Microsoft’s Copilot AI assistant is exposing the contents of more than 20,000 private GitHub repositories from companies including Google, Intel, Huawei, PayPal, IBM, Tencent and, ironically, Microsoft.

These repositories, belonging to more than 16,000 organizations, were originally posted to GitHub as public, but were later set to private, often after the developers responsible realized they contained authentication credentials allowing unauthorized access or other types of confidential data. Even months later, however, the private pages remain available in their entirety through Copilot.

AI security firm Lasso discovered the behavior in the second half of 2024. After finding in January that Copilot continued to store private repositories and make them available, Lasso set out to measure how big the problem really was.

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Microsoft finally released a macOS app for Copilot, its free generative AI chatbot.  Similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other AI chatbots, Copilot enables users to ask questions and receive responses generated by AI. Copilot is designed to assist users in numerous tasks, such as drafting emails, summarizing documents, writing cover letters, and more. There’s also […]

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Data exposed even briefly can live on in generative AI chatbots long after the data is made private.

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Mark Stephens, a retired pilot, walks us through how a Delta Airlines plane crash-landed and flipped in Toronto with everyone onboard surviving.

In this post, we explain the many Microsoft Copilots available and what they do, and highlight the key differences between each.

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GitHub has announced a slew of updates for Copilot, while also giving a glimpse into a more agentic future for its AI-powered pair programmer. Among the notable updates includes a feature called Vision for Copilot, which allows users to attach a screenshot, photo, or diagram to a chat, with Copilot generating the interface, code, and […]

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• Over the past year, there have been more stories of airline crashes.
• Aerophobia, or fear of flying, can be heightened from reading distressing news about flights.
• Two therapists shared tips on how to manage anxiety and fear around flying.

If you're nervous every time you get on a flight, reading the news doesn't help.

On Monday, a Delta plane flipped upside down while landing in Toronto's main airport, injuring 21 people. The footage comes a few weeks after a military helicopter collided with an American Airlines passenger jet in DC, killing all 64 people aboard both flights.

Those with aerophobia, or fear of flying, might feel vindicated in their worries after reading the past year's stories of commercial planes crashing, losing doors mid-flight, or flying through increased turbulence.

"Now they're going to say, 'I was right all along,'" Tom Bunn, a retired airline captain and licensed therapist specializing in aviation phobias, told Business Insider.

Prerna Menon, a New York City therapist, has seen the issue come up a lot in her practice. She said her clients' symptoms worsen as they consume more news about crashes.

Bunn and Menon shared a few tips to overcome flying phobias, whether you feel increased discomfort when you land or avoid flying completely.

Where you sit can help you feel a sense of control

For many fearful fliers, the root issue is feeling a lack of control.

Bunn gave an example of a client — an airline captain — who one day felt anxious sitting in an economy middle seat. "If he was in the cockpit, he wouldn't have any trouble because he's in control," Bunn said.

Takeoff, landing, and bad turbulence can exacerbate that feeling of helplessness, Menon said. The tricky thing is finding a way to process your feelings in the moment. "Now that fight-or-flight response has been activated, and you're confined to a seat, you're not really able to expel that anxiety."

For anxious passengers, you can choose a seat closer to the front or over the wing, where you can see outside.

While some experts say it doesn't make much difference, one flight anxiety coach told Condé Nast Traveler that he recommends sitting in the center of the plane. "Factually speaking, the point of balance is over the wings or maybe slightly forward. This is considered the 'best place' by many," Paul Tizzard, a coach with LoveFly, told the outlet.

Don't try to fly your way out of a phobia

For many phobias, treatment involves some form of gradual exposure therapy. Aerophobia is different because "either you're flying or you're not," Bunn said.

However, you don't want to force yourself to go on a bunch of flights, Bunn said. "Once you get sensitized to not being in control and able to escape, you're only going to make it worse."

Instead, he said it's best to start as small as possible, breaking down each part of the flight into bite-sized pieces. Take-off, for example, isn't just one event. "The engines rev up, and when they do, the pitch goes higher," he said.

He recommends having someone you feel safe around, like a partner or friend, hold neutral photographs of an airplane terminal, a plane in flight, and a plane landing to change your associations with the images. You can also picture them holding up the photographs while looking you in the eye, which can have a calming effect.

Menon also said exposure to more neutral images of planes, especially in contrast to distressing videos on social media, can help. If your fear of flying is severe, she recommended taking small steps like going with a loved one to an airport.

Engage your senses when you're in the air

Once you're on a flight, your options for calming down are more limited. Some techniques involve engaging your physical senses to pull away from ruminating.

