Recently, an AI-powered automated software by OpenAI made the news. This software called ChatGPT was created to be a great language model chatbot with long-form question-answering abilities. It’s been rumoured that Microsoft has been testing the integration of this language AI technology into its Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook programs. As reported by The Information, Microsoft has been striving to further integrate the text-generating GPT model from OpenAI into Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook. It has previously integrated an unidentified version of the model into Word’s autocomplete tool.
According to these reports making rounds, Microsoft has been boosting Outlook search results using OpenAI’s GPT technology so users may locate what they’re searching for without having to search using keywords in emails. Microsoft is rumoured to have explored how these AI models could propose email responses or document revisions to help Word users write better and do more. It’s unclear what Microsoft intends to do with the AI technology right now, either releasing these capabilities or if they are currently only being tested, we would keep you updated on Microsoft’s decision once we get them.
If Microsoft focuses more on incorporating features from ChatGPT, the conversational AI that made the news recently, Outlook might create complete emails based on simple queries. Imagine Outlook simply responding to your request to “write an email to my team indicating I’m out sick” by sending an email to your coworkers. According to reports, Microsoft also intends to introduce a version of Bing that responds to search inquiries using ChatGPT. In an effort to make Bing more competitive with Google, this new functionality may become accessible as early as March.
Adding more sophisticated AI text-generation features to Microsoft’s productivity programs will be a huge task according to reports making rounds. The most important one is accuracy, which the creators of the ChatGPT disclosed to be a limitation. Any kind of document generation could be challenging because ChatGPT has the propensity to offer false information as fact.
Privacy is another big problem. Microsoft will need to adjust its models so that user’s data isn’t jeopardized. According to The Information, Microsoft has been developing privacy-preserving models using GPT-3 and the GPT-4 standard, which is yet to be made public. According to reports, Microsoft researchers have had some early success training big language models using sensitive data.
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These models might be used by Microsoft to extract and condense data from Teams Meeting transcripts, then incorporate images created by OpenAI’s Dall-E 2 image-generating model into PowerPoint presentations. It’s been stated that researchers have shown Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, their work on Office integration, although it’s unclear if and when these GPT- or Dall-E 2-powered models will be included in Office products.
Microsoft’s productivity tools already make use of a range of AI technologies. Microsoft Teams employs AI to reduce echo, interruptions, and acoustics, Word and PowerPoint use AI algorithms to automatically propose image and slide deck descriptions, and two years ago, Microsoft created an AI-powered code completion for GPT-3. By utilizing AI for text predictions, grammar checks, and spellchecking, Microsoft Editor significantly improves your writing.
After making a $1 billion investment in OpenAI in 2019, Microsoft acquired a license to the GPT3 -3’s core technology in 2020. Since then, it has developed a close partnership with OpenAI, and it has ambitions to incorporate a text-to-image AI model powered by OpenAI’s DALL-E 2 into Bing.
At CES 2023 last week, Panos Panay, the head of Microsoft’s Windows and Surface, stated that “AI is going to reinvent how you do everything on Windows.” The new Surface smart camera is just one example of how Microsoft’s Surface team is eager to create new hardware to benefit from AI. In a recent interview, several members of the Surface team highlighted the influence AI will have on Windows and hardware.
If Microsoft does move forward with GPT-powered versions of Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint, it will signify quick commercialization of OpenAI’s GPT models. Bing is destined to soon join PowerApps, Microsoft’s first GPT-based commercial application, with its own AI-driven search results. The incorporation of OpenAI’s language models into Office and Bing would put a lot of pressure on Google, the market leader in search and a company that has been making headway with its Workspace products for businesses.
