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Microsoft eyeing $10 billion investment in ChatGPT owner

 



• Last week, Microsoft was reported to be considering plans to incorporate OpenAI's artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot - ChatGPT technology into Office tools and apps.

Microsoft Corp is in discussions to invest up to $10 billion in OpenAI, maker of the viral artificial intelligence bot ChatGPT, according to people familiar with its plans.

The offer under consideration calls for the Redmond, Washington-based software giant to invest the money over several years, though the final terms could change, the people said, asking not to discuss a private matter. He said both the companies have been discussing the deal for months.

Semaphore previously reported that the potential investment would include other venture companies and could value OpenAI at around $29 billion, citing people familiar with the talks. It added that the end of 2022 was targeted for deal closing in documents sent to investors.

Representatives for Microsoft and OpenAI declined to comment.

ChatGPT has lit up the internet since launching in late November, amassing its first million users in less than a week. Its mimicry of human conversation has led to speculation about its potential to replace professional writers and even threaten Google's core search business. The organization behind it, co-founded by Elon Musk and Silicon Valley investor Sam Altman, makes money by charging developers to license its technology.

The new technology is built on OpenAI's GPT-3 language model and comes at the end of a year of headline-grabbing advances in AI. The company's Dall-E image-generating model -- which accepts written prompts to synthesize art and other images -- also sparked a wider debate about the infusion of AI into creative industries. OpenAI is already working on a successor GPT-4 model for its natural language processing.

Microsoft previously invested about $1 billion in OpenAI. It is also working to add ChatGPT to its Bing search engine, seeking to gain an edge over Alphabet Inc's flagship search offering. Unlike the basic set of links that Google Search provides, the bot is able to respond to queries, interact and follow-up questions in a natural and human way.

Nevertheless, concerns about its accuracy – which Altman himself has said is not sufficient to trust the bot – have led to caution about its premature use, and schools in New York City have asked their students to use ChatGPT. Restricted from accessing.

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