Microsoft has released a more versatile paid version of its Copilot engine that includes a facility to create your own customised ChatGPT.
Microsoft released a free version of Copilot late last year that offered GPT-4 style generative AI services through the Edge browser, Bing and Windows 11.
In a Microsoft blog post, the company says its AI engine had taken part in more than five billion chats and handled more than five billion images to date.
The company now wants to target power and business services with an enhanced version, Copilot Pro. It will cost Australian users $33 per month.
“First, there are a set of Copilot power users like creators, researchers, programmers and others who want more rapid access to the very latest we have to offer,” says Microsoft’s executive vice president and consumer chief marketing officer, Yusuf Mehdi.
“And second, our Microsoft 365 customers want access to Copilot in the Microsoft 365 apps for personal use.”
The new Copilot Pro premium subscription service offers “a higher tier of service for AI capabilities”, and brings Copilot AI capabilities to Microsoft 365 personal and family subscribers, he says. Those users can also access Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote on PC, Macs and iPads.
The Pro version has other features, such as letting you create your own Copilot GPT.
Microsoft is yet to release details of how this works, but OpenAI offers details on how to do it.
“GPTs are custom versions of ChatGPT that users can tailor for specific tasks or topics by combining instructions, knowledge, and capabilities,” it says. “They can be as simple or as complex as needed, addressing anything from language learning to technical support.”
Enterprises will soon be able to create their own customised ChatGPT that are armed with specific knowledge about their business.
That would be useful both from a customer perspective and for sharing knowledge within an organisation. OpenAI warns that knowledge gained by the bot could end up being shared more widely.
Like OpenAI’s version, Microsoft’s customised GPTs are created using a GPT builder.
If you don’t want to roll your own GPT, Microsoft itself has created a series of tailor made ones for you. ” A handful of Copilot GPTs will start to roll out beginning today with specific purposes such as fitness, travel, cooking and more.”
The company additionally has developed Copilot mobile apps for iOS and Android which will roll out over the next month. Copilot is also being added to the Microsoft 365 mobile app, also available on iOS and Android.
“Access Copilot right inside the app and easily export the content you create to a Word or PDF document,” says Microsoft.
Pro users get priority access to the latest models, starting with OpenAI’s GPT-4 Turbo. “With Copilot Pro you’ll have access to GPT-4 Turbo during peak times for faster performance and, coming soon, the ability to toggle between models to optimize your experience how you choose.”
The turbo version has more updated knowledge (to April 2023) and introduces a content window capable of displaying about 300 pages of text in response to a single prompt.
The Pro version also offers enhanced AI image creation with more detailed image quality and landscape image format.
More details are here.
