OpenAI’s ‘next-gen’ AI model drives new Microsoft research TechCrunch

Microsoft is playing a big game in AI with its revamped Bing search engine and Edge web browser, both of which are powered by what appears to be exclusive access to the successor to OpenAI’s big popular ChatGPT language model.

The new AI is currently unnamed, only described in a blog post as follows:

… A new big next-gen OpenAI language model, more powerful than ChatGPT and customized specifically for search. It takes key learnings and advancements from ChatGPT and GPT-3.5 – and it’s even faster, more accurate and better performing.

“Customized specifically for search” was repeated by several executives at the Microsoft event, so it must be agreed-upon language that doesn’t over-commit the capabilities of the model in any way. . They called it a “great new language model”, though it’s hard to say how much of a step up it is from OpenAI’s precedents. Speculation was that it was GPT-4, but so far that term has not been used. I asked OpenAI for more information and will update if I have an answer.

One of the drawbacks of large models like these is the immense computing power required to run them, which has led many potential ChatGPT users to wait a few minutes before initiating a session. Microsoft’s focus on scaling makes sense, especially since it will certainly foot the compute and server bill.

Unlike ChatGPT and other GPT models, the AI-powered Bing is accessed directly through a normal search interface and wrapped in a Microsoft-created security system they call Prometheus. It’s an ominous name, of course, because although Prometheus was a god of wisdom and cunning, he also found himself in endless torture, chained to a rock with a huge bird forever pecking at his guts. . Let’s hope Bing doesn’t end up the same way.

Prometheus is part of a layer of security and control around the model that acts as a sanitizer and filter, monitoring for obviously inappropriate or incorrect results. But it also brings relevant data such as location, context, and up-to-date information to customize or improve base model inputs and outputs.

The next-generation model was also applied to Bing’s search ranking index, “leading to the biggest jump in relevance in two decades.” It takes strength to admit it!

We’ll have more details about the new Bing and the AI ​​model powering it after today’s event at Microsoft HQ.