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This week at Microsoft Ignite, we presented the latest advancements in Microsoft’s AI and Cloud technology. Over two action-packed days, Microsoft announced over 100 updates spanning generative AI infrastructure breakthroughs, new tools, and advancements in adoption, productivity, and security. These updates will be a gamechanger for anyone building with AI and showcase Microsoft Azure’s commitment to being the leading cloud platform for AI.
We’re so excited about the innovation that these updates will bring to the ecosystem, and so we’ve distilled the top 5 Microsoft AI announcements that every startup should be aware of:
Azure AI Infrastructure – Azure is the world’s computer
Azure is powering a range of solutions, from cloud services to running the most sophisticated AI models. We’re excited to announce that we’ve added choice in price and performance across the Azure infrastructure technology stack, from the datacenter and the silicon that powers them, including:
Azure Machine Learning continues to improve user experiences with new enhancements, including the general availability of prompt flow and model catalog and the preview of an integration with OneLake in Microsoft Fabric, empowering startups and machine learning professionals to streamline the development of AI-powered applications and operationalize responsible generative AI solutions across all stages of the generative AI development lifecycle. One key new feature is the Model-as-a-Service capability in the model catalog which allows startups to to easily integrate the latest AI models, such as Llama 2 from Meta and upcoming premium models from Mistral, and Jais from G42, as API endpoints to their applications. Startups can also customize models with their own data without needing to worry about setting up and managing the GPU infrastructure, helping eliminate complexity and driving productivity which is immensely important for early-stage startups working in small teams.
This has been one of the most requested areas from startups in Founders Hub over the past few weeks, and we are super excited that it’s coming to Azure. The new OpenAI GPT-3.5 Turbo model with a 16K token prompt length will be generally available and OpenAI GPT-4 Turbo will be in public preview in Azure OpenAI Service at the end of November 2023. OpenAI GPT-4 Turbo will enable customers to extend prompt length and bring even more control and efficiency to their generative AI applications. Furthermore, OpenAI GPT-4 Turbo with Vision is coming soon to preview and DALL·E 3 is now available in public preview in Azure OpenAI Service, helping fuel the next generation of enterprise solutions along with OpenAI GPT-4, so startups can pursue advanced functionalities with images. And when used with our Azure AI Vision service, OpenAI GPT-4 Turbo with Vision even understands video for generating text outputs.
Azure AI Search (formerly known as Azure Cognitive Search) is an information search and retrieval platform that enables startups to deliver highly personalized experiences in their generative AI applications. Vector Search, a feature of Azure AI Search, is now generally available, so startups can generate highly accurate experiences for every user in their generative AI applications. Semantic ranker (formally known as semantic search) which includes multilingual, deep learning models adapted from Microsoft Bing, is also available and allows startups to prioritize and ensure the most relevant search results are delivered first.
Finally, every startup building generative AI solutions is facing the new challenge of building offerings in a secured and responsible manner. Microsoft leads the industry in the safe and responsible use of AI. The company has set the standard with an industry-leading commitment to defend and indemnify commercial customers from lawsuits for copyright infringement – the Copilot Copyright Commitment (CCC). Today, Microsoft takes its commitment one step further by announcing the expansion of the CCC to customers using Azure OpenAI Service. The new benefit will be called the Customer Copyright Commitment. Also, Azure AI Content Safety is now generally available, helping startups further detect and mitigate harmful content and create better online experiences. Customers can use Azure AI Content Safety as a built-in-safety system within Azure OpenAI Service, for open-source models as part of their prompt engineering in Azure Machine Learning, or as a standalone API service.
For a deeper dive into these services and the other ~95 announcements, Microsoft Ignite will be available on-demand here. Founders can leverage up to $150k in credits towards Azure AI services through the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub program to test and explore these capabilities hands-on. Additionally, our AI Advisory team is here to help startups accelerate their AI journey through one-to-one consultations.
We’re thrilled to introduce these innovations from Microsoft Ignite 2023 and look forward to the exciting possibilities they bring.
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CTO, Microsoft for Startups
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