Microsoft

Microsoft Celebrates 20 Years of Xbox and Halo

2021 marks 20 years of Xbox and Halo, as the original Xbox and Halo: Combat Evolved launched in North America on November 15, 2001. Microsoft is celebrating the 20th anniversary of Xbox and Halo starting today and through November 15, 2021. The company wants fans to use #Xbox20 on social media to share their favorite…

2021 marks 20 years of Xbox and Halo, as the original Xbox and Halo: Combat Evolved launched in North America on November 15, 2001.
Microsoft is celebrating the 20th anniversary of Xbox and Halo starting today and through November 15, 2021. The company wants fans to use #Xbox20 on social media to share their favorite Xbox moments, stories, friendships, prized possessions, achievements, and more. 
The first wave of 20th anniversary Xbox merchandise is available on the Xbox Gear Shop, as well as free anniversary-themed wallpapers. You can register for  Xbox FanFest to participate in 20th anniversary FanFest activities. Xbox Series X|S owners can use a new dynamic theme based on the original Xbox main menu.

Read the Xbox Wire post below:
Do you remember where you were when you played your first Xbox game?
It may be hard to believe, but this year will mark the 20th anniversary of Xbox. I’m proud to have been a member of Team Xbox for 17 of those 20 years!  The original Xbox console was released in North America on November 15, 2001, followed by many more launches all around the world including Japan, Australia, Europe, Latin America, China, and more! 
Twenty years ago, playing on Xbox meant hooking up your console with three (or more!) cables to a standard definition CRT TV.  You had to pre-order the hottest new games and stand in line at your favorite retail shop to pick them up. Games were played in 640×480 resolution, and you only had 8GB of storage and 64MB of memory to enjoy them with. And you either played alone or with a friend sitting next to you on the couch.
Two Decades of Gaming
The Xbox experience today, as shaped by you, is wildly different. You can now jump into your favorite games on your Xbox Series X|S console (imagine showing your past self a 4K HDR game!), on PC, or on mobile*. You and your friends can play with and against the more than 100 million players who log into Xbox every month from around the world. And there’s no more convincing every person in the group to go out and buy a big game. If you all have Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, you can pick the destination from a variety of games in the catalog and just start playing. We love this gaming future.
Thanks to game creators and players like you, we have a greater variety of games and diverse characters  – with more worlds to explore, stories to tell, heroes and villains to meet, and achievements to unlock – in the 7 thousand games that have been released across the Xbox platform. Do you remember unlocking your first Xbox achievement? To-date, you and the Xbox community together have racked up nearly 1 trillion total Gamerscore. Most importantly, you’ve worked together to change the face of gaming by welcoming players from all walks of life, everywhere in the world. 

The Game That Started It All
This year not only commemorates 20 years of Xbox, but it also marks the 20th anniversary of the Halo franchise. That magical moment when the Master Chief first stepped on to a mysterious ringworld has long been a hallmark of the Xbox experience, and over the last 20 years, Halo has become deeply embedded into the Xbox DNA. We’re thrilled to celebrate this milestone, as well as the launch of Halo Infinite, with our players this Fall.
Celebrating Together
As we approach the 20-Year mark, it has never been clearer that the heart of Xbox is you. And we are excited to celebrate this milestone together. 

The celebration starts today and continues through November 15, 2021. 

