Microsoft’s AI aid Copilot has stepped up its game with a free upgrade that makes it even better.
Users of Copilot’s free tier can now use GPT-4 Turbo, the OpenAI model that runs Copilot’s Pro tier. You have to set Copilot to either Creative or Precise mode to get to GPT-4 Turbo.
People who subscribe to Copilot Pro can still use the GPT-4 Turbo model by default. However, Microsoft’s CEO of ads and web services, Mikhail Parakhin, said in a post on X on Tuesday that these users can switch to older models if they want to.
After quite some work, GPT4-Turbo replaced GPT-4 in the Copilot free tier. Pro users can still choose the older model, if prefer (there is a toggle).
— Mikhail Parakhin (@MParakhin) March 12, 2024
Microsoft said in a statement, “For free users of Copilot in Creative mode, GPT-4 Turbo is now powering that experience.” “Copilot Pro users remain able to toggle GPT-4 Turbo on or off in Creative mode.”
The GPT-4 Turbo has been trained on data from April 2023 and can also handle text-to-speech prompts. Its context window can hold 128,000 tokens, which is the most of any GPT version. Some words make up tokens. A model can take in more text from the user, which helps it understand the context better if it can handle more tokens.
Windows 10 got Copilot last year to add AI to all of its systems. For those who want to use it, the AI helper is built into Windows 11, Bing, Microsoft 365, and the Edge browser. The Pro level of Copilot costs $20 a month and gives you access to new OpenAI models before anyone else and better tools for making images. It also gives you access to more AI-powered features in Office apps.
It seems like every tech company has been looking for ways to use generative AI in their goods since OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot came out in late 2022. Search is getting more AI-powered at Google, and Samsung’s Galaxy S24 phone came out earlier this year with a lot of AI features. But Apple has said it sees a “huge opportunity” and is excited about “what’s in store for us for the rest of the year.” They haven’t said what product they will make with generative AI yet.
OpenAI, on the other hand, now lets people make AI apps that do specific things. And its AI robot competitors, like Google Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude, keep making their products better.
When will the GPT-4.5 Turbo come out?
It’s not clear why Microsoft added GPT-4 Turbo to its free Copilot level. Microsoft put a smarter AI model in Copilot Pro on purpose to get people to buy the paid version. By giving the same model to both the free and paid versions, people who would only pay for Copilot Pro for the better GPT feature might stick with the free version instead.
Still, Microsoft’s choice could also be a sign. It is said that OpenAI is working on a new model named GPT-4.5 Turbo. The company hasn’t said much about future versions of GPT, but earlier this week, Reddit users found that OpenAI released a blog post that said GPT-4.5 Turbo “surpasses GPT-4 Turbo in speed, accuracy, and scalability.”
GPT-4.5-Turbo seems to be indexed on Bing… coming really soon? pic.twitter.com/lzZpQzkoSS
— Matt Shumer (@mattshumer_) March 12, 2024
That blog post was quickly taken down from the OpenAI website, but it looks like a better GPT model is on the way. Also, if Microsoft really wants to set its Copilot versions apart by making the paid version the better one, then the company may be planning to add GPT-4.5 Turbo to Copilot Pro when the new model comes out.
