OpenAI announced on Tuesday that it is beginning to release a powerful artificial intelligence model known as GPT-4, paving the way for more competition between its backer Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) and Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google.
OpenAI, the company behind the chatbot sensation ChatGPT, stated in a blog post that its latest technology is “multimodal,” which means it can generate content in response to both image and text prompts. The text-input feature will be available with a waitlist to ChatGPT Plus subscribers and software developers, while the image-input capability will remain a preview of its research.
The eagerly anticipated launch foreshadows how office workers may turn to ever-improving AI for even more tasks, as well as how technology companies compete to win business from such advancements.
Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google announced a “magic wand” for its collaboration software that can draft virtually any document on Tuesday, just days before Microsoft is expected to unveil AI for its competing Word processor, which will most likely be powered by OpenAI. GPT-4 is also being used to power Microsoft’s Bing search engine, according to a Microsoft executive.
According to the company, OpenAI’s latest technology represented a significant improvement over a previous version known as GPT-3.5 in some cases. In a simulation of the bar exam required of U.S. law school graduates before professional practice, the new model scored around the top 10% of test takers, versus the older model ranking around the bottom 10%, OpenAI said.
While the two versions can appear similar in casual conversation, “the difference comes out when the complexity of the task reaches a sufficient threshold,” OpenAI said, noting “GPT-4 is more reliable, creative, and able to handle much more nuanced instructions.”
An online demonstration of the technology by Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president, showed it could take a photo of a hand-drawn mock-up for a simple website and create a real website based on it. GPT-4 also could help individuals calculate their taxes, the demonstration showed.
Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, on Twitter called GPT-4 its model “most capable and aligned” with human values and intent, though “it is still flawed.”
GPT-4 is 82% less likely to respond to requests for disallowed content than its predecessor and scores 40% higher on certain tests of factuality, the company said. Inaccurate responses known as “hallucinations” have been a challenge for many AI programs.
Microsoft stands to benefit from GPT-4’s adoption, said Rishi Jaluria, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets.
The software maker not only is integrating OpenAI’s latest technology into its products: its Azure cloud is powering usage of OpenAI just as budget-conscious businesses are scrutinizing IT spending in an uncertain economy, he said.
“Whenever a company uses this piece of technology,” Jaluria said, “those workloads go through Microsoft Azure, and I think this is coming at a very critical time.”
