Microsoft Warns It May 'Throttle' Its Generative AI Services for 'Excessive' Users

Microsoft has changed the terms and conditions for its online services to include a warning that "excessive" users of its generative AI services will have their access restricted. From a report: The new language appeared in a November 1 update to Microsoft's legalese spotted by licensing-watchers Cloudy With A Chance Of Licensing. The restrictions are described in a new clause of the document titled "Capacity Limitations," is: "Excessive use of a Microsoft Generative AI Service may result in temporary throttling of Customer's access to the Microsoft Generative AI Service." The document does not, however, define "excessive use", how long a "temporary" restriction might last, or exactly what happens during "throttling."

Hey everyone!

[Berkyjay]

You all need to start getting onboard with this new AI stuff. If you don't use AI then you will be irrelevant and won't be able to get a job. Also, don't use it too much because we can only afford to pay for so much bandwidth.

Re:Hey everyone!

[Fly Swatter]

Every AI result should include the electricity used by the cloud to compute that result. Start shaming people for their wasteful AI fetish.

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

Anyone have any figures for exactly how much energy Ai image generation uses?

Everything you do online has an energy cost, so it would be interesting to compare. How many watt hours does inserting this post into the Slashdot database consume?

Re:

[Maxo-Texas]

Well the GPU's used by AI start at 1500W, the common ones are 2500W to 3500W, there are 8500W models in use (1/3 of your typical entire house or about $1 to $2 worth of electricity per hour), and there are 10,000W models planned.

It's about 12c to 15c per 1000W per hour. If you have an older dam, it might be 6c but there is only so much power at that level.

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[AmiMoJo]

Thanks. Given that Bing gives me 6 images in about 20-30 seconds, it seems that the cost is quite low, but maybe more than typical ad revenue.

Re:

[Maxo-Texas]

Also, giving you 6 images in 20-30 seconds is probably not using just one processor. I vaguely recall that it takes about 6-8 hours when done on a stand alone PC with one 1000w card.

Re:Hey everyone!

[RazorSharp]

It's all a bait and switch, anyway.

"Hey everyone, use these cheap AI services to run all your critical infrastructure!"

*Several years later when only Microsoft, Amazon, and Google have crushed or bought all competition*

"Sorry, but prices are increasing dramatically. You could go to Amazon or Google, but they're coincidentally also raising prices right now."

When big tech companies give something away or sell it for dirt cheap, they're just clearing out any competition.

Re:

[Berkyjay]

Yup. Anyone who doesn't see this pattern by now is either willfully blind, an idiot, or in on the game.

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

Basic image generation like Bing offers is also becoming a commodity, free service. You can run it locally too, without much effort. I doubt they will ever be able to charge for it.

The more advanced stuff that people like Midjourney currently charge for will probably not be viable for much longer either.

I've used Bing to generate some pixel art for a personal project recently. In the past I've paid artists, but thought I'd try Bing. There are pros and cons. You can keep generating new variations, keep alter

AI porn isn't infrastructure.

[couchslug]

Serious businesses aren't the problem and don't need free AI or likely any AI they don't pay for in the first place.

Re:

[Shades72]

If excessive use of AI is so much of a big deal at Microsoft, then why put it in every tool, browser and even operating system they own? Don't they know their userbase is huge and all those AI requests will get users on their blacklist, whether the user realizes that or not.

Microsoft invested heavily in this can of worms. Then apply this can of worms into everything they own and push this can of worms through everyone's throat. And then look surprised if too many elements in their user base actually open th

Re:

[Pinky's Brain]

Someone has convinced them it will allow long term customer retention.

This is what they think will allow them to compete with Apple ... hah.

Re:

[geekbelief]

They can't put it anywhere they like without implementing massively over-sensitive filters, as Adobe has done for Firefly in Photoshop. Otherwise, yes, it would be very tempting to offload the GPU burden (which is what this post is all about, more than electricity) onto users. But users, even users not interested in generating NSFW material, will get tired of the endless false positives, and the subsequent rate-limiting and possible bans, and the possibility that photos they generate might even get sent to

Ooh

[groobly]

Ooh, I'm scared. Excessive users you have been warned!

Like throttling dhiarea

[elcor]

always a good thing