Microsoft’s Imagine Cup opens to startups, drops diversity scoring

Imagine Cup grows up:
Microsoft
’s longtime student developer competition is opening to startups for the first time, with new rules that offer a window into the company’s shifting AI strategy and broader changes in the industry. Entrants once had to build with Microsoft or
OpenAI
services, but for 2027 any AI is fair game, as long as the teams use Azure. Judges will now look for revenue and customer traction, while diversity and inclusion are out of the scoring. 

AI accent gap: Audio AI models from
Google
, OpenAI and
Alibaba Group
rated American and British English speakers higher than Chinese and Nigerian speakers when scoring job interviews, presentations and English proficiency tests, new University of Washington research found. The gap held even when every speaker read the same script.

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  Jeff Raikes
  
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