#Xbox20: This celebration is all about you, and we want to hear what Xbox means to you. Use #Xbox20 on social media to share your favorite Xbox moments, stories, friendships, prized possessions, achievements… anything! We’ll be asking loads of questions on Xbox social channels and spotlighting your answers through November 15, so keep an eye out.
Check out the Xbox Gear Shop for the first wave of Xbox 20th Anniversary official gear.
Show off your Xbox and Halo love with free anniversary-themed wallpapers.
Register today for Xbox FanFest to participate in 20th Anniversary FanFest activities including exclusive sweepstakes, FanFest gear, and digital experiences.
Personalize your Xbox experience: check out the new 20-Year gamerpic and “The Original” profile theme in your “Customize Profile” menu.  For Xbox Series X|S owners, “The Original” dynamic background is available in the Personalization menu. 
Looking for something new to play? Check out this collection featuring some of the greatest games that have marked Xbox history. You can also find the game collection on your Xbox console by searching for “Xbox Anniversary” in the Store.
Join us today at Twitch.tv/Xbox at 11am PT / 2pm ET to kick off the celebration with our livestreaming hosts as they reminisce about two decades of gaming while playing the game that started it all – Halo: Combat Evolved via the Halo: Master Chief Collection.
We’ll keep the fun going through November with more announcements, activities, and ways to celebrate.  Visit xbox.com/20Years for up-to-date details on anniversary activities throughout the year.

We’ll have more fun to share as we get closer to the November 15th anniversary date. Keep an eye out here on Xbox Wire or at xbox.com/20years for the latest updates.
Looking Ahead
Whether you have been an Xbox fan since day one or joined Xbox for the first time this week, we are humbled and excited to be a part of the Xbox community with you. As we reminisce together about the memories we’ve shared over 20 years, we also can’t help but be excited about what’s next for Xbox. Imagine what we will do together over the next 20 years! 

*Where available, requires Xbox Game Pass Ultimate

A life-long and avid gamer, William D’Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let’s Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.Full Article – https://www.vgchartz.com/article/448764/microsoft-celebrates-20-years-of-xbox-and-halo/
Read More

Be the first to write a comment.

Leave a Reply

Microsoft

Hashtag Trending Dec.12- Telepathic communication with ChatGPT; BlackBerry not spinning off IoT business; Microsoft agrees to union contract terms

A company claims it’s achieved telepathic communication with ChatGPT. BlackBerry backs down on spinning off its IoT business. One in five teenagers is using social media almost “constantly.” And did you ever think you see a union at Microsoft? And one that is negotiating the use of AI? …

A company claims it’s achieved telepathic communication with ChatGPT. BlackBerry backs down on spinning off its IoT business. One in five teenagers is using social media almost “constantly.” And did you ever think you see a union at Microsoft? And one that is negotiating the use of AI? …
Read More

Continue Reading
Microsoft

Segregation of Exchanges, Market Makers and Custodians Necessary for Crypto Businesses to Thrive

  Crypto whales acquire AI token $LPXX amid Microsoft’s AI talent acquisition. Image by Kaleb, Adobe Stock. The cryptocurrency sector may be advancing, yet industry experts are becoming aware that exchanges, market makers and custodians must act as separate entities in order for businesses to succeed…

  Crypto whales acquire AI token $LPXX amid Microsoft’s AI talent acquisition. Image by Kaleb, Adobe Stock. The cryptocurrency sector may be advancing, yet industry experts are becoming aware that exchanges, market makers and custodians must act as separate entities in order for businesses to succeed…
Read More

Continue Reading
Microsoft

Artificial intelligence technology behind ChatGPT was built in Iowa — with a lot of water

Share this Story : Artificial intelligence technology behind ChatGPT was built in Iowa – with a lot of water Copy Link Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Tumblr Breadcrumb Trail LinksPMN WorldPMN NewsArtificial intelligence technology behind ChatGPT was built in Iowa – with a lot of waterAuthor of the article:The Associated PressMatt O’brien And Hannah FingerhutPublished

Artificial intelligence technology behind ChatGPT was built in Iowa – with a lot of water

Article content

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The cost of building an artificial intelligence product like ChatGPT can be hard to measure.

But one thing Microsoft-backed OpenAI needed for its technology was plenty of water, pulled from the watershed of the Raccoon and Des Moines rivers in central Iowa to cool a powerful supercomputer as it helped teach its AI systems how to mimic human writing.

Article content

As they race to capitalize on a craze for generative AI, leading tech developers including Microsoft, OpenAI and Google have acknowledged that growing demand for their AI tools carries hefty costs, from expensive semiconductors to an increase in water consumption.

