Microsoft today announced the general availability of its cloud-based Azure OpenAI service so that common people can use its AI tools like GPT-3.5, Codex, and DALL•E 2 to enhance their work.  It also said customers could access OpenAI’s flagship AI chatbot ChatGPT through Azure. OpenAI too announced that it would add ChatGPT to its API soon.

Those using the Azure Service already have access to tools like the GPT-3.5 language system that ChatGPT is based on and the Dall-E model for generating images from text prompts. “ChatGPT is coming soon to the Azure OpenAI Service, which is now generally available, as we help customers apply the world’s most advanced AI models to their own business imperatives,” tweeted Microsoft chief Satya Nadella.

Microsoft stated that organizations of all sizes and industries are utilizing the Azure OpenAI Service to achieve greater results with fewer resources, enhance the user experience, and streamline internal operations. Both small startups like Moveworks and large multinational corporations like KPMG are leveraging the capabilities of Azure OpenAI Service for advanced applications such as customer support, personalization, and extracting valuable insights from data through search, extraction, and classification.

Recently, OpenAI announced its monetisation plans for ChatGPT and posted a waitlist link on its Discord server along with a range of questions on payment preferences for the paid version, which will be called ChatGPT Professional. This news came soon after Microsoft revealed that it’s now looking at pumping an additional $10 billion in OpenAI, a huge leap from its initial $1 billion investment in the company in 2019. 

When OpenAI rolled out ChatGPT in November, it went viral in less than 10 days. Built on GPT-3.5, ChatGPT can interact with humans in natural language and text and remember the context. Whether writing codes or a joke, the futuristic chatbot can do both.