Bunn suggested using the 54321 grounding exercise, in which you identify five things you can see, four things you can touch, three things you can hear, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste. (Doing it in that order makes it harder for your brain to blow through the steps quickly, he said.)

If you anticipate being nervous on a flight, Menon said you can bring a tactile activity with you, such as crocheting, drawing, or playing with a fidget toy. "Engaging multiple senses allows us to anchor our minds and bodies into the present moment," she said.

Try the 4-7-8 breathing trick

It sounds simple, but breathing exercises work to quell your fears. Mindful breathing "slows down our heart rate and triggers the relaxation response," Menon said.

Menon recommended the 4-7-8 breathing pattern, in which you inhale for four seconds, hold for seven, and exhale for eight.

Bunn agreed. He said exhaling for longer than you inhale is his trick for calming the nervous system. He added that it may not be a perfect cure-all, especially in times of turbulence.

"When the plane drops, everybody's going to get some stress hormones released, some more than others," he said.

To get the most out of this trick, Menon said it's best to do it a few times prior to boarding the aircraft, as well as when you just sat down.

Look at other stressors in your life

If you suddenly developed aerophobia as an adult, Bunn said it could help to look at other stressors in your life, particularly ones that leave you feeling powerless.

Often, "straws have been put on the camel's back for years," he said, making you less tolerant of situations where you feel trapped — like being on a plane.

At an event in New York City on Thursday, Microsoft unveiled two additions to the Surface line of PCs. The new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop both arrive with Copilot+ PC certification. Announced in May 2024, the program aims to identify business-focused devices that are designed specifically for the company’s AI platform, Copilot. It’s a […]

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• Elon Musk brought up fairy tales, trains, and toddlers during Tesla's fourth-quarter earnings call.
• The carmaker's CEO also touched on telescopes, Superman, and inventors shouting "Eureka!"
• Scroll down for Musk's nine best quotes from the call.

Elon Musk touched on everything from fairy tales and toddlers to trains and telescopes during Tesla's fourth-quarter earnings call on Wednesday.

The automaker's CEO nodded to "The Boy Who Cried Wolf," joked about people shooting lasers out of their eyes like Superman, and said he wanted to "make manufacturing cool again."

Here are Musk's nine best quotes from the call:

1. "Some of these things I've said for quite a long time, and I know people have said, 'Well, Elon is the boy who cried wolf like several times.' But I'm telling you, there's a damn wolf this time, and you can drive it. In fact, it could drive you. It's a self-driving wolf." (Musk was joking about how he'd repeatedly pushed back the release of Full Self-Driving.)
2. "For a lot of people, they, like, their experience of Tesla autonomy is like — if it's even a year old, if it's even two years old — it's like meeting someone when they're like a toddler and thinking that they're going to be a toddler forever. But obviously they're not going be a toddler forever. They grow up. But if their last experience was like, 'Oh, FSD was a toddler.' It's like: 'Well, it's grown up now. Have you seen it? It's like, walks and talks.'"

3. "It's one of those things where I think long term, Optimus will be — Optimus has the potential to be north of $10 trillion in revenue, like it's really bananas. So, that, you can obviously afford a lot of training compute in that situation. In fact, even $500 billion training compute in that situation would be quite a good deal." (Musk was discussing how much it might cost to train Tesla's humanoid robots and how lucrative they could be for the company.)

   

4. "Now, with Optimus, there's a lot of uncertainty on the exact timing because it's not like a train arriving at the station for Optimus. And like, we're literally designing the train and the tracks and the station in real time."
5. "There is no company in the world that is as good at real-world AI as Tesla. I don't even know who's in second place. Like you say, like, who's in the second place for real-world AI? I would need a very big telescope to see them. That's how far behind they are."

6. "The Hollywood thing is like, it's like some lone inventor in a garage goes 'Eureka!' and, suddenly, it files a patent and, suddenly, there's millions of units. I'm like, listen guys, we're missing really 99% of the story.

   "Hollywood shows you the 1% inspiration but forgets about the 99% perspiration of actually figuring out how to make that initial prototype manufacturable and then manufactured at high volume such that the product is reliable, low cost, consistent, doesn't break down all the time, and that is 100 times harder at least than the prototype."

