Microsoft wants to help companies create their own ChatGPT

ChatGPT's given examples, capabilities and limitations on a mobile phone screen laid against a laptop keyboard
(Image credit: Shutterstock / Tada Images)

According to a new CNBC report, a more customizable version of ChatGPT is in the works and is destined for your business, school, or government department.

Since its public preview launch in November 2022, the OpenAI chatbot has spiked the interest of millions of personal and business users worldwide, to the point that investment bank UBS expects it to have surpassed 100 million active monthly users. It took TikTok around nine months to reach this figure.

Following a multi-billion dollar investment in OpenAI (rumored to be around $10 billion), Microsoft has slowly been incorporating ChatGPT into more of its products, and it’s now reportedly drawing up plans to let organizations make their own version.

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Customized ChatGPT

An unidentified source supposedly briefed on the matter told CNBC about Microsoft’s plans, which will allow companies to tweak ChatGPT to apply their own branding and train it with their own datasets. Currently, ChatGPT is only trained up to 2021, and cannot handle requests about more recent events.

They speculated that it could be used to suggest responses for call center staff during customer service exchanges, for example. It’s also expected to be able cite the sources of the information it provides, which the current version fails to do.

While Microsoft has not yet confirmed this, it has already tweaked its own version of the conversational chatbot for Bing, which displays Bing branding and its own welcome message.

More broadly, it seems that AI is in the news for one reason or another on a daily basis, and it’s not just Microsoft that’s going all in. Google yesterday held an event to discuss its own AI plans, including ChatGPT-rival Bard, powered by its in-house Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA).

Craig Hale

With several years’ experience freelancing in tech and automotive circles, Craig’s specific interests lie in technology that is designed to better our lives, including AI and ML, productivity aids, and smart fitness. He is also passionate about cars and the decarbonisation of personal transportation. As an avid bargain-hunter, you can be sure that any deal Craig finds is top value!