You certainly couldn’t blame Microsoft if they didn’t want anything to do with Elon Musk, as the richest man in the world is currently suing the tech company and remains in conflict with founder Bill Gates, yet he made a shocking surprise appearance at the recent annual developer conference.

Elon Musk hasn’t exactly been a friendly presence towards Microsoft in recent years, as beyond being general rivals in the dog-eat-dog world of technology, the billionaire has never shied away from making his own stances clear.

While not directly connected to the company any more, Musk’s bitter back and forth with Microsoft founder Bill Gates has been all over the news, especially since Elon took on a prominent role in President Trump’s administration.

Gates has branded Musk’s politics as ‘insane s***’ and argued that he’s ‘killing children’ after the Department of Government Efficiency cut key foreign aid initiatives – although he is still open to working with him at some point in the future.

In response, Musk called Gates a ‘huge liar’, and emphasized a connection between Gates and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein on a recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience.

Furthermore, Musk’s interactions with Microsoft directly aren’t that much better, as he’s currently in a lengthy anti-competition legal battle with the company over their partnership with OpenAI and long-time Musk rival Sam Altman.

However, despite all of this Musk still somehow made a shocking appearance at Microsoft’s recent annual developer conference, where it was announced that the company’s cloud computing platform will now be hosting Elon’s AI chatbot Grok, as reported by AP.

Musk appeared virtually on the conference screen following the major reveal, and primarily discussed the self-professed ‘mistakes’ that Grok’s parent company xAI has made, which are likely the recent references towards ‘white genocide’ in South Africa and even holocaust denial that the AI repeatedly made to unrelated requests.

Musk’s appearance at the Microsoft conference saw him apologetic for the ‘mistakes’ that Grok and xAI have made in recent weeks (Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images)

“I do wanna emphasize we have made and will make mistakes,” Musk explained, “but we aspire to correct them very quickly.”

Musk also added that “we are very much looking forward to feedback from the development community to say, what do you need, where were we wrong, how can we make it better, and have Grok be something that the development community is very excited to use and somewhere that they feel like their feedback has been heard and Grok is improving and serving their needs.”

Musk has been making a big push for Grok in recent months, especially in competition to the advancements that rivals like ChatGPT have been making, and this was especially bolstered by the recent purchase of X (formerly Twitter) by xAI, which one expert indicates is a concerning move for anyone worried about privacy.Featured Image Credit: Win McNamee / Staff via Getty

Microsoft cuts thousands of employees weeks after Bill Gates revealed which three jobs would survive AI

If Bill Gates knows anything, it’s how to earn money. The co-founder of Microsoft has made his billions from the tech scene, notably serving as the world’s richest person for 18 out of 24 years between 1995 and 2017. He also has the honor of being the world’s first centibillionaire.

Although Bill Gates has long stepped down from being Microsoft CEO, he serves as technology adviser to current CEO Satya Nadella and still carries plenty of gravitas when discussing the current state of the tech world.

He’s notably spoken out about advancements in artificial intelligence and how it could change our work lives for the better. The billionaire predicts that we could eventually end up with a two-day working week as AI takes over ‘most things’ that humans do, and while that might sound great to some who are sick of the 9 to 5 grind, there’s the obvious question about what we’ll do for money without our careers.

Gates has shared some of these concerns, suggesting that only three jobs will survive the upcoming AI revolution. According to Gates, coders, biologists, and energy experts will be indispensable amid the great AI culling, potentially leaving the rest of us out in the cold.

This has unfortunately been hammered home by Microsoft laying off thousands of employees. As confirmed by CNBC, Microsoft is laying off 3% of its entire workforce, across all levels, teams, and territories.

3% might not sound like much to some, but with Microsoft boasting 228,000 employees worldwide at the end of June 2024, that would equate to nearly 7,000 jobs. It also comes after the tech giant reported some reasonably cheery forecast results of $25.8 billion in quarterly net income in late April.

This isn’t the first time Microsoft has been gutted by layoffs, although CNBC notes the 3% falls short of the massive round of layoffs that saw 10,000 staff get shown the door in 2023.

In a statement to the outlet, a Microsoft spokesperson explained: “We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company for success in a dynamic marketplace.”