7. "Obviously, humans drive without shooting lasers out of their eyes — I mean, unless you're Superman."
   (Musk was explaining why he doesn't believe LiDAR is the best technology to enable autonomous driving.)
8. "Well, at Tesla, obviously, we think manufacturing is cool. SpaceX, we think manufacturing is cool. But in general, for talented Americans, they need to — beyond my companies, beyond me and my teams here, in general, we need to make manufacturing cool again in America. And like, I honestly think people should move from like law and finance into manufacturing. That's my honest opinion. We have too many — this is both a compliment and a criticism. We have too much talent in law and finance in America, and there should be more of that talent in manufacturing."
9. "But yeah, we're in this perverse situation where people will turn the car off autopilot so the computer doesn't yell at them, check their text messages while steering the car with their knee and not looking out the window."
   (Musk was discussing how Tesla's autopilot warns drivers not to look at their devices for safety, leading some to enable manual driving and then check their texts and emails.)

Microsoft has two announcements for subscribers to its Microsoft 365 Personal and Family plans today. First, you're getting the Copilot-powered AI features that Microsoft has been rolling out to businesses and Copilot Pro subscribers, like summarizing or generating text in Word, drafting slideshows in PowerPoint based on a handful of criteria, or analyzing data in Excel. Second, you'll be paying more for the privilege of using those features, to the tune of an extra $3 a month or $30 a year.

This raises the price of a Microsoft 365 Personal subscription from $7 a month or $70 a year to $10 and $100; a family subscription goes from $10 a month or $100 a year to $13 a month or $130 a year. For current subscribers, these prices go into effect the next time your plan renews.

Current subscribers are also being given an escape hatch "for a limited time." "Classic" Personal and Family plans at the old prices with no Copilot features included will still be offered, but you'll need to go to the "services & subscriptions" page of your Microsoft account and attempt to cancel your existing subscription to be offered the discounted pricing.

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Microsoft is launching a pay-as-you-go plan for corporate customers that bundles several, but not all, of the company’s existing AI-powered productivity features for Microsoft 365. The new plan, Copilot Chat — not to be confused with Microsoft’s Copilot Business Chat or GitHub Copilot Chat — is underpinned by OpenAI’s GPT-4o AI model and lets users […]

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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has announced a dramatic restructuring of the company's engineering organization, which is pivoting the company's focus to developing the tools that will underpin agentic AI.

Dubbed "CoreAI - Platform and Tools," the new division rolls the existing AI platform team and the previous developer division (responsible for everything from .NET to Visual Studio) along with some other teams into one big group.

As for what this group will be doing specifically, it's basically everything that's mission-critical to Microsoft in 2025, as Nadella tells it:

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• Copilot is Microsoft's generative AI tool now featured in much of its productivity programs.
• Copilot can draft text, analyze information and data, and suggest ideas.
• Copilot has also been plagued with security issues, and customers have criticized its effectiveness.

The entire tech industry is mired in an AI arms race, and Microsoft bet big on Copilot, its generative artificial intelligence chatbot.

Microsoft released Copilot in 2023, and rapidly rolled it out across various products and softwares. The company markets Copilot as a tool to help users with productivity tasks such as drafting a memo for work, adding to or amending hectic calendars, analyzing a spreadsheet or a few lines of code, or even writing a poem or short story.

By combing the vastness of the internet in fractions of a second to source troves of information and then engaging in machine learning and informed prediction, Copilot can create content; it can analyze, interpret, and explain extant data; and it can create systems for planning and managing many aspects of your life, from work to recreation to hobbies and more.

"We believe Copilot will be the new UI that helps you gain access to the world's knowledge and your organization's knowledge, but most importantly, it will be your agent that helps you act on that knowledge," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said during a keynote address at Microsoft's annual Microsoft Ignite business conference in November 2023.

Not long after Copilot's launch, industry experts predicted that for the fiscal year 2024, Copilot would generate billions for the company. However, the AI tool is not without its flaws. Customers and company insiders have criticized Copilot for its ineffectiveness and cost, and IT leaders have questioned its value to their companies; the widespread disappointment in Copilot has raised doubts over its long-term profitability.

What is Microsoft Copilot AI?

Microsoft Copilot is an AI-powered chatbot that relies on large language models (often shorted to LLMs) to help users with productivity and content creation tasks. The more you use it, the more it learns about your interests, preferences, and habits, and the better it tailors itself to serving your needs. It's available for use on Windows, Macs, and both the Apple iOS, and Android mobile platforms.

You can use Microsoft Copilot in many programs that you likely already use, including Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, and more. It can assist you in rapidly creating and editing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and more, acting both as your content creator and an editor and sort of AI coworker.

The basic version of Microsoft Copilot is free to use on the web, in Windows, with a Mac OS, and with Android and iOS. The free version includes access to GPT-4, GPT-4 Turbo, and GPT-4o during non-peak times. It also allows users to create and edit AI images, use plugins, and more.

However, there is also a paid version of Copilot called Copilot Pro, which offers more advanced features and better access. Copilot Pro includes all the features of the free version, plus priority model access and the ability to use Copilot in Microsoft apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote.

