Microsoft announced that it would use the powers behind ChatGPT in its Excel, Word, and Outlook programs. The Redmond, the U.S. giant has been swiftly embracing language-based AI, showing less caution than its competitors despite early issues such as chatbots giving disturbing responses or blatantly wrong information.
Copilot, Microsoft’s latest chatbot will set ChatGPT-like capabilities to work in offices, churning out session transcripts, calendar entries, or PowerPoint slides almost quickly. The thrust of the new release is that generative AI will work as an aide for users of Microsoft’s popular workplace software and not unilaterally take over office tasks.
You could say we’ve been using AI on autopilot and with this next generation of AI, we are moving from autopilot to copilot.”
Satya Nadella-Microsoft CEO said at a virtual release event.
Microsoft is flowing billions of dollars into OpenAI, the tech company that is creating the technology that powers ChatGPT and that released its latest version, GPT-4, on Tuesday. That technology, which OpenAI says can be prompted by images as well as text, is already the foundation of a chatbot on Microsoft’s Bing search engine that is acquiring more users thanks to the embrace of AI.
Further tech giants are bringing a more cautious approach to generative AI, afraid of the embarrassment that comes when the technology goes off the rails. Google’s cloud computing arm said this week that it will deliver testers with ways to “infuse generative AI” into apps or put them to perform on the internet titan’s platform.
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta CEO said last month that the Facebook and Instagram parent company was making a product group to come up with ways to “turbocharge” their AI work.
