The Microsoft Africa Development Centre (ADC) and Microsoft Leap are delighted to launch an inaugural workshop intentionally designed for university lecturers, proficient in leading technology-focused courses. University lecturers will be provided with an opportunity to engage with fellow educators in skill enhancement modules and identify best practices to incorporate into their curriculum. The 12-week program, which begins on March 6th, will use a hybrid classroom model and practical training to provide instructors with a better understanding of industry requirements and inspire a curriculum change that will align university classrooms with the needs of the technology industry.
“This program is the result of collaboration on many fronts, including university lecturers and their students. The training has been designed to provide lecturers with hands-on experience with industry needs, allowing them to design effective teaching for their students in an equally practical manner. The course will also expose them to advanced topics and allow them to learn and experiment with effective teaching techniques while obtaining essential aspects of carrying out research studies,” said Catherine Muraga, Microsoft ADC Managing Director, at the program’s launch.
Yolanda Natal-Santos, Microsoft Leap’s Senior Business Program Manager says “Rooted in our culture of the growth mindset and the belief that digital skills are for everyone, we are grateful for our partnership with the Microsoft ADC, as we extend Microsoft Leap’s global reach to a region that is rich in culture and talent. The growth of our partnership with the Microsoft ADC, has provided our program with a platform to continue identifying, engaging, and aligning with changemakers in Africa, as we impact and elevate together.”
Working collectively with Engineers from the ADC, Nairobi, the program will enhance skills, based on a curriculum developed and taught by Microsoft Leap instructors.
In addition to technical programming aspects and teaching a hybrid classroom, educators will receive training on specific Microsoft tools that are already being used in classrooms around the world and can be introduced to Kenyan lecture halls. The program will also provide technical educators with the tools they need to introduce popular Microsoft resources like Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Power Platforms, and Microsoft Dynamics. “JKUAT’s Department of Computing is thrilled to participate in the Microsoft Skilling Program, as it will provide our staff with access to cutting-edge technologies and a leading global company. This opportunity to engage with industry-relevant skills and knowledge
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brings great joy to the university”, Dr. Lawrence Nderu, Chairman/Lecturer, Department of Computing, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology said. “The world is changing quickly, and if we are to mould tomorrow’s leaders, we as lecturers must evolve too. Each day, there are new tools and methods being devised that are becoming increasingly crucial to operating within the tech industry. For the sake of our students, it is best that we learn how to leverage industry-standard and emerging technology from industry leaders.”
Githinji emphasised a multi-pronged approach to improving technical education in Kenyan universities. “Improving lecturers’ capacities is line with the ADC’s digital skilling initiatives that range from elementary school-level all the way into the workplace. We held several campus tours last year, which prompted us to begin a curriculum review process with JKUAT. Improving all aspects of the training ladder is critical if we want to create a tech talent pipeline that is not only robust enough to meet today’s needs, but also propels Africa to compete on a global scale,” she added.
The first cohort of 23 educators is drawn from both private and public universities, including Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), Multimedia University, and Kirinyaga University. Strathmore University, KCA University, Kabarak University, USIU- Africa, Zetech University, and Africa Nazarene University are the others.
This course is designed to magnify the lecturer’s delivery of core general management and drive engagement with advanced technology topics. Lecturers will be able to experiment with alternative teaching techniques and glean additional essential insight and research studies best practices.
About Microsoft Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
About the ADC Microsoft launched the Africa Development Centre (ADC) in 2019 with an initial site within Microsoft offices in Nairobi, Kenya, and another in Lagos, Nigeria. The centre’s goal is to attract world-class African engineering talent to create innovative solutions spanning the intelligent cloud and intelligent edge. Since its inception in Nairobi in 2019, the ADC has grown to over 500
Microsoft and OpenAI have been collaborating since 2019, when the tech giant invested $1 billion in the research organization. Since then, they have jointly developed and deployed some of the most impressive AI systems in the world, such as GPT-3, DALL-E, and Codex. These systems have demonstrated remarkable capabilities in natural language processing, computer vision, and code generation, among other domains.
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Many observers believe that this partnership gives Microsoft and OpenAI a significant edge over Google, which has been widely regarded as the leader in AI research and innovation. Google has its own impressive portfolio of AI products and services, such as TensorFlow, Google Cloud AI Platform, Google Assistant, and Google Duplex. However, some argue that Google’s AI efforts are hampered by its reliance on advertising revenue, its lack of focus on social impact, and its internal conflicts over ethical issues.
