Microsoft has rolled out a new version of its Teams messaging service powered by ChatGPT. Teams Premium includes an intelligent recap feature that uses the OpenAI-owned chatbot as an AI personal assistant.
It can create full transcripts of meetings with each speaker’s contributions highlighted in a neat timeline of topics and chapters, and personalised timeline markers for when employees join and leave. It takes notes, generates meeting templates, and can come up with task and action item suggestions.
Teams Premium also includes advanced safeguards for businesses which want to deter information leaks and keep meeting discussions private, including watermarking, content-labeling, and recording and copying restrictions. Teams Premium is available at an introductory price of £5.80 ($7, €6.50) per user per month until the end of June and then it will cost £8.30 ($10, €9.25).
This update to Microsoft’s business communication platform follows its recent £8.3bn ($10bn, €9.2bn) investment in Open AI, and shows the promise of Industry 4.0 where consumers will be led to collaborate with AI technologies as part of their working lives.
Microsoft Teams, US
Mercedes-Benz in collaboration with Heron Preston, US
US – German car manufacturer Mercedes-Benz has brought its Drive Pilot automated driving system to the US, after it was first launched in Germany in 2022. Nevada is the first US state to confirm approval of the system, which the car brand says is the first and only Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Level 3 system in a standard production vehicle authorised for use on US public freeways. It has applied for approval in California.
The Drive Pilot system allows the driver to hand over control to the vehicle under certain conditions and up to the speed of 40mph. When the driver activates it, the system controls the speed and distance, and effortlessly guides the vehicle within its lane, using evasive manoeuvres within the lane or by braking.
Making use of LiDAR sensor tech, Mercedes-Benz says the tech is primarily driven by safety needs (including door-unlock protocols) – although chief technology officer Markus Schäfer notes that the company is trading in lifestyle values, such as time scarcity. ‘In the modern world, time is one of the most precious commodities, and giving back time to our customers is a core element in our strategy to build the world’s most desirable cars. Our Drive Pilot takes a major step forward in achieving that.’
There may be some way to go before consumers are comfortable with the tech, however. It was reported in June 2022 that there had been 400 crashes of vehicles with partially automated driver-assist systems in 11 months in the US.
