Microsoft Wants to Invest Billions in the ChatGPT
The investment is reportedly part of a complicated deal that would see Microsoft receive 75 percent of OpenAI's profits until the company recoups the investment. After that, Microsoft would secure 49 percent of the shares in OpenAI. The alleged investment is the logical consequence of long-standing business relationships between Microsoft and OpenAI. In 2019, Microsoft invested $1 billion and became the AI specialist’s exclusive partner with Azure to keep the competition away.
ChatGPT, the free software that simulates natural conversations with a virtual counterpart, is making a splash in the AI community. It can create its own texts or program codes on command and subject to stylistic specifications. The integration of ChatGPT into Bing and Office applications is already being tested in Redmond. In the search engine business, the AI software could give a decisive boost in order to be able to meet the industry leader Google again on an equal footing in the long term.
Google has long been working on an AI called LaMDA for its search engine. However, ChatGPT triggered a "Code Red" in Mountain View, as reported by the "New York Times". Google sees the software as an existential threat to its own business model. ChatGPT is still error-prone in the early development phase. However, one can well imagine a future in which users receive perfectly formulated search results for a simple question to an AI.
Microsoft's investment in OpenAI and the integration of ChatGPT into its own offerings could change the game for the tech giant. With the potentially revolutionary chatbot software, Microsoft could challenge industry leader Google in the search engine business and provide users with more reliable and personalized search results. It remains to be seen how the deal will play out and how ChatGPT will evolve in the years to come.