Advertisement 2
Story continues below
Article content

But they’re often secretive about the specifics. Few people in Iowa knew about its status as a birthplace of OpenAI’s most advanced large language model, GPT-4, before a top Microsoft executive said in a speech it “was literally made next to cornfields west of Des Moines.”

Building a large language model requires analyzing patterns across a huge trove of human-written text. All of that computing takes a lot of electricity and generates a lot of heat. To keep it cool on hot days, data centers need to pump in water — often to a cooling tower outside its warehouse-sized buildings.

In its latest environmental report, Microsoft disclosed that its global water consumption spiked 34% from 2021 to 2022 (to nearly 1.7 billion gallons, or more than 2,500 Olympic-sized swimming pools), a sharp increase compared to previous years that outside researchers tie to its AI research.

“It’s fair to say the majority of the growth is due to AI,” including “its heavy investment in generative AI and partnership with OpenAI,” said Shaolei Ren, a researcher at the University of California, Riverside who has been trying to calculate the environmental impact of generative AI products such as ChatGPT.

Advertisement 3
Story continues below
Article content

In a paper due to be published later this year, Ren’s team estimates ChatGPT gulps up 500 milliliters of water (close to what’s in a 16-ounce water bottle) every time you ask it a series of between 5 to 50 prompts or questions. The range varies depending on where its servers are located and the season. The estimate includes indirect water usage that the companies don’t measure — such as to cool power plants that supply the data centers with electricity.

“Most people are not aware of the resource usage underlying ChatGPT,” Ren said. “If you’re not aware of the resource usage, then there’s no way that we can help conserve the resources.”

Google reported a 20% growth in water use in the same period, which Ren also largely attributes to its AI work. Google’s spike wasn’t uniform — it was steady in Oregon where its water use has attracted public attention, while doubling outside Las Vegas. It was also thirsty in Iowa, drawing more potable water to its Council Bluffs data centers than anywhere else.

In response to questions from The Associated Press, Microsoft said in a statement this week that it is investing in research to measure AI’s energy and carbon footprint “while working on ways to make large systems more efficient, in both training and application.”

Advertisement 4
Story continues below
Article content

“We will continue to monitor our emissions, accelerate progress while increasing our use of clean energy to power data centers, purchasing renewable energy, and other efforts to meet our sustainability goals of being carbon negative, water positive and zero waste by 2030,” the company’s statement said.

OpenAI echoed those comments in its own statement Friday, saying it’s giving “considerable thought” to the best use of computing power.

“We recognize training large models can be energy and water-intensive” and work to improve efficiencies, it said.

Microsoft made its first $1 billion investment in San Francisco-based OpenAI in 2019, more than two years before the startup introduced ChatGPT and sparked worldwide fascination with AI advancements. As part of the deal, the software giant would supply computing power needed to train the AI models.

To do at least some of that work, the two companies looked to West Des Moines, Iowa, a city of 68,000 people where Microsoft has been amassing data centers to power its cloud computing services for more than a decade. Its fourth and fifth data centers are due to open there later this year.

Advertisement 5
Story continues below
Article content

“They’re building them as fast as they can,” said Steve Gaer, who was the city’s mayor when Microsoft came to town. Gaer said the company was attracted to the city’s commitment to building public infrastructure and contributed a “staggering” sum of money through tax payments that support that investment.

“But, you know, they were pretty secretive on what they’re doing out there,” he added.

Microsoft first said it was developing one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers for OpenAI in 2020, declining to reveal its location to AP at the time but describing it as a “single system” with more than 285,000 cores of conventional semiconductors, and 10,000 graphics processors — a kind of chip that’s become crucial to AI workloads.

Experts have said it can make sense to “pretrain” an AI model at a single location because of the large amounts of data that need to be transferred between computing cores.

