Sam Altman shares the next steps for AI at Microsoft Build

The final two weeks have seen back-to-back bulletins from OpenAI and Google, and now it is Microsoft’s flip. OpenAI has been a key companion in Microsoft’s AI journey, having lent the expertise underlying ChatGPT to the tech large. Consequently, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman made a shock look on the firm’s annual developer convention, Microsoft Construct. 

On Tuesday, on the finish of the opening keynote, Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott invited Altman to affix him on stage to share his insights on the corporate’s current AI developments and what’s to come back. To begin the dialog, Scott invited Altman to share what has stunned him probably the most about AI previously yr. 

“I’ve by no means seen a expertise get adopted so shortly in such a significant method—what persons are constructing, how persons are discovering out methods to do issues that we by no means thought attainable—which is why it is all the time nice to have an API. That is been actually cool to see,” Altman mentioned. 

OpenAI presents a sequence of APIs that builders can incorporate into their current tasks, unlocking many new AI purposes that profit shoppers in all places. Altman shared that OpenAI values the work builders do, and that the corporate has been purposeful about constructing APIs which are handy for them. 

“The extra this [the API] can simply be a layer that will get constructed into each layer, each service, the higher, and we tried to make it such that if you wish to add intelligence to no matter you’re doing, any product, any service, we make that simple,” Altman mentioned. 

Relating to the way forward for AI, Scott prompted Altman to share — with out revealing express particulars — what the general public ought to look ahead to probably the most.

“An important factor feels like probably the most boring, apparent, trite factor I can say, however I feel it’s truly a lot deeper than it sounds,” Altman mentioned. “An important factor is that the fashions are simply going to get smarter—usually, throughout the board.”

Altman invited the viewers to think about the expansion that occurred between GPT 3 to three.5 to 4: that every mannequin received smarter, extra sturdy, safer, and extra helpful. In response to Altman, the following developments will provide comparable progress with better intelligence and utility. 

By way of specifics the general public ought to anticipate in future OpenAI fashions, Altman shared that the corporate cares about velocity, price, and multimodality, pointing to the truth that GPT-4 halved each its token value and latency, whereas the not too long ago launched GPT-4o launched Voice Mode. 

Earlier than wrapping up, Altman supplied recommendation for builders navigating this unprecedented time in AI, encouraging them to comply with the momentum of the foremost platform shift the business is witnessing. He in contrast it to the evolution that adopted the cell phone increase and the emergence of the web.

“My greatest piece of recommendation is this can be a particular time and make the most of it,” Altman mentioned. “This isn’t the time to delay what you had been planning on doing or look forward to the following factor.” 

At Microsoft Construct, Microsoft continued to leverage OpenAI fashions to optimize its personal companies, asserting the final availability of GPT-4o, which OpenAI simply launched final week, in Azure AI.