Does Microsoft hate books more, or its own workers? It’s hard to say, because The Verge reports that the multitrillion dollar giant is gutting its employee library and cutting down on digital subscriptions in favor of pursuing what’s internally described as an “AI-powered learning experience” — whatever in Clippy’s name that’s supposed to mean.
Seriously, we wish we could explain to you what the hell that is, but most of the details on this AI-focused transition are maddeningly vague. What we do know, according to the reporting, is that the cheapskates upstairs are ending employee subscriptions to news outlets, including to the Strategic News Service, which has provided global reports to Microsoft’s workforce for more than 20 years.
On top of that, not only do Microsoft employees tell The Verge that they’ve lost access to publications like The Information, but they’re also unable to digitally check out business books from the Microsoft Library, which itself is being targeted by the new AI pivot.
According to an internal Microsoft FAQ, the library housed in Building 92 has been “closed as part of Microsoft’s move toward a more modern, connected learning experience through the Skilling Hub.”
“We know this change affects a space many people valued,” the company said.
Meanwhile, employee subscriptions aren’t being renewed for pretty much the same reason: because it’s a “part of Microsoft’s shift to a more modern, AI-powered learning experience through the Skilling Hub.”
All told, the cuts are yet another example of how Microsoft has gone completely bonkers for AI. Urban legend at the company says that Microsoft’s Library, when it was housed in its old location on the second floor of Building 4, was so heavy that it caused the building to sink. That was probably a myth, but now it sounds like Microsoft is happy to let this trove of knowledge, if not literally sink into the Earth, fall by the wayside on the altar of AI.
An executive from SNS, the news organization that worked with Microsoft for over two decades but is now being cut off, absolutely roasted its former customer for the changes.
“Technology’s future is shaped by flows of power, money, innovation, and people — none of which are predictable based on LLMs’ probabilistic regurgitation of old information,” Berit Anderson, chief operating officer of SNS, told The Verge. “We look forward to welcoming Microsoft back into the SNS community whenever they decide they would like to return.”
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