what you need to know
- Microsoft announced the general availability of the Azure OpenAI Service as part of its partnership with OpenAI.
- More companies can now request access to GPT-3.5, Codex, DALL-E 2, and other AI models.
- Microsoft President and CEO Satya Nadella shared that “all Microsoft products will have some of the same AI capabilities” going forward.
Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI service is now generally available, allowing more businesses to request access to the tool. The expansion, which was shared by Microsoft (opens in a new tab) earlier this week, it is part of the tech giant’s ongoing partnership with OpenAI. Microsoft was an early investor in OpenAI, committing $1 billion to it in 2019. Since then, the company has continued to work closely with the growing AI company. Recent reports said that Microsoft is considering an additional investment of $10 billion in OpenAI.
OpenAI is behind the popular ChatGPT which has made several headlines in recent months. That chatbot made AI more accessible to general consumers and brought artificial intelligence into the mainstream. While AI is certainly not new, OpenAI, ChatGPT, and other tools, like Microsoft’s DALL-E 2, have brought more technology into focus.
In the near future, customers will also be able to access ChatGPT via the Azure OpenAI service.
Nadella also discussed the importance of adopting AI tools:
“The best way to prepare for this is not to bet against this technology, and this technology helps you in your work and your business process. I think you will be able to write great articles in the future by relying on GPT.”
As is the case with most technologies, there are ethical and security concerns surrounding artificial intelligence. The AI could be used for malicious purposes, such as scamming people or creating harmful malware or other forms of software. To combat this, Microsoft has several layers of protection.
All developers must request access to Azure OpenAI Service. Microsoft also has a limited access framework to restrict access to its AI tools. There are also content filters to detect “abusive, hateful and offensive content”.
Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella discussed the future of artificial intelligence tools on a Wall Street Journal panel at the World Economic Forum event on Tuesday, January 17, 2023. The company plans to commercialize OpenAI tools. Nadella also discussed how AI tools will be implemented in more Microsoft products in the future.
“Every Microsoft product will have some of the same AI capabilities to completely transform the product,” the CEO said.