Microsoft Build 2024 witnessed a large number of announcements from the company focusing on artificial intelligence (AI) that were delivered by Copilot, the Azure cloud service, its data analytics platform Microsoft Fabric and various other platforms. The event's keynote session took place just one day after its Surface event, where it introduced the Copilot+ class of computers and various embedded AI features for computers. Now, extending Azure, the tech giant has made the recently introduced GPT-4o generally available through its Azure OpenAI service.
GPT-4o is now available through Azure
Microsoft's Azure cloud computing platform, which already offered a wide range of options in large language models (LLM), has now added support for GPT-4o by continuing its partnership with OpenAI. Anyone with an existing subscription to the cloud computing platform can access the newly introduced AI model through the Azure OpenAI service. The tech giant is also integrating GPT-4o capabilities (emotional speech, real-time verbal responses and computer vision) with Copilot.
A short demo shared by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella during the keynote session showed Copilot helping a user while playing Minecraft. The AI chatbot was able to help in real time by answering questions and suggesting actions. In addition, the company also shared several ways that developers can use the capabilities of the AI model to create unique tools.
Build your Copilot using Copilot Studio
AI agents, or mini chatbots, have recently become the new trend in the tech space. OpenAI was one of the first to introduce GPTs, which are chat bots that can perform a certain task and can be created by providing a text message to ChatGPT. Following suit, Google also announced Gems at its I/O 2024 event last week. Now, Microsoft is letting companies and developers build Copilot apps through a new platform called Copilot Studio.
The most interesting part about Copilot AI agents is that they can operate automatically, based on the instructions given to them. This means you don't need to ask for a command for them to take action. It can be set to monitor emails or complete a data entry task. Like other AI agents, it can also be created using simple text prompts in Copilot Studio. The platform is currently in preview with limited access, but is expected to be generally available soon.
