ChatGPT 4 will be multimodal - and may arrive early as next week, says Microsoft Germany

Today, at a hybrid event called "AI in Focus - Digital Kickoff," four Microsoft Germany employees presented Large Language Models (LLM), such as the GPT series, as a disruptive force for companies, and explained their Azure-OpenAI offering in detail. Among the presenters was Andreas Braun, the CTO of Microsoft Germany and Lead Data & AI STU, who announced the imminent release of GPT-4.  It's no longer a secret that Microsoft has been working on improving multimodality with OpenAI, especially after the release of Kosmos-1 in early March, which was designed to decode visual puzzles using AI.

"We will introduce GPT-4 next week"

Andreas Braun announced that GPT-4 would be released soon saying, ""We will introduce GPT-4 next week", bringing with it the promise of "multimodal models that will offer completely different possibilities." Multi-modal means that you can give it verbal cues, you can upload pictures, you can give it any input whatsoever and it understands it and in context produces anything you want. Braun noted that Large Language Models (LLM), including the GPT series, were a game changer in the technology industry as they taught machines to understand natural language that had previously only been understandable to humans. LLM made it possible for machines to interpret natural language in a statistical way, making it readable and understandable.

Braun also commented on the tremendous progress made in language technology, adding that it now operates in all languages, with users able to ask a question in one language and receive an answer in another language. Braun confirmed that Microsoft (partnered with OpenAI) would expand its technology's capabilities with multimodal models to "make the models comprehensive.

"iPhone moment"

At the event, Marianne Janik, the CEO of Microsoft Germany, delivered a strong message about the power of AI and its potential for value creation in companies. She called the current AI development a turning point, similar to the "iPhone moment," and urged attendees not to view AI as a threat to jobs but as an opportunity to do repetitive tasks in new and innovative ways. She also pointed out that the public discussion often overlooks Germany's numerous legacy systems and the need to innovate and adapt. "We keep old treasures alive for years," she said, emphasizing the need for companies to embrace change in order to remain competitive.

Moreover, during the event, the CEO highlighted that Microsoft did not utilize customers' information to train models, yet this might not apply to their research partner OpenAI as per their ChatGPT policy. She also mentioned the concept of "democratisation," referring to the accessibility of the models within the Microsoft product range to make it easy for use. In particular, AI is integrated into the Azure platform, Outlook and Teams, making it widely available.

Get ready to update your integration, apps, startups, you name it! What are you most excited about with ChatGPT 4? Let us know in the comments below.