So will Microsoft and OpenAI surpass Google in the AI battle? It is hard to predict the future of such a fast-moving and competitive field. However, there are some factors that may favor Microsoft and OpenAI’s chances:
Microsoft has a strong presence in the enterprise market, where it can leverage its existing customer base and cloud infrastructure to offer AI solutions that are tailored to specific industries and use cases.
OpenAI has a mission to ensure that artificial intelligence is aligned with human values and can benefit all of humanity. This may attract more talent and support from the research community and the public.
Microsoft and OpenAI have shown a willingness to collaborate with other organizations and share their resources and insights. For example, they have made GPT-3 available to selected developers through an API service, and they have open-sourced some of their tools and frameworks.
Of course, Google is not standing still either. It continues to invest heavily in AI research and development across various domains. It also has some advantages over Microsoft and OpenAI:
Google has access to massive amounts of data from its various platforms and services. This data can be used to train more powerful AI models that can learn from diverse sources of information.
Google has a culture of innovation that encourages experimentation and risk-taking. This may enable it to discover new breakthroughs or applications for AI that others may not foresee.
Google has a global reach that allows it to deploy its AI solutions to billions of users around the world. This may give it more feedback on how its systems perform in different contexts.
Ultimately, the competition between Microsoft + OpenAI vs Google may not be a zero-sum game. There may be room for multiple players in the AI space who can contribute different perspectives or approaches. The real challenge may be how to ensure that these players cooperate rather than conflict with each other on issues such as fairness, accountability, and transparency of their AI systems.
What do you think? Who will win the AI battle? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most revolutionary technologies of our time. It has the potential to transform every aspect of our lives, from health care to entertainment. But who will lead the AI race? Will it be Google, the search giant that has been investing heavily in AI research and development for years? Or will it be Microsoft, the software behemoth that has partnered with OpenAI, the ambitious research organization that aims to create artificial general intelligence (AGI), a level of AI that can perform any task a human can?
In this blog post, I will explore the strengths and weaknesses of both Google and Microsoft + OpenAI in their quest for AI supremacy. I will also discuss some of the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for both parties.
Google: The Search King
Google is widely regarded as one of the leaders in AI. It has a large and talented team of researchers and engineers working on various aspects of AI, such as natural language processing (NLP), computer vision, speech recognition, machine learning, and deep learning. Google also has access to massive amounts of data from its popular products and services, such as Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps, Google Photos, and Google Assistant. Data is essential for training and improving AI models.
Some of Google’s notable achievements in AI include:
Developing TensorFlow, an open-source framework for building and deploying machine learning models.
Creating BERT, a state-of-the-art NLP model that can understand natural language queries better than previous models.
Launching Duplex, a system that can make phone calls on behalf of users to book appointments or make reservations.
Building AlphaGo, an AI program that defeated the world champion of Go, a complex board game that requires intuition and creativity.
Google’s main advantage in the AI race is its dominance in search. Search is not only a lucrative business for Google but also a powerful source of information and knowledge. By analyzing billions of queries every day, Google can learn about user preferences, behavior patterns, trends, and needs. This allows Google to improve its products and services with personalized recommendations, relevant ads, and useful features.
However, Google also faces some challenges in its pursuit of AI excellence. One challenge is competition from other tech giants like Amazon, Facebook, and Apple, who are also investing heavily in AI and have their own data sources and platforms to leverage. Another challenge is regulation and ethics issues that may arise from using and developing AI in sensitive domains like health care, education, or finance. Google may have to deal with privacy concerns, bias allegations, or legal disputes that could hamper its innovation or reputation.
Microsoft + OpenAI: The Dream Team
Microsoft is another major player in the AI field. It has a long history of developing software solutions for various industries and markets. It also has a strong presence in cloud computing with Azure, its platform for hosting and managing applications and services. Microsoft has been investing in AI research and development for decades but has recently ramped up its efforts by partnering with OpenAI, an independent research organization that was founded by some prominent figures in tech like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Reid Hoffman.
OpenAI’s mission is to ensure that AGI is aligned with human values and can benefit humanity as a whole.
OpenAI has made some impressive breakthroughs in AI such as:
Creating GPT-3, a massive NLP model that can generate coherent text on almost any topic given a few words or sentences as input.
Developing DALL-E, an image generation model that can create realistic images from text descriptions or sketches.
Building Codex, a code generation model that can write functional code from natural language commands or examples.
Microsoft’s main advantage in the AI race is its partnership with OpenAI. By collaborating with OpenAI, Microsoft gains access to some of the most cutting-edge research and talent in AI.