It wasn’t until late May that Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, disclosed that it had built its “advanced AI supercomputing data center” in Iowa, exclusively to enable OpenAI to train what has become its fourth-generation model, GPT-4. The model now powers premium versions of ChatGPT and some of Microsoft’s own products and has accelerated a debate about containing AI’s societal risks.

Advertisement 6
Story continues below
Article content

“It was made by these extraordinary engineers in California, but it was really made in Iowa,” Smith said.

In some ways, West Des Moines is a relatively efficient place to train a powerful AI system, especially compared to Microsoft’s data centers in Arizona that consume far more water for the same computing demand.

“So if you are developing AI models within Microsoft, then you should schedule your training in Iowa instead of in Arizona,” Ren said. “In terms of training, there’s no difference. In terms of water consumption or energy consumption, there’s a big difference.”

For much of the year, Iowa’s weather is cool enough for Microsoft to use outside air to keep the supercomputer running properly and vent heat out of the building. Only when the temperature exceeds 29.3 degrees Celsius (about 85 degrees Fahrenheit) does it withdraw water, the company has said in a public disclosure.

That can still be a lot of water, especially in the summer. In July 2022, the month before OpenAI says it completed its training of GPT-4, Microsoft pumped in about 11.5 million gallons of water to its cluster of Iowa data centers, according to the West Des Moines Water Works. That amounted to about 6% of all the water used in the district, which also supplies drinking water to the city’s residents.

Advertisement 7
Story continues below
Article content

In 2022, a document from the West Des Moines Water Works said it and the city government “will only consider future data center projects” from Microsoft if those projects can “demonstrate and implement technology to significantly reduce peak water usage from the current levels” to preserve the water supply for residential and other commercial needs.

Microsoft said Thursday it is working directly with the water works to address its feedback. In a written statement, the water works said the company has been a good partner and has been working with local officials to reduce its water footprint while still meeting its needs.

_-

O’Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island.

__

The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing agreement that allows for part of AP’s text archives to be used to train the tech company’s large language model. AP receives an undisclosed fee for use of its content.

Article content
Comments

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. We have enabled email notifications—you will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings.

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

To contribute to the conversation, you need to be logged in. If you are not yet registered, create your account now – it’s FREE.

Login/Create an AccountSubscribe for Unlimited Online Access
Join the Conversation
Latest from Shopping Essentials
  1. Chatbooks review: Custom photo books made simple

    Easily make beautiful photo books from your phone

    5 hours ago Shopping Essentials
    Premium Layflat Photo Books.
  2. Do wrinkle creams work? You asked | Expert answers

    A dermatologist tells us what we need to know

    8 hours ago Shopping Essentials
    A dermatologist weighs in on how to minimize wrinkles.
  3. Advertisement 2
    Story continues below
  4. Style Q&A: More than just a yoga brand, b, halfmoon aims to prompt you to pause

    Canadian company offers lifestyle options that inspire mindfulness, movement and wellness.

    8 hours ago Fashion & Beauty
    b, halfmoon is a Canadian-born and female-founded lifestyle brand.
  5. This Just In: Hermès Beauty Trait d’Hermès mascara, Shiseido Revitalessence Skin Glow Foundation, and Quo Beauty Glow On Face Powder

    Three buzzed-about beauty products we tried this week.

    8 hours ago Fashion & Beauty
    Hermès Beauty Trait d'Hermès Revitalizing care mascara.
  6. Get lifetime access to Microsoft Office 2021 for $69-$96

    Don’t miss this deal on Microsoft Office’s full suite of applications and tools

    11 hours ago Business Essentials
    working from a computer.
This Week in Flyers

Article content

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The cost of building an artificial intelligence product like ChatGPT can be hard to measure.

But one thing Microsoft-backed OpenAI needed for its technology was plenty of water, pulled from the watershed of the Raccoon and Des Moines rivers in central Iowa to cool a powerful supercomputer as it helped teach its AI systems how to mimic human writing.

Article content

As they race to capitalize on a craze for generative AI, leading tech developers including Microsoft, OpenAI and Google have acknowledged that growing demand for their AI tools carries hefty costs, from expensive semiconductors to an increase in water consumption.

