Microsoft has one of the largest and most powerful collections of web servers on the planet.
But even that can be frustrating at the thought of a billion Windows users accessing data- and processor-intensive AI services 24/7.
So perhaps it’s no surprise that new language in the Online Services License Agreement states that Microsoft will use “temporary limits on customer access to the Microsoft Generative AI service” in the event case of excessive use.
What exactly constitutes excessive use of synthetic AI (which allows users to generate text and images based on specific input, as seen with ChatGPT and DALL-E) is unclear.
But as anyone who has tried these tools knows, this is not an instantaneous process, and creating complex text or complex formatting strings can take the remote server several minutes to complete.
The new changes to licensing terms were spotted by Cloudy With a Chance of Licensing, which is my new favorite URL.
The change is almost certainly in preparation for a wider rollout of AI generation tools in Windows Copilot, which arrives with the major 2023 update to Windows 11, joining the AI-infused Bing Chat, the newly AI-infused Paint app, and more. But the specific new language targets enterprise agreements, where the separate Microsoft 365 Copilot offers generative AI enhancements for business tools like PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook. It launched in early November alongside the big Windows 11 2023 Update that added Windows Copilot.
While the Copilot text and image generation tool is integrated widely across the operating system, and planned for an even wider integration, the change in terms is evidence that even Microsoft can’t predict the server load of potentially millions of users hitting the service at once. But if Microsoft is building in new terms allowing it to limit individual users, whatever the company defines “excessive use” to be, it must be anticipating a much larger hit to its data services in the future.
