Microsoft receives exclusive license on GPT-3 language model from OpenAI

Microsoft has obtained an exclusive license on GPT-3. The OpenAI language model will be integrated into Microsoft software and services in the future. The parties have been working together for some time; last year Microsoft invested a billion dollars in OpenAI.

OpenAI will continue to offer its GPT-3 language model and other AI models through its API available through Azure, but Microsoft will receive an exclusive license to use the language model in its products and services. It is not yet known exactly which integrations will be implemented. Microsoft could integrate the language model into software such as Office and Windows, but GPT-3 can also write code, which could make it complementary to GitHub and Visual Studio Code, for example.

Microsoft says it wants to make GPT-3 available to everyone. Scientists, entrepreneurs, hobbyists and companies alike should have access to it. The language model is already trained on Microsoft’s Azure servers. That has been happening since last year, after Microsoft invested a billion dollars in OpenAI.

GPT-3 is a language model that can write coherent texts by predicting the next word each time. Some input is needed, such as a title and short intro, then the language model can write a full article itself, or simulate a discussion between different people. The language model is not publicly available, but scientists can gain access. An American student recently demonstrated with a blog that many people experience the texts written by the AI ​​as authentic.

The language model is the successor to GPT-2, which was released last year. With that version, OpenAI was already wary of abuse and therefore the model was not released. GPT-2 used 1.5 billion parameters and with GPT-3 that is 175 billion. According to the makers, it is the most advanced language model in existence.

In 2015, the OpenAI research institute was founded by several top people from the tech industry, with the aim of conducting fundamental research on artificial intelligence, without the need for a commercial goal. Tesla CEO Elon Musk was one of the founders, but he left the organization to give more attention to his own companies. Initially, OpenAI was a non-profit organization, but a company was founded last year, in its own words to be able to grow faster. This resulted in the collaboration with Microsoft.