Microsoft recently released the Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2024, this year's edition of the company's annual cybersecurity report. In the 114-page document, Microsoft reveals -- among other things -- just how much cyber threats have grown over the past year. Cybercriminals have gained access to better resources, including the incorporation of AI tools to bolster their arsenal. They're now better equipped to create fake images, videos, and audio recordings to trick people, to flood job applications with AI-created "perfect" résumés to physically access companies, and much more. But hackers can also use your use of AI services to attack you.

History is not exactly littered with glittering Indiana Jones video games. The beautiful LucasArts adventure, The Fate of Atlantis; the pretty good Lego games; the decent Emporer's Tomb; the presentable SNES side-scroller, Greatest Adventures … There have been good games, but few classics that transcend the brand like, say, Knights of the Old Republic. Maybe that's about to change. During Microsoft's latest Developer Direct online event, streamed on Thursday evening, we saw a 12-minute preview of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, a globe-trotting first-person adventure, set between Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Last Crusade. The project was revealed three years ago, but this is the first footage we've seen, and it's promising stuff. It has Nazis, it has a whip, it has Dr Jones in deserts, in tombs and arguing with Denholm Elliott in fusty college buildings; and it has a story involving a stolen artefact that is somehow linked to an international network of ancient monuments all of which align with a circle spanning the world.

Over the past few days, users have reported seeing ads within the Bing chatbot experience. Based on the limited examples we've seen, the GPT-4-powered chatbot embeds relevant ad links in responses to users' actual questions. Ads don't seem to show up for most people (including us) yet, but they'll most likely pop up more frequently and in more places soon. In a new post on the Bing blog, Microsoft Corporate VP for Search and Devices Yusuf Mehdi has admitted that the company is currently exploring putting ads in Bing's chat experience, indicating that the samples we've seen so far are part of its experimentation. He also revealed how the company intends to embed more ads in the new Bing experience.

Microsoft's low-end Series S console will retail for $299 (about £230) and looks like a hi-fi speaker. An official image revealed by the company on Tuesday shows a distinctive black circular vent on a slim white body. Series S, which appears to come without a disc drive, is cheaper, smaller and less powerful than the Series X console, the company's official fourth-generation Xbox. The image had leaked on several US websites late on Monday before Microsoft decided to'make it official' today. Series S is the'smallest Xbox ever', according to Microsoft, which promised it would reveal more details soon.

Microsoft's antivirus and malware division recently opened the bonnet on a malicious mutating cryptocurrency miner. The Washington-based big tech firm revealed how machine learning was crucial in putting a stop to it spreading further. According to the Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection team, a new malware dubbed Dexphot has been infecting computers since last year, but since June 2019 has been burning out thanks to machine learning. Dexphot used a number of techniques such as encryption, obfuscation layers, and randomized files names, to disguise itself and hijack legitimate systems. If successful, the malware would run a cryptocurrency miner on the device.

Microsoft announced the introduction of a new smart camera for business at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona on Sunday. Microsoft is drawing on both its Kinect and Azure public cloud brands, as it sets off on the next phase in the company's emphasis on artificial intelligence -- an area Microsoft identified as a top priority in a recent annual report. The Microsoft Azure Kinect is "new intelligent edge device that enables developers to create a wide range of AI-powered experiences," Julia White, Microsoft's corporate vice president for Azure marketing, said at the conference. The system has a 1-megapixel depth camera, a 12-megapixel camera and a seven-microphone array on board. It will work with "a range of compute types," White said.

Google has been on the hot seat in recent weeks after it revealed a new technology called'Duplex' where its AI assistant is capable of making real phone calls, raising ethical questions in the process. But it appears that Google isn't the only Silicon Valley giant dabbling in this technology. Microsoft has been showing off a similar product, dubbed Xiaoice, that can call you up and hold a natural conversation in real-time. However, it can only speak Chinese for now. Microsoft has been showing off its conversational artificial intelligence chatbot, called Xiaoice.

You can now purchase an Xbox One X. Microsoft has opened pre-orders for the upcoming 4K console, which the company describes as "the world's most powerful console". The Xbox One X was officially unveiled in June, and will come out on 7 November. It costs £449, and is claimed to be 40 per cent more powerful than any other console on the market. Microsoft has also launched a special version of the Xbox One X, called the Project Scorpio Edition. Project Scorpio was the One X's codename, and the company wants it to "live on" and enable fans "to celebrate both our heritage and the power and precision that we are bringing into our future". It's exactly the same as the standard Xbox One X, but the words "Project Scorpio" are printed on both the console and the controller, and it comes with an exclusive vertical stand.

Microsoft is to launch a radical'Netflix for games' service for $9.99 per month. The'Game Pass' service will offer 100 Xbox One and Backward Compatible Xbox 360 games to users. It will update its catalogue of games each month, and users will have the option to download games - although they must keep paying their subscription to play them. The'Game Pass' service will offer 100 Xbox One and Backward Compatible Xbox 360 games to users. It will update its catalogue of games each month.

In a world of artificial intelligence; the race to the voice user interface is occurring in our homes. With Apple rumored to be building an Amazon Echo competitor with a screen; Microsoft is ready to roll-out its Google Home competitor as well. Coming in the Fall of 2017; this will be a sleek Cortana powered device; Harman Kardon announced called "Invoke": At the heart of Invoke is Cortana, your personal digital assistant, helping you stay on top of what's important. Enhance every moment with captivating sound, voice control your music and smart home, make and receive hands-free calls with Skype, get answers to your questions, and more*. It seems as if the cylindrical smart speaker is the new consumer device; to test the waters of artificial intelligence that showcases new advances in speech recognition and human-centric design of personal assistants.