Advertisement 2
Story continues below
Article content

But they’re often secretive about the specifics. Few people in Iowa knew about its status as a birthplace of OpenAI’s most advanced large language model, GPT-4, before a top Microsoft executive said in a speech it “was literally made next to cornfields west of Des Moines.”

Building a large language model requires analyzing patterns across a huge trove of human-written text. All of that computing takes a lot of electricity and generates a lot of heat. To keep it cool on hot days, data centers need to pump in water — often to a cooling tower outside its warehouse-sized buildings.

In its latest environmental report, Microsoft disclosed that its global water consumption spiked 34% from 2021 to 2022 (to nearly 1.7 billion gallons, or more than 2,500 Olympic-sized swimming pools), a sharp increase compared to previous years that outside researchers tie to its AI research.

“It’s fair to say the majority of the growth is due to AI,” including “its heavy investment in generative AI and partnership with OpenAI,” said Shaolei Ren, a researcher at the University of California, Riverside who has been trying to calculate the environmental impact of generative AI products such as ChatGPT.

Advertisement 3
Story continues below
Article content

In a paper due to be published later this year, Ren’s team estimates ChatGPT gulps up 500 milliliters of water (close to what’s in a 16-ounce water bottle) every time you ask it a series of between 5 to 50 prompts or questions. The range varies depending on where its servers are located and the season. The estimate includes indirect water usage that the companies don’t measure — such as to cool power plants that supply the data centers with electricity.

“Most people are not aware of the resource usage underlying ChatGPT,” Ren said. “If you’re not aware of the resource usage, then there’s no way that we can help conserve the resources.”

Google reported a 20% growth in water use in the same period, which Ren also largely attributes to its AI work. Google’s spike wasn’t uniform — it was steady in Oregon where its water use has attracted public attention, while doubling outside Las Vegas. It was also thirsty in Iowa, drawing more potable water to its Council Bluffs data centers than anywhere else.

In response to questions from The Associated Press, Microsoft said in a statement this week that it is investing in research to measure AI’s energy and carbon footprint “while working on ways to make large systems more efficient, in both training and application.”

Advertisement 4
Story continues below
Article content

“We will continue to monitor our emissions, accelerate progress while increasing our use of clean energy to power data centers, purchasing renewable energy, and other efforts to meet our sustainability goals of being carbon negative, water positive and zero waste by 2030,” the company’s statement said.

OpenAI echoed those comments in its own statement Friday, saying it’s giving “considerable thought” to the best use of computing power.

“We recognize training large models can be energy and water-intensive” and work to improve efficiencies, it said.

Microsoft made its first $1 billion investment in San Francisco-based OpenAI in 2019, more than two years before the startup introduced ChatGPT and sparked worldwide fascination with AI advancements. As part of the deal, the software giant would supply computing power needed to train the AI models.

To do at least some of that work, the two companies looked to West Des Moines, Iowa, a city of 68,000 people where Microsoft has been amassing data centers to power its cloud computing services for more than a decade. Its fourth and fifth data centers are due to open there later this year.

Advertisement 5
Story continues below
Article content

“They’re building them as fast as they can,” said Steve Gaer, who was the city’s mayor when Microsoft came to town. Gaer said the company was attracted to the city’s commitment to building public infrastructure and contributed a “staggering” sum of money through tax payments that support that investment.

“But, you know, they were pretty secretive on what they’re doing out there,” he added.

Microsoft first said it was developing one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers for OpenAI in 2020, declining to reveal its location to AP at the time but describing it as a “single system” with more than 285,000 cores of conventional semiconductors, and 10,000 graphics processors — a kind of chip that’s become crucial to AI workloads.

Experts have said it can make sense to “pretrain” an AI model at a single location because of the large amounts of data that need to be transferred between computing cores.