To use Copilot Pro, you need a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscription, which costs $6.99 per month for a personal subscription and $9.99 per month for a family subscription, good for up to six users. With Copilot Pro added, the total cost is around $26.99 per month.

Is Microsoft Copilot better than ChatGPT?

In some ways and for some uses, Copilot can be more effective than ChatGPT. Copilot is better for quick, tactical tasks that come about during your workflow, while ChatGPT is more commonly used for broader tasks and conversational AI, like for writing a creative story or rehearsing before a meeting or interview.

Copilot is part of the Microsoft ecosystem and can easily pull information from across Microsoft applications, which can be helpful, and it can also reply to questions with visual responses, such as photos and images. Also, unlike ChatGPT, which doesn't provide sources for its responses, Copilot does, making cross-referencing and fact-checking easier. That said, the paid version of ChatGPT is only $20 a month, so it's $7 cheaper than Copilot Pro.

What are the risks of using Microsoft Copilot?

Using Microsoft Copilot can pose several risks, including data leakage. Customers have already raised multiple security issues with Copilot, and in some cases delayed deployment over the concerns.

Copilot can generate outputs that include sensitive data, which may be shared with the wrong audience as the AI simply doesn't know better. For example, while you use Microsoft Teams, Copilot could summarize conversations and record action items against your better judgement, which could accidentally reveal private information.

There is also the all-too-common human problem of over-reliance. As Copilot and other AI tools become increasingly integrated into daily life, users may unknowingly rely on it more, which could impact investment and strategic decisions, how they write and express themselves, and frankly how much creative and critical thinking they do.

If you asked someone what they wanted from TVs released in 2025, I doubt they'd say "more software and AI." Yet, if you look at what TV companies have planned for this year, which is being primarily promoted at the CES technology trade show in Las Vegas this week, software and AI are where much of the focus is.

The trend reveals the implications of TV brands increasingly viewing themselves as software rather than hardware companies, with their products being customer data rather than TV sets. This points to an alarming future for smart TVs, where even premium models sought after for top-end image quality and hardware capabilities are stuffed with unwanted gimmicks.

LG’s remote regression

LG has long made some of the best—and most expensive—TVs available. Its OLED lineup, in particular, has appealed to people who use their TVs to watch Blu-rays, enjoy HDR, and the like. However, some features that LG is introducing to high-end TVs this year seem to better serve LG’s business interests than those users' needs.

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• I had the rare opportunity to fly in a historic jet trainer ahead of the Pacific Airshow in October.
• The T-33 Shooting Star was used to train US Air Force pilots on jet aircraft until the early 1960s.
• The flight was an unforgettable glimpse into aviation history as modern fighters rule the skies.

Strapped in the rear seat of the T-33's cockpit, I triple-checked the buckles and straps securing me. The clear bubble canopy sealed shut with a click, shutting out the aircraft's engine roar.

As someone who has solely flown on commercial airliners and once on a puddle jumper in Alaska, I didn't know what to expect until the jet's mounting speed on the runway pressed me back into my seat. The rush of adrenaline pulled my focus away from the sensation of the wheels leaving the ground as the world below transformed into a patchwork of shrinking buildings and roads.

As the sunset painted wispy clouds in a red-orange glow, I felt transported back to the Jet Age's earliest days, when competency at this aircraft's stick and analog controls was a make-or-break for US Air Force trainees.

Developed by Lockheed Corporation, the T-33 Shooting Star was a subsonic jet trainer designed to transition Air Force pilots from propeller-driven aircraft to the emerging era of jet propulsion in the late 1940s.

But the hourlong flight in the run-up to the Pacific Airshow in Huntington Beach, California, taught me to appreciate the iconic aircraft that paved the way for the cutting-edge jets that dominate today's skies.

America's first jet trainer

The US was among several countries around the world ushering in a new era of fighter aircraft toward the end of World War II.

The T-33 Shooting Star was instrumental in transitioning early military aviators — then already qualified to fly propeller-driven aircraft — to fighter jets. The jet trainer was a direct offshoot of the single-seat P-80 Shooting Star, one of the first operational jet fighters flown by the US Air Force, adding another seat to the cockpit to accommodate both student and instructor.

Equipped with a turbojet engine, the T-33 could reach speeds of up to 600 mph and altitudes of up to 45,000 feet. Just shy of 40 feet long, the jet trainer had a large clear bubble canopy, providing ample visibility to the pilots in the two-seat cockpit decked out with various flight indicators and engine gauges.

