You know what spreadsheets need? LLMs, says Microsoft Researchers at Microsoft have developed a framework designed to make it easier for large language models (LLMs) to analyze the content of spreadsheets and perform data management and analysis tasks, because why not? In a research paper published on open-access repository arXiv, the Redmond team explains that the format of …
The Trump org don't need no stinking AI to cook the books. They are bad enough already. 'Severe deficiencies even after two years of moderation'.
If the Orange Jesus can't run his own company properly (ok so he bankwupted a casino so that's a big hint) how can he be expected to run the USA?
Oh wait... the Heritage Foundation will do it all for him (while maintaining their tax exempt status)
And the MAGA faithful still love and adore him? madness
The beauty of LLMs, from Microsoft's perspective, is that they haven't needed to demonstrate utility because LLMs are 1) full of shiny for the squirrel-chasing types (which represent most of the people who make purchasing decisions), and 2) cater very well to the lazy and sloppy types (which represent most of the people who make purchasing decisions).
While falling, just ask your AI enhanced phone to translate a rescue message into Eagle.
Sequence shortened and steps removed? Oh dear.
In that case you'll almost certainly land at terminal velocity to some YouTube clip of LOTR, or on the back of a flatbed ford, my lord...
I understood most of it, but them I'm fairly familiar with the file format. Spreadsheet data structures are inherently inefficient, which is why they're not used for storage of very large datasets, except by the millions of idiots out there who seem to rely on them for everything. Other structures have existed for a long time, but you have to find a way to get to them, specifically finding tables within spreadsheets that have not been marked up as tables. Once you've done that you can turn a matrix, say of 100 x 100 cells, into a set of typed and indexed smaller structures. Imagine converting XLSX to CSV, whilst preserving types and using run-length encoding for data compression.
Nicely put.
Spreadsheets are great for proto-typing, and one-off, what-if analysis of data. Once you've decided how to organise it, make the method repeatable and lock the format down in a database, for everyone's sake.
"AI" has apparently passed the old Turing Test concept of generating content which is indistinguishable from humans. Maybe this spreadsheet scenario will better illustrate the need for humans to generate better content in the first instance, rather than zettabytes of internet-filler which LLMs dutifully reflect back.
Frankly, even if there was the merest glimmer if intelligence in any process prefixed *AI" (remember the "Smart" buzzword anyone?) the content it has been trained on would kill it.
The XML format is based, at least structurally, on the BIFF format. I suspect technical reasons such as row and column limits would make a return to the format impossible. Microsoft has introduced a binary format, XLSB, but I haven't much take up outside the Microsoft world.
When it comes to working with spreadsheets, there isn't that much to be gained in changing the file format as most consumers can read and write it fast enough.
Do you find your spreadsheets are giving answers you would rather ignore ???
Is reality getting in the way of your ideas for world domination ???
Do you want to turn that $1000.00 into $10,000,000,001.33 overnight ???
What you need is our speadsheet hallucination product with added LLM [MS CoPilot-Speadsheet+++ Deluxe V1.01(Beta)] !!!
All you need to do is keep running your speadsheet through our product until the answer you *want* appears !!!
You can honestly say that AI has confirmed your expectations.
Pick up the phone and dial our number NOW !!!
:)
"That my Office 2013 Pro is now EoL'ed and doesn't receive updates anymore."
Why not give Libre Office a go? Excel 2013 isn't a patch on it. You can have or have not the ribbon (your choice but at least you have a choice). It's modern - 2013 is 11 years ago. Updates also provide bug fixes as well as LLM wankery but you'll be glad to know that Libre Office is free of AI out of the box. However, I'm sure there are plugins but at least that is voluntary.
I ask my staff to use RI (Real Intelligence) wherever possible.
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