology in the UK has been severely shaken."

He continued that “the European Union is a more attractive place to start a business than the United Kingdom.” His attacks on the British games sector have brought No. 10 into the fray, with Rishi Sunak’s spokesman highlighting the fact that the industry has doubled in size over the last decade.

Sony’s PlayStation outsells Microsoft’s Xbox, and has done for a while. To catch up, Microsoft wants to have more big titles on its subscription service Game Pass, as well as

Microsoft is not alone in its opposition to the ruling. Sir Ian Livingstone, the co-founder of Games Workshop, said that the British games sector supported the record bid. The battle is not over, but this is a major blow to Microsoft.