This week, OpenAI officially announced its latest AI large language model, ChatGPT-4o. The multimodal model combines text, image, video, and voice to come up with answers to questions with natural language. It"s also going to be available for both free and paid users.
Microsoft, OpenAI"s major financial and technology partner, didn"t waste time in announcing that GPT-4o is now available in a preview version on its Azure OpenAI Service.
In a blog post, Microsoft stated:
Azure OpenAI Service customers can explore GPT-4o’s extensive capabilities through a preview playground in Azure OpenAI Studio starting today in two regions in the US. This initial release focuses on text and vision inputs to provide a glimpse into the model’s potential, paving the way for further capabilities like audio and video.
Microsoft said that business users will be able to use ChatGPT-4o within Azure OpenAI Services for "more dynamic and comprehensive customer support interactions," along with being able to analyze more data and generate more content for their operations.
The blog post added that more info on ChatGPT-4o, along with more updates on Microsoft"s Azure AI services in general, will be revealed next week at the company"s Build 2024 developers conference, which gets underway in Seattle on May 21.
In addition to introducing and demoing ChatGPT-4o, OpenAI announced the launch of a ChatGPT desktop app. However, the company decided to launch the app for macOS users first. The company did say a Windows version is in the works, but it won"t be available until sometime later in 2024.
So why did OpenAI make macOS the priority for its desktop ChatGPT app over Windows, especially considering the deep partnership it has with Microsoft? In a chat with Axios, a spokesperson for OpenAI stated simply that the macOS app was launched first "because that"s where more of its users are."
OpenAI also announced this week it had made some design changes to the web-based ChatGPT client. In addition, free users can now access the GPT Store and check out the custom GPTs made by third parties for specific tasks.