It wasn’t until late May that Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, disclosed that it had built its “advanced AI supercomputing data center” in Iowa, exclusively to enable OpenAI to train what has become its fourth-generation model, GPT-4. The model now powers premium versions of ChatGPT and some of Microsoft’s own products and has accelerated a debate about containing AI’s societal risks.

Advertisement 6
Story continues below
Article content

“It was made by these extraordinary engineers in California, but it was really made in Iowa,” Smith said.

In some ways, West Des Moines is a relatively efficient place to train a powerful AI system, especially compared to Microsoft’s data centers in Arizona that consume far more water for the same computing demand.

“So if you are developing AI models within Microsoft, then you should schedule your training in Iowa instead of in Arizona,” Ren said. “In terms of training, there’s no difference. In terms of water consumption or energy consumption, there’s a big difference.”

For much of the year, Iowa’s weather is cool enough for Microsoft to use outside air to keep the supercomputer running properly and vent heat out of the building. Only when the temperature exceeds 29.3 degrees Celsius (about 85 degrees Fahrenheit) does it withdraw water, the company has said in a public disclosure.

That can still be a lot of water, especially in the summer. In July 2022, the month before OpenAI says it completed its training of GPT-4, Microsoft pumped in about 11.5 million gallons of water to its cluster of Iowa data centers, according to the West Des Moines Water Works. That amounted to about 6% of all the water used in the district, which also supplies drinking water to the city’s residents.

Advertisement 7
Story continues below
Article content

In 2022, a document from the West Des Moines Water Works said it and the city government “will only consider future data center projects” from Microsoft if those projects can “demonstrate and implement technology to significantly reduce peak water usage from the current levels” to preserve the water supply for residential and other commercial needs.

Microsoft said Thursday it is working directly with the water works to address its feedback. In a written statement, the water works said the company has been a good partner and has been working with local officials to reduce its water footprint while still meeting its needs.

_-

O’Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island.

__

The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing agreement that allows for part of AP’s text archives to be used to train the tech company’s large language model. AP receives an undisclosed fee for use of its content.

Article content
Comments

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. We have enabled email notifications—you will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings.

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

To contribute to the conversation, you need to be logged in. If you are not yet registered, create your account now – it’s FREE.

Login/Create an AccountSubscribe for Unlimited Online Access
Join the Conversation
Latest from Shopping Essentials
  1. Chatbooks review: Custom photo books made simple

    Easily make beautiful photo books from your phone

    5 hours ago Shopping Essentials
    Premium Layflat Photo Books.
  2. Do wrinkle creams work? You asked | Expert answers

    A dermatologist tells us what we need to know

    8 hours ago Shopping Essentials
    A dermatologist weighs in on how to minimize wrinkles.
  3. Advertisement 2
    Story continues below
  4. Style Q&A: More than just a yoga brand, b, halfmoon aims to prompt you to pause

    Canadian company offers lifestyle options that inspire mindfulness, movement and wellness.

    8 hours ago Fashion & Beauty
    b, halfmoon is a Canadian-born and female-founded lifestyle brand.
  5. This Just In: Hermès Beauty Trait d’Hermès mascara, Shiseido Revitalessence Skin Glow Foundation, and Quo Beauty Glow On Face Powder

    Three buzzed-about beauty products we tried this week.

    8 hours ago Fashion & Beauty
    Hermès Beauty Trait d'Hermès Revitalizing care mascara.
  6. Get lifetime access to Microsoft Office 2021 for $69-$96

    Don’t miss this deal on Microsoft Office’s full suite of applications and tools

    11 hours ago Business Essentials
    working from a computer.
This Week in Flyers

Read More

Continue Reading
Microsoft

Chinese social media campaigns are successfully impersonating U.S. voters, Microsoft warns

A suspected China state-affiliated influence campaign impersonating U.S. voters on social media is succeeding at reaching authentic users, Microsoft said.

A suspected China state-affiliated influence campaign impersonating U.S. voters on social media is succeeding at reaching authentic users, Microsoft said.
Read More

Continue Reading