On Monday, the long-waited Microsoft OpenAI investment announcement of a multiyear, multibillion-dollar partnership has been finally made. Open AI confirmed this collaboration in a blog post.
Microsoft would not give a particular sum of money, but resources had earlier this month claimed that Microsoft was in discussions to contribute up to $10 billion. Microsoft, which wants to increase the use of artificial intelligence in Office programs, and Bing, seem to have commissioned OpenAI to do this job.
Following Microsoft’s prior investments in 2019 and 2021, the agreement ushers in the third phase of the two businesses’ collaboration. According to Microsoft, the alliance will help both businesses commercialize cutting-edge technologies in the future and will hasten AI advances.
“We formed our partnership with OpenAI around a shared ambition to responsibly advance cutting-edge AI research and democratize AI as a new technology platform”.
-Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella
Why did Microsoft OpenAI investment happen?
Those who know Microsoft’s admiration for AI technologies for years shouldn’t be too surprised by the news of the Microsoft OpenAI investment because in 2019 and 2021 Microsoft invested about $1 million in OpenAI. Since its most recent version was released last month, ChatGPT has delighted both casual users and artificial intelligence experts. Microsoft has been in talks to invest $10 billion into the business that owns the program.
There is no one of us who does not use Office programs on a daily basis. In 1997, an assistant bot was tried to be assigned to these programs for the first time, Microsoft Clippy. Unfortunately, Clippy was criticized for being frustrating rather than functional, falling far below the company’s and users’ expectations. With the news of Microsoft OpenAI investment, the huge technology company that planned an Office assistant about 25 years ago, the possibility of ChatGPT to work integrated with Microsoft Office programs came up again.
Of course, we should not define Microsoft as just a software company. Microsoft is a multinational technology company that develops and sells a wide range of software, services, and devices, and the widespread use of AI technologies in these areas may be a sign that technology will change at an unusual pace.
How would Microsoft utilize AI in its programs?
Another issue that came up with the news of Microsoft OpenAI investment, was the future of widely used Microsoft Office programs. Microsoft Office programs, such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, could incorporate AI in a number of ways. Some examples include:
- Word: An AI-powered writing assistant could help users with grammar, style, and word choice. It could also suggest sentence rephrasing and provide real-time feedback on document structure and readability.
- Excel: AI-powered data analysis could be used to help users identify trends, outliers, and patterns in large data sets. It could also be used to perform complex calculations and predictions.
- PowerPoint: AI-powered design tools could help users create more effective presentations. It could suggest layouts, color schemes, and images based on the content of the presentation, and could also help users to create more interactive and engaging presentations with dynamic charts and animations.
How did OpenAI become this successful?
If we take a brief look at the AI technologies in 2023, thanks to thousands of AI bots like Chat-GPT, and Wall-E, AI technologies have become a part of our daily lives like never before. When we look at the history of AI technologies, the development of technology, which is very slow and with small steps, has been developing extremely rapidly, especially in the last 5 years. And the most important of the pioneers of this rapid development is definitely OpenAI.
OpenAI was founded by prominent figures in the technology industry, including Elon Musk and Sam Altman, and has received significant funding from venture capital firms and individual investors. This has enabled the company to attract top talent and invest in cutting-edge research. The company has a mission to ensure that AI benefits all of humanity, and has taken a number of steps to achieve this goal, such as open-sourcing its research and developing tools that are accessible to a wide range of users.
We conclude our Microsoft OpenAI investment news here. AI technologies, although some students use ChatGPT as a shortcut to success, are the most important technological development that can definitely help humanity if used correctly.