Microsoft also provides OpenAI with financial support, technical resources, and distribution channels to scale up its projects and reach more users. Together, Microsoft + OpenAI form a formidable team that can challenge Google’s leadership position.
However, Microsoft + OpenAI also face some obstacles in their quest for AI supremacy. One obstacle is complexity. Creating AGI is not an easy task; it requires solving many hard problems like reasoning, planning, learning from feedback, and generalizing across domains. Another obstacle is uncertainty
Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms in the world, with over 1.4 billion monthly active users. The app is constantly evolving and introducing new features to keep its users engaged and entertained. One of the latest changes that Instagram announced is a redesign of its home screen navigation bar, which will take effect next month.
The new navigation bar will have four tabs: Home, Explore, Reels, and Profile. The Home tab will show you your main feed of posts from accounts you follow. The Explore tab will help you discover new content based on your interests and preferences. The Reels tab will showcase short-form videos from creators around the world. And the Profile tab will let you access your own account settings, stories, posts, reels, guides, and more.
With Reels on Instagram, you can create short, impressive, and addictive videos of 15-30 seconds in length.
But what happened to the Shop tab and the Create post button that used to be on the navigation bar? Well, Instagram decided to remove them and move them elsewhere on the app. According to Instagram’s blog post, “With more people creating and watching short entertaining videos on Instagram than ever before we want to make it easier for people to access this content.” That’s why they moved the Reels tab to the center spot on the navigation bar, replacing the Shop tab.
The Shop tab was introduced in November 2020 as a way to make it easier for users to discover and buy products from their favorite brands and creators on Instagram. However, it seems that Instagram realized that shopping was not a priority for most of its users when they opened the app. Instead, they wanted to see more engaging content like reels.
That doesn’t mean that shopping is gone from Instagram altogether. You can still access it by tapping on a shopping bag icon at the top right corner of your home screen or by swiping left on your main feed. You can also find shoppable posts with product tags throughout your feed and explore page.
As for creating a new post, you can do that by tapping on a plus sign icon at the bottom left corner of your home screen or by swiping right on your main feed. You can also create stories by tapping on your profile picture at the top left corner of your home screen or by swiping right from anywhere on the app.
The redesign of Instagram’s home screen navigation bar is part of its ongoing effort to adapt to changing user behavior and preferences. By giving more prominence to reels, Instagram hopes to compete with other short-form video platforms like TikTok and YouTube Shorts. By moving shopping and creating posts to secondary locations, Instagram hopes to streamline its user experience and focus on its core features.
What do you think of these changes? Do you like them or not? Let us know in the comments below!
Video games are a popular form of entertainment for people of all ages, but who plays them the most? You might think that Generation Z, the cohort born between 1997 and 2012, would be the most avid gamers, since they grew up with digital technology and have access to a wide range of gaming platforms. However, according to a recent survey by Redmond Pie, people in their 30s actually play video games more than Generation Z.
The survey found that 86% of respondents aged 30 to 39 reported playing video games in the past six months, compared to 81% of those aged 18 to 29. Moreover, people in their 30s spent an average of 8 hours and 13 minutes per week on gaming, while those in their late teens and twenties spent only 7 hours and 20 minutes. So what explains this surprising trend?
One possible reason is nostalgia. People in their 30s grew up with classic video games such as Super Mario Bros., Sonic the Hedgehog, Tetris, and Pokemon. These games have a nostalgic appeal for many older gamers who may want to relive their childhood memories or share them with their own children. In fact, some of the most popular video games today are remakes or sequels of old favorites, such as Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, Final Fantasy VII Remake, and Pokemon Sword and Shield.
Another possible reason is financial stability. People in their 30s tend to have more disposable income than younger generations who may be struggling with student debt or low wages. This means that they can afford to buy more expensive gaming devices such as consoles or PCs, as well as more games and subscriptions. They may also have more leisure time than younger generations who may be busy with school or work.
A third possible reason is diversity. Video games today offer a wider variety of genres, themes, styles, and modes than ever before. There is something for everyone’s taste and preference: from casual puzzle games to hardcore shooters; from realistic simulations to fantasy adventures; from single-player campaigns to multiplayer online battles; from indie titles to blockbuster franchises. People in their 30s may enjoy exploring different types of games and finding new experiences.
In conclusion, while it may be assumed that Generation Z is the most hooked on video games, people in their 30s are actually more likely to be gaming enthusiasts. From nostalgia to financial stability to a wider variety of game offerings, there are many factors that may contribute to this trend.