Lockheed manufactured over 5,000 so-called "T-Birds" between 1948 and 1959, used by air forces around the world until the fleet was slowly phased out starting in the 1980s. The US Air Force retired its last T-33, a variant modified for aerodynamic research, in 1997, ending the storied aircraft's five-decade tenure with the service.

While the T-Bird no longer trains military pilots, the aircraft's legacy has been preserved in aerial museums and heritage flights.

Seasoned airshow pilot

I flew with Greg "Wired" Colyer, a longtime performer at the Pacific Airshow. Colyer founded Ace Maker Aviation, operating three T-33 aircraft for aerial demonstrations like airshows.

A US Army veteran and aviation enthusiast, Colyer completed his fixed-wing training while studying at the US Navy's Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.

He told Business Insider he wanted to fly military helicopters until a knee injury prompted him to instead work as an air traffic controller for the Federal Aviation Administration for nearly three decades.

In 2008, Colyer restored his first T-Bird, aptly naming the historic jet trainer the "Ace Maker," teaching himself aerobatic maneuvers for airshows across the US. Aside from airshows, the California native also works as a test pilot instructor for the US Navy and Air Force.

Over the next decade, he added two more T-33s, the Ace Maker II and Ace Maker III, the latter of which I flew in.

"It was just one of my favorite planes as a kid," Colyer said. "It was our very first jet trainer and just an iconic piece of US history."

During the Pacific Airshow, Colyer put the T-33's capabilities on full display, dazzling spectators below with his self-taught aerobatic maneuvers.

The airshow also featured performances from the F-22 Raptor, a fifth-generation stealth jet considered to be the top US air superiority fighter. The Thunderbirds, the Air Force's aerial demonstration squadron, also wowed crowds at the airshow, flying in tight formations at near-supersonic speeds in F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft.

Inside the cockpit

After haphazardly climbing atop the T-33's wing, I peered into the cockpit and was immediately intimidated by the crowded display of gauges and controls.

As a Cold War-era aircraft, the T-33 didn't feature the digital displays or avionics that are routine on more advanced fighter jets. The T-Bird had primarily analog controls, leaving the pilot responsible for manually controlling the plane's speed, altitude, and flight path.

Colyer walked me through a crash course of the T-33's rear instrument panels — the airspeed indicator, altimeter, turn coordinator, heading indicator, radio controls, and various fuel and engine gauges monitoring temperature, pressure, and fuel state.

As a tandem trainer, the backseat also had a yoke and rudder pedals, allowing student pilots to practice controls and maneuvers. I was explicitly instructed not to mess with either.

Though rudimentary to an experienced pilot, I could see how it would benefit early military aviators to develop essential skills for operating the advanced jet aircraft of the time.

As a journalist, however, the mechanics of the aircraft were lost on me, but I paid close attention to two controls in the cockpit:

1. The switch that muted my transceiver so I wouldn't distract the pilot.
2. The lever that operated the plane's rocket-powered emergency ejection seat — for obvious reasons.

Preparing for takeoff

As Colyer strapped into the pilot seat, I settled in the seat behind him, my head barely peeking over the edge of the cockpit.

I adjusted my flight helmet and oxygen mask, snapping a few shameless selfies to show off in group chats with my friends and family after the flight.

Colyer's voice crackled in my headset as he communicated with the control tower. In an instant, the plane's engine roared to life as the plane taxied the airfield in Orange County.

A thrilling takeoff

With one final check-in, I signaled my OK with a meager thumbs-up to the pilot before we sped down the runway and into the air.

The acceleration pinned me against the seat, and I peered at the blurring silhouettes of buildings and aircraft surrounding us, slowly shrinking as we gained altitude.

Panoramic views

I had to stifle my gasp — lest I distract Colyer while he operated the aircraft — as we were soon graced with an unobstructed view of the skies through the glass canopy.

Experiencing the T-33 in action

While Colyer spared me from the thrills — and terrors — of complex airshow maneuvers, I was still acutely aware of the G-forces pressing down on me with every sharp movement of the aircraft.

A slight nudge of the yoke sent us banking into a turn, the horizon tilting dramatically. I was repeatedly startled by urgent beeping from the control panel, only to be reassured by Colyer that it was because the plane was idling to maintain slower speeds.

He said the T-33 was only going around 250 mph — a fraction of what the jet trainer was capable of and nearly half the speed he normally goes during airshow performances.

Trainers flying in tandem

We were accompanied by a former US Navy Texan T-6 during the flight demonstration. A fellow trainer aircraft, the T-6 is a two-seat jet trainer produced by Raytheon Aircraft in the 1990s and early 2000s.

The T-6 was primarily used to train students in basic flying skills through the Air Force and Navy's entry-level training program known as the Joint Primary Aircraft Training System.

