Microsoft goes all in on ChatGPT. In talks of a 10 billion dollar investment and more
- Thread starter Anerdyblackguy
- Start date
Godless Socialist CEO
Superstar
No ur gonna end up in poverty with no way to feed urself. Automation and AI being owned by corporations is really fukking bad
They already own everything and we're already in poverty.
thats why open source development of AI should be widely supported so that major corporations aren't the only ones who can benefit from it.
B1G_controversy
Superstar
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24794375/M365Copilot_HeroBanner_Apps_BLOG_FEATURE.jpg)
Microsoft puts a steep price on Copilot, its AI-powered future of Office documents
It’s a steep price for early access to a promised AI-powered futurewww.theverge.com
Microsoft puts a steep price on Copilot, its AI-powered future of Office documents
Microsoft 365 businesses will have to pay $30 per user per month extra to get access to Copilot.
By Tom Warren, a senior editor covering Microsoft, PC gaming, console, and tech. He founded WinRumors, a site dedicated to Microsoft news, before joining The Verge in 2012.
Jul 18, 2023, 11:30 AM EDT
:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24794375/M365Copilot_HeroBanner_Apps_BLOG_FEATURE.jpg "Illustration of Microsoft’s new AI-powered Copilot for Office apps")
Image: Microsoft
Microsoft is putting a price on the AI-powered future of Office documents, and it’s a steep one for businesses looking to adopt Microsoft’s latest technology. Microsoft 365 Copilot will be available for $30 per user per month for Microsoft 365 E3, E5, Business Standard, and Business Premium customers.
That’s a big premium over the cost of the existing Microsoft 365 plans right now. Microsoft charges businesses $36 per user per month for Microsoft 365 E3, which includes access to Office apps, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, and many other productivity features. A $30 premium for access to Microsoft 365 Copilot will nearly double the cost for businesses subscribed to E3 that want these AI-powered features. For Microsoft 365 Business Standard, that’s almost three times the cost, given that it’s $12.50 per user per month.
:no_upscale():format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24512919/copilot_word_gifs_web.gif "Copilot can appear in Word to generate text or alter paragraphs.")
Copilot can appear in Word to generate text or alter paragraphs. Image: Microsoft
Microsoft is trying to overhaul its Office apps with its AI-powered Copilot service, allowing businesses to instantly summarize documents, generate emails, and speed up Excel analysis. Microsoft 365 Copilot certainly looks like a very compelling feature addition, and I genuinely believe it will change Office documents forever, but the cost could put a lot of existing Microsoft 365 businesses off adopting Copilot in the short term.
Around 600 enterprise customers have been testing Microsoft 365 Copilot during a paid early access program over the past several months. Companies like KPMG, Lumen, and Emirates NBD have all had access. “We’re learning that the more customers use Copilot, the more their enthusiasm for Copilot grows,” says Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s head of consumer marketing, in a blog post today. “Soon, no one will want to work without it.”
Microsoft hasn’t put a release date on Microsoft 365 Copilot just yet, though. The software giant will face competition from Google, too. Microsoft’s Copilot announcement came just days after Google announced similar AI features for Google Workspace earlier this year, including AI-assisted text generation in Gmail, Docs, and more. Zoom and Salesforce have also been adding AI-powered features, so all eyes will now be on how Google, Zoom, and Salesforce handle pricing for their AI additions going forward.
:no_upscale():format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24513003/copilot_outlook_web.gif "Copilot can handle generating long and short emails, too.")
Copilot can handle generating long and short emails, too. Image: Microsoft
Part of the reason why Microsoft 365 Copilot is priced highly is because of the investment Microsoft has been making in building out its AI-powered offerings. Microsoft has invested billions into its OpenAI partnership to get this all off the ground. Tech companies like Microsoft have also been scrambling for Nvidia GPUs to power these features, so there’s a premium on what tasks this infrastructure is thrown at until chip availability and costs come down. Microsoft is reportedly working on its own AI chips in an attempt to avoid a costly reliance on Nvidia.
