Microsoft Germany's CTO, Andreas Braun, recently announced at an AI kickoff event on March 9, 2023, that the release of GPT-4 is imminent. The new large language model (LLM) is set to have a multimodal feature that will offer new possibilities, including videos!
Multimodality to Make Models Comprehensive
Braun shared that GPT-4 will be launched next week, boasting new multimodal models that can even process videos. As of the time of writing this article, we anticipate the release to occur within this week, which is exciting news!!
According to Braun, LLM is a "game changer," as it enables machines to comprehend natural language, which was previously exclusive to human understanding. The integration of multimodality by Microsoft-OpenAI will further enhance the models' ability to comprehend various forms of data.
Disruption and Job Creation
During the event, Marianne Janik, CEO of Microsoft Germany, also spoke about the value creation potential of artificial intelligence and the turning point in time, where the current AI development and ChatGPT are an "iPhone moment." She emphasized that AI is not about replacing jobs but about doing repetitive tasks in a different way. Janik recommended that companies form internal "competence centres" to train employees in the use of AI and bundle ideas for projects, which will result in exciting new professions emerging.
Use Cases and Technical Backgrounds
Clemens Siebler and Holger Kenn, both from Microsoft Germany, provided insights into practical AI use and concrete use cases that their teams are currently working on, as well as technical backgrounds. Kenn provided an explanation on multimodal AI, which is capable of translating text not just into images, but also into music and video!!
Siebler illustrated with use cases what is already possible today, such as speech-to-text telephone calls that can save time for call centres. He cited an example where speech-to-text technology can be used to record phone calls in a call center, which would eliminate the need for agents to manually summarize and type out the content. This would save 500 working hours per day for a large Microsoft customer in the Netherlands that receives 30,000 calls daily. The project's prototype was developed within two hours, and a single developer implemented it in two weeks (plus additional time for final implementation). Sieber identified three common use cases for AI: answering questions on company knowledge that is only available to employees, AI-assisted document processing, and semi-automation of call centers through spoken language processing.
Conclusion
The AI kickoff event highlighted the disruptive force of AI and the potential for companies to create value through the use of Large Language Models such as GPT-4. Microsoft Germany's CTO and CEO both highlighted the value creation potential of AI, which will not necessarily lead to job losses. Instead, AI will create exciting new professions that will require a new set of skills. With multimodality, Microsoft-OpenAI will make models comprehensive and offer new possibilities, including videos, for businesses to leverage.
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Credits: Cover Photo by Choong Deng Xiang on Unsplash