T-33 touchdown

Time seemed to pass more slowly as we flew for about an hour, constrained by the fuel capacity of the T-33, which burns about 300 gallons per hour.

Descending back toward the runway, the adrenaline began to ebb before Colyer informed me that he would partially pop open the canopy to create additional drag upon landing. Lowering the visor on my flight helmet, I braced myself against rushing winds as the T-33 touched down with a thud and rolled to a halt on the tarmac.

The sky is the limit

After sharing the cockpit selfies and views with friends and family, I fielded a number of questions about the flight and whether I got to deploy any onboard weapons (trainer aircraft are not armed). It was a chance to reflect on the unforgettable experience.

In short, we flew in circles over Orange County, cruising at speeds slower than commercial passenger planes. I then spent the rest of the time ahead of the Pacific Airshow talking with demo pilots who operated more advanced frontline fighters.

But the experience was more than just a golden-hour flight in a vintage military jet trainer. The intense rumble of the turbojet engine, the array of analog gauges and controls, and sweeping views through the canopy offered a glimpse into what it must have felt like for early military aviators mastering jet-powered flight for the first time.

While I'm still holding out on future familiarization flight rides on modern fighter jets, my flight on the T-Bird will serve as a constant reminder of just how far US military aviation has come.

In the business world, there are few areas that artificial intelligence hasn't touched. Many industries are rushing to adopt AI, and the technology is changing how employees collaborate and complete tasks.

Generative AI is a major buzzword for business leaders. But actually integrating AI can be a different story.

"A lot of our clients have dozens of AI pilots everywhere," Jack Azagury, the group chief executive for consulting at Accenture, said at one Workforce Innovation roundtable. "Very few have a coherent business case and a true reinvention and transformation."

How do companies move forward as the novelty of AI wears off? Business Insider's Julia Hood asked members of the Workforce Innovation board how they transitioned their AI pilots into real-world use cases. Board members shared five major ways their companies were moving AI from theory to operations.

"Before we go and tell our clients to embark on AI fully, we want to be an AI-first organization," said Anant Adya, an executive vice president, service-offering head, and head of Americas delivery at Infosys. "We want to show our clients we are using AI, whether it is in HR when it comes to driving better employee experience or when it comes to recruitment."

Members also highlighted employee training and peer-to-peer learning opportunities.

The roundtable participants were:

• Anant Adya, an executive vice president, service-offering head, and head of Americas Delivery at Infosys.
• Lucrecia Borgonovo, a chief talent and organizational-effectiveness officer at Mastercard.
• Neil Murray, the CEO of Work Dynamics at JLL.
• Justina Nixon-Saintil, a vice president and chief impact officer at IBM.
• Marjorie Powell, a chief HR officer and senior vice president at AARP.

The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Identify early adopters, like human resources

Nixon-Saintil: Because we provide these platforms and solutions to clients, we are usually client zero. We implemented AI across our business and multiple functions, and one of the first things we did was our AskHR product, which I think answered over 94% of questions employees had.

HR employees now spend time doing higher-order work and partnerships with business units instead of answering basic questions that a virtual assistant can answer. I think that's when you start seeing a lot of the benefits of it.

Borgonovo: HR has been leading the way in terms of embedding AI to enhance the employee experience end to end, right before you hire somebody all the way to after they leave the organization. There are tons of opportunities to improve performance and productivity and provide greater personalization.

Invest in ongoing training

Adya: There are certain AI certifications and courses that everybody has to take to be knowledgeable about AI. So we are driving education in terms of what is the impact of AI, what is gen AI, what are LLMs, and how you look at use cases. And certainly educating everybody that it's not about job losses but about amplifying your potential to do more.

Powell: We have hands-on skill building. This past year we posted over 20 AI workshops helping teams integrate AI into their work. We really encourage our staff to participate. We have a product we're using behind our firewall, so they can engage and play with it. We're just telling them go ahead and try to break it, so they can give us feedback on what's working.

There was a team of people who said we want to see how you could use AI with PowerPoint or Excel. And they're finding, well, it's not so good in those things. But as it continues to grow, they'll be ready for that, and they'll know what it was able to do and what it wasn't. I think it's just making it fun, and that way it's not so scary.

Murray: Our internal large language model is now a widget on everybody's dashboard that is accessible on your landing page. Training is super important here to make people comfortable with it. Even if it's just an online module, you have to get people comfortable.

Nixon-Saintil: We've also done companywide upskilling. We had two Watsonx challenges. Watsonx is our AI data platform. This is one of the ways we've upskilled a majority of the organization. The outcome of that is there are some great ideas that employees actually ideated, and they're now implementing those ideas and solutions in different functions.

