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Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI has emerged as one of its most impactful ventures to date. Following the successful launch of ChatGPT, Microsoft wasted no time integrating this powerful chatbot with its search engine Bing, browser Edge, Github as well as a range of other products and services.
This propelled us into the age of Generative AI and wow, at the highly anticipated Microsoft Build conference, AI takes centre stage once again as the tech giant unveiled a plethora of advancements in the field of AI.
Bing to ChatGPT
One of the most notable announcements made by Microsoft at Build was the integration of Bing with ChatGPT. With Bing integration, ChatGPT will have access to the web and the responses provided by the chatbot will be backed up by citations from the web.
This enhancement aims to provide users with an even more comprehensive and efficient search experience, amplifying the utility and effectiveness of ChatGPT as a powerful information retrieval tool.
While the new feature will be available to ChatGPT Plus subscribers from today, Microsoft will roll out the feature for the users of the free version soon in the form of a plugin.
Windows Copilot
Among the host of other things announced by Microsoft, one of the most significant is Windows Copilot, making Windows 11 the first PC platform to announce centralised AI assistance to help people easily take action and get things done.
“Invoking Windows Copilot is familiar and easy – the button is front and centre on your taskbar – simple to find and use. Once open, the Windows Copilot sidebar stays consistent across your apps, programmes, and windows, always available to act as your personal assistant,” Microsoft said.
By integrating Bing and ChatGPT plugins into Windows Copilot, a world of augmented AI capabilities and experiences opens up for users. This not only benefits individuals by providing enhanced tools and features, but it also creates exciting opportunities for developers to explore and innovate.
Microsoft said they will start rolling out the new feature for Windows 11 users from June.
Azure AI Studio
Microsoft has introduced a new feature called Azure AI Studio which empowers developers to design their own generative AI chatbot copilots by leveraging OpenAI models in conjunction with their own data. Azure AI Studio is built upon Microsoft’s existing Azure OpenAI Service, further expanding its capabilities and offerings in the field of AI.
In January, Microsoft made an official announcement regarding the general availability of its Azure OpenAI Service. Following that, in March, the company shared the news that OpenAI’s GPT-4 is now accessible through the service.
Expanding AI plugin ecosystem
Earlier this year, OpenAI announced plugins for ChatGPT allowing developers to integrate third-party services. Microsoft, too, announced plugins for Bing earlier this month.
At Build, Microsoft said that it is adopting the same open plugin standard that OpenAI introduced for ChatGPT, enabling interoperability across ChatGPT and the breadth of Microsoft’s copilot offerings. This means developers can now use one platform to build plugins that work across both business and consumer surfaces, including ChatGPT, Bing, Dynamics 365 Copilot, Microsoft 365 copilot, and Windows Copilot.
In addition, developers will now be able to extend Microsoft 365 Copilot with plugins. Plugins for Microsoft 365 Copilot include ChatGPT and Bing plugins, as well as Teams message extensions and Power Platform connectors – enabling developers to leverage their existing investments.
Further, developers will be able to easily build new plugins with the Microsoft Teams Toolkit for Visual Studio Code and Visual Studio.
Microsoft Fabric
At Build 2023, Microsoft unveiled Microsoft Fabric, a comprehensive and integrated analytics platform designed to meet the diverse needs of organisations. This all-encompassing solution brings together a wide range of data and analytics tools, providing businesses with a unified and seamless experience, Micrsosoft said.
The Redmond-based tech giant is also infusing Fabric with Azure OpenAI Service at every layer to help customers unlock the full potential of their data, enabling developers to leverage the power of generative AI against their data and assisting business users find insights in their data.
Besides, Fabric integrates technologies like Data Factory, Synapse, Data Activator and Power BI into a single unified product, empowering data and business professionals alike to unlock the potential of their data and lay the foundation for the era of AI.
With a unified experience and architecture, users can leverage Microsoft Fabric to extract valuable insights from data and deliver them to business users efficiently. By delivering the platform as a Software as a Service (SaaS), integration and optimisation are automated, enabling users to quickly sign up and derive immediate business value from the platform.
AI for Microsoft store
Microsoft is introducing AI Hub, a new curated section in the Microsoft Store to promote the best AI experiences built by the developer community and Microsoft.
Microsoft will use the space to educate customers on how to start and expand their AI journey, and help them boost their productivity, spark creativity and much more with AI.
Explaining further, Microsoft said that they will use the platform to help customers leverage AI for different projects on platforms such as Luminar Neo, Lensa, Descript, Krisp, Podcastle, and Copy.ai, among others.
Further, it will help summarise customer reviews of different applications and provide a concise summary highlighting the topline details.