Microsoft is also bringing this Copilot experience to Teams, with integration into the Teams phone calling experience and inside Teams Chat threads. You can read more about these new Microsoft Teams Copilot features here.
Alongside the pricing announcement, Microsoft is also launching Bing Chat Enterprise. It’s essentially the same Bing Chat that’s available to consumers but with added commercial data protection. Microsoft is rolling out a preview of this today, and it’s included at no additional cost in Microsoft 365 E3, E5, Business Standard, and Business Premium. You can read more about Bing Chat Enterprise right here.
My gig is testing it and we were given 100 licenses
Luckily, I'll be a user so I'll report back on my exp with it
Microsoft to Offer AI-Powered Customer Service For Blind Users
Microsoft Corp. is teaming up with Be My Eyes, an app for the blind and visually impaired, to make it easier for such people to access the company’s customer service.
www.bloomberg.com
Microsoft to Offer AI-Powered Customer Service For Blind Users
- Company is working with Be My Eyes app for visually impaired
- Service will help users install software updates, troubleshoot
Microsoft is teaming up with Be My Eyes, an app for the blind and visually impaired, to make it easier for such people to access the company’s customer service.
Photographer: Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg
By Jackie Davalos
November 15, 2023 at 9:00 AM EST
Microsoft Corp. is teaming up with Be My Eyes, an app for the blind and visually impaired, to make it easier for such people to access the company’s customer service.
Founded in 2015, Be My Eyes connects the visually impaired with sighted volunteers who can help them tackle tasks that otherwise might be impossible to accomplish. The startup also has an artificial intelligence tool called Be My AI, which uses OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4 model to generate a description of a photo the person has taken — be it a product label or produce at a store.
The Redmond, Washington-based software giant will integrate Be My AI technology into its Microsoft Disability Answer Desk, which handles customer service calls, Be My Eyes said in a statement Wednesday. The collaboration will let users of Microsoft products who are blind or visually impaired resolve hardware issues or navigate such tasks as installing a new version of Windows software or describing a PowerPoint presentation — all without human assistance.
Be My Eyes’ use of OpenAI’s GPT-4 was lauded by Sam Altman at the startup’s developers conference this month as an example of how his company’s language model can use images as inputs and yield responses in natural language.
“OpenAI is proud to work with Be My Eyes. They’ve used our AI models to significantly enhance the daily lives of people with low vision or blindness,” Brad Lightcap, OpenAI’s chief operating officer, said in a statement.
Be My Eyes, which tested the AI-powered visual customer service with Microsoft users earlier this year, found that only 10% of people interacting with the AI chose to escalate to a human agent. The company also said that inquiries were resolved faster with the Be My AI tool, with users spending four minutes, on average, on a call with the AI, versus 12 minutes with a human.
CEO just got ousted
Crazy. He's was the most recognized figure in the industry and became defacto spokesperson for AI.
My initial thought was some type of sexual assault allegations, but the pr release makes me think he was actively betting against OpenAI's future or siphoning confidential info to external sources in an egregious manner
Wargames
One Of The Last Real Ones To Do It
Yeah I want to hear what happened. I sort of wonder is this related to the unspoken power struggle between open AI and Bing when Microsoft would love to just make the AI for their paid subscribers only. Like a chat GPT was a $20 subscription but a Office/GPT hybrid is a $30 subscription on top of the regular office subscription….
I also heard in another thread they stopped selling ChatGPT Plus subscriptions. If that is true I really doubt this isn’t someone how related to profits.
Wargames
One Of The Last Real Ones To Do It
He better have done something crazy because firing him cost them 48 billion.
Wargames
One Of The Last Real Ones To Do It
NaijaProdigy Redux
Veteran
The other cofounder Brockman just quit too
The board originally said he’d step down as chairman and remain President and he made post basically saying “fukk y'all I’m out”
The board originally said he’d step down as chairman and remain President and he made post basically saying “fukk y'all I’m out”
Similar threads