Borgonovo: Employees want to use AI, and I think they're eager to learn how to use AI to augment their jobs. For that, we built a three-tiered learning approach. One is democratizing access for everybody and building general knowledge of AI.

The second tier is much more role-specific. How do we drive new ways of working by having people in different roles embrace AI tools? Software engineering, consulting, sales — you name it. And then something we definitely want to build for the future is thinking proactively about how you re-skill people whose roles may be impacted by AI so they can become more comfortable doing high-level tasks or can shift to a different type of role that is emerging within the organization.

The other piece is where we're seeing the greatest demand internally, which is for knowledge management. It's gathering information from a lot of different sources in a very easy way.

Another job family that is very eager to get their hands on new AI technology is software engineering. We have taken a very measured approach in deploying coding assistants within the software-engineering community. This year we did a pilot with a subset of them using coding assistants. The idea is to just learn and, based on our learning, scale more broadly across our software-engineering community in 2025.

One of the really interesting learnings from this pilot was that the software engineers who were using the coding assistants probably the best were people who had received training. What we're learning is that before you start rolling out all of these technologies or AI-specific platforms for different job families, you have got to be really intentional about incorporating prompt training.

Unlock peer-to-peer learning

Powell: We have idea pitch competitions and a year-round idea pipeline program where people can put in ideas on how to use AI and share what they've learned. It sparks a lot of peer learning and creativity on our digital-first capabilities to help us with our digital transformation.

Then we collaborate through community. We have a generative-AI community of practice. This is somewhat like how companies have employee resource groups; we have communities of practice as well. They give employees a space to share their techniques and learn from each other and stay ahead of evolving trends. They meet monthly, they have an executive sponsor, and they have all kinds of activities and learning opportunities.

Murray: As we monitored AI use and what sort of questions were being asked, we identified super users across all departments — so the people who were capable of developing the most evolved prompts. I suppose those prompts are now appearing in pull-down menus to help people who maybe aren't as advanced in their use of it, because prompting is a really important part of this. And so the super users are driving everybody else to show them what's possible across the organization.

Find customer pain points to solve

Borgonovo: One of the use cases that drives not only knowledge management but also efficiencies is around customer support. Customer support is probably one of the areas that has been leading the way.

We have a customer onboarding process that can be very lengthy, very technical, involving hundreds of pages of documentation and reference materials. It was our first use case for a chat-based assistant that we processed in terms of streamlining and creating greater efficiency and a much better customer experience.

Reinforce responsible leadership

Powell: We want our leaders, people leaders particularly, to guide employees to use AI effectively and responsibly. We want to make sure they're emphasizing privacy, policy, and efficiency. So we encourage managers to point the staff toward training that we offer, and we offer quite a bit of training.

Microsoft-owned GitHub announced on Wednesday a free version of its popular Copilot code completion/AI pair programming tool, which will also now ship by default with Microsoft’s popular VS Code editor. Until now, most developers had to pay a monthly fee, starting at $10 per month, with only verified students, teachers, and open source maintainers getting […]

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• I recently drove the Honda Pilot and Hyundai Palisade midsize, three-row family SUVs.
• The Palisade delivers a refined experience with top-notch tech content worthy of a luxury brand.
• The Pilot's smartly designed cabin, easy-to-use tech, and superb quality are great for families.

American consumers purchase more than 2 million midsize family SUVs every year.

It's a broad segment in which brands can take vastly different approaches.

I recently had the chance to drive two popular three-row midsize SUVs, the Honda Pilot and Hyundai Palisade, that found success by appealing to the needs of different families.

The Honda Pilot is a thoroughly practical family hauler with a smooth V6 engine, easy-to-use tech, and a thoughtfully designed cabin that provides loads of space for people and cargo.

The Hyundai Palisade, on the other hand, delivers effective daily transportation with a luxurious flair rarely found in a mass-market family SUV.

Here's a closer look at how the two stack up against one another.

Which is a better deal?

The base front-wheel-drive Pilot Sport starts at $39,900, while the entry-level, front-wheel-drive Palisade SE starts at $36,650.

My well-equipped, Alabama-built Pilot Elite AWD test car started at $52,780 with an as-tested price of $54,630, while my loaded Hyundai Palisade Calligraphy AWD starts at $52,100. With fees, the Ulsan, South Korea-built SUV's as-tested price is $53,650.

Which one looks better?

The Pilot's blunted, truck-like front end looks great, but the Palisade's parametric jewel-style front grille takes the cake for me. It's a front facia that's both futuristic and elegant.

