Tech giant executives fill the headlines this week, as Salesforce’s CEO dubbed Copilot the “new Microsoft Clippy” and NVIDIA’s CEO called Elon Musk “superhuman.” Unsurprisingly, AI continues to be the main topic on everyone’s mind, but we also saw Qualcomm cancel its Snapdragon X Elite Dev Kit this week and Microsoft shadow drop two Xbox games.
🎃The best early Black Friday deals🦃
Salesforce CEO says “Copilot is just the new Microsoft Clippy”
Microsoft has several Copilots available to general users and in the enterprise space, but a major tech CEO believes Copilot is the new Microsoft Clippy. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff claimed that “Salesforce can beat Microsoft in AI” in a recent podcast.
“When you look at how Copilot has been sold to our customers, it’s disappointing. It doesn’t work,” said Benioff. “It spews data all over our floors, it doesn’t deliver value. I haven’t found a customer who has transformational work with Copilot. Copilot is just the new Microsoft Clippy.”
Of course, the CEO of Salesforce is far from unbiased on the topic. Salesforce’s Agentforce competes in the same space as Microsoft’s AI offering. Specifically, the tool helps create custom AI agents.
It’s fairly common to see CEOs promote their own products or downplay the competition, though Benioff was a bit more direct than some CEOs. We’ll have to see if the Salesforce CEO’s prediction about Copilot not being around for long comes true.
“Elon Musk is Superhuman,” says NVIDIA CEO
If I told you a tech CEO said Elon Musk is superhuman, you would likely assume Musk said the praise about himself. But in a recent interview it was NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang lauding Musk’s AI efforts.
“As far as I know, there’s only one person in the world who could do that; Elon is singular in his understanding of engineering and construction and large systems and marshaling resources; it’s just unbelievable.”
Huang’s praise of Musk focused on the xAI team setting up a powerful supercomputer in 19 days. NVIDIA’s CEO said the process would normally take years, not weeks. He went on emphasize that the networking, wiring, and engineering required to create a supercluster featuring 100,000 H200 Blackwell GPUs is massive.
Elon Musk is super human. What would take everyone else a year, only took him 19 days. pic.twitter.com/q51sM48lsuOctober 13, 2024
Usually, I remind folks on the internet that praising Musk will not make the celebrity offer a job, but that advice doesn’t apply here. NVIDIA works closely with Musk, including collaborating with the xAI team across engineering, networking, infrastructure, and software. It’s safe to say stroking Musk’s ego is a sound strategy for NVIDIA’s CEO.
Qualcomm cancels Snapdragon X Elite Dev Kit
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite Dev Kit was supposed to be in the hands of consumers and reviewers this week, but the chipmaker canceled the device instead. While a small handful of people were lucky enough to get a Snapdragon X Elite Dev Kit, the vast majority of those who ordered the mini PC will not receive a unit.
Qualcomm emailed customers this week, clarifying that the Snapdragon X Elite Dev Kit did not meet its “usual standards of excellence.” As a result, Qualcomm canceled the product and will issue refunds to anyone that purchased one of the devices.
Anyone who placed an order will receive a refund, including anyone who already received a Snapdragon X Elite Dev Kit. The dev kit was supposed to ship in June, but it faced delays. Ultimately, the PC did not ship at all.
The Snapdragon X Elite Dev Kit faced many challenges, including the removal of an HDMI port at the last minute and Qualcomm failing to pass FCC regulation before shipping units.
While there are other Snapdragon X Elite-powered PCs available, Qualcomm’s dev kit was the only device set to run on the top-end X Elite SoC (the X1E-00-1DE) with a higher 4.3GHz boost frequency.
Microsoft shadow drops two Xbox games
While the majority of the announcements from Microsoft’s October Xbox Partner Preview event focused on upcoming games, Microsoft snuck out some titles during the event. Blindfire and Animal Well are now available to play on Xbox Series X|S, though the former is in early access.
Blindfire is a PvP shooter with a unique gameplay mechanic that has defeated players able control cameras and traps in the arena. Those defeated players can exact revenge on those that slayed them, aid certain players, or help a specific team (Blindfire has both solo and team modes).
Animal Well launched earlier this year on PC, PS5, and Nintendo Switch. It’s now available on Xbox Series X|S, giving those in the Xbox ecosystem a way to play the Metroidvania platformer.
Reviews
Our Senior Editor Ben Wilson got behind the wheel over the last week, literally. Wilson reviewed the MOZA R3 racing wheel, which earned a perfect score.
“There isn’t anything close to MOZA’s offering for Xbox gamers eager to try super-realistic sim racing with a high-end direct-drive wheelbase,” said Wilson. “Some alternatives offer PlayStation support but leave Microsoft’s console out in the cold, with the natural carry-over to PC support that most peripherals exhibit passively. Ultimately, it’s the best racing wheel for Xbox because it offers unparalleled value for money and the best force feedback technology you can get.”
Metaphor: ReFantazio also earned high marks from our Zachary Boddy, who praised the game for its “excellent worldbuilding and narrative direction, captivating and engaging characters and relationships, and fun, tactical turn-based combat with flexible strategies.”
Boddy kicked off their review by saying ” Metaphor: ReFantazio has cemented itself as the best game I’ve played this year so far.” That’s quite the praise from someone who spends hours playing the best Xbox games.
Deals
Prime Day and Anti-Prime Day may be in the rearview mirror, but there are still plenty of great deals going on. Discounts on the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge and Dell XPS provide great opportunities to upgrade to a new laptop. You can also save big on mini PCs, gaming desktops, and more.