Which one is larger?

The Honda Pilot is one of the largest SUVs in its class. At 200 inches, my test car is about three and a half inches longer than the Hyundai Palisade.

It's also taller and wider than the Palisade.

The battle of the V6s

While many of their contemporaries have turned to small, turbocharged four-cylinder engines for motivation, the Pilot and Palisade are both powered by smooth, naturally aspirated V6s.

The Palisade's 3.8-liter V6 produces 291 horsepower and 262 lb-ft of torque. It's paired with an 8-speed automatic transmission.

The Pilot is powered by a 3.5 liter, 285 horsepower V6 with 262 lb-ft of torque paired with a 10-speed automatic transmission.

To help save fuel, both engines are equipped with the universally loathed automatic stop-start system, while the Honda engine can also shut down three of its six cylinders when high power output isn't needed.

The EPA rates both vehicles for 19 mpg city and 21 mpg combined driving. However, the Pilot gets 25 mpg of fuel economy on the highway, one more than the Palisade.

Which has a better all-wheel-drive system?

The Pilot and Palisade are both naturally front-wheel-drive crossover SUVs with all-wheel-drive available as an optional extra.

Honda's i-VTM4 and Hyundai's HTRAC systems both operate in front-wheel drive when cruising, sending power to the back only when it detects traction loss.

What sets Honda's system apart is that it can target how much power each of the rear wheels receives, such as distributing more power to the outside rear wheel in a corner to reduce understeer and improve controllability.

Which is better to drive?

Neither vehicle is particularly sporty to drive. The Pilot and Palisade lack the instant low-end torque of a turbocharged powerplant or an electric motor. The duo is also saddled with transmissions tuned for efficiency over outright performance.

Even though both models returned identical 0 to 60 mph runs of 6.9 seconds in Motor Trend's testing, the Palisade inched ahead of the Pilot in this department as it provided a more refined and pleasant driving experience.

The Palisade's drivetrain delivered power effortlessly, while it felt like the Pilot's engine and transmission combo had to strain a bit to get the vehicle going.

Which has a nicer cabin?

While both the Pilot and Palisade feature spacious, smartly designed cabins with high-quality materials and excellent ergonomics, they were executed in very different ways.

The Palisade's cabin is stylish and refined. It stands out for its quiet, isolating ride, design features like the airplane seat-style wing-out headrests, and creature comforts like the massaging ergo-motion driver seat.

The Pilot shines for its practicality and thoughtful touches, which help it excel at hauling people and their stuff. One such touch is the ingenious removable middle seat module, which can quickly transform the second-row captain's chairs into bench seats to accommodate extra passengers.

Which has more passenger space?

The Pilot and Palisade have two of the roomiest passenger cabins in the segment.

The Palisade offers about an inch and a half more second-row legroom compared to the Pilot, but it trails the Pilot by an inch in third-row legroom.

Which has the best tech?

The Pilot's standard seven-inch and optional nine-inch displays are verging on unacceptably small for a vehicle in this segment. Especially when compared to the Palisade's standard 12.3-inch infotainment touchscreen.

Both systems are well-sorted, easy to use, and backed up by physical switches to help make use on the go a bit easier. However, I found the Hyundai system to be a bit more intuitive to use.

Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility come standard on both vehicles.

Both vehicles also come with an intercom system that allows the driver and rear cabin passengers to communicate through the SUVs' speakers.

How much cargo can they haul?

The Honda Pilot is ahead of the Palisade in overall cargo space, with up to 112.1 cubic feet of cargo space behind the first row versus 86.4 cubic feet for the Palisade.

My Verdict: It's a tie.

The Honda Pilot and Hyundai Palisade represent excellence in the genre but through very different means.

The Palisade's level of luxury and refinement is truly noteworthy. I wouldn't feel cheated if Hyundai slapped and Genesis badge on it and jacked up the price by $10,000.

On the other hand, the Pilot's quality and thoughtful execution are the mark of a brand with a quarter century of experience building minivans that can withstand years of grueling school runs and the destructiveness of a bored, curious child.

Given their vastly different personalities, the vehicle I'd choose depends purely on my family's changing needs.

With younger children, I'd choose the Pilot's roomy, easy-to-use, and durable cabin. But as they and I grow older, count me in on the Palisade's refined, isolating ride and heated massaging seats.

Microsoft’s AI can now read your screen — or rather, the websites you’re browsing. On Thursday, the company began rolling out a limited, U.S.-only preview of Copilot Vision, a tool that can understand and respond to questions about sites you’re visiting using Microsoft Edge. Gated behind Copilot Labs, an opt-in program for experimental AI capabilities, […]

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