Business Version of ChatGPT Unveiled --- New product will put AI startup in direct competition with backer Microsoft.

"OpenAI is launching a business version of its ChatGPT tool, putting the artificial-intelligence startup in direct competition with its largest backer and partner, Microsoft.

ChatGPT Enterprise, unveiled on Monday, is tailored to help employees learn new concepts or skills such as coding and to analyze internal corporate data, OpenAI's chief operating officer, Brad Lightcap, said.

The product is built on OpenAI's most advanced language model, GPT-4, and the company says it will run up to twice as quickly as the paid version of ChatGPT.

ChatGPT Enterprise is designed to address corporate customers' concerns about protecting proprietary data. OpenAI won't use data from customers of the product for training or to improve its own services, Lightcap said.

The launch comes about six weeks after Microsoft announced Bing Chat Enterprise, which is built with OpenAI's technology.

Microsoft says its tool can summarize text or generate answers similarly to ChatGPT, and touts that it will keep data from corporate users private.

Microsoft is offering Bing Chat Enterprise as a feature for some customers of Microsoft 365, its popular workplace software that includes Word and Excel, and is part of an effort to deploy ChatGPT-based products for its vast population of corporate customers.

Microsoft invested billions of dollars in OpenAI and took a 49% stake in the startup to get early access to its generative-AI technology. Leaders of both companies praised the partnership, but there has been occasional conflict and confusion between them, The Wall Street Journal has reported.

OpenAI describes ChatGPT Enterprise in part as a "step towards an AI assistant for work" that "protects your company data," while Microsoft describes Bing Chat Enterprise as "AI-powered chat for work with commercial data protection."

OpenAI's Lightcap said he doesn't think ChatGPT Enterprise is necessarily competitive with Microsoft's offering and he hopes companies can use it along with other tools including Microsoft's products.

Lightcap declined to say whether OpenAI discussed the new tool with Microsoft while developing it.

"We're two separate, independent companies and we act like it," he said. OpenAI is "focused on people using ChatGPT, and making that a great product experience."

Microsoft didn't respond to a request for comment.

The new product is OpenAI's first version of ChatGPT tailored to business, though the company sells access to GPT-4 and other tools to both companies and individuals.

OpenAI has developed partnerships with companies including Microsoft competitor Salesforce, which offers a ChatGPT-infused product called Einstein GPT that can generate marketing emails.

OpenAI developed ChatGPT Enterprise with a focus on speed and reducing latency -- a tall order given the continuing shortage of the advanced chips required to build generative-AI systems.

"We wanted the system to feel really snappy," Lightcap said. He added that OpenAI hopes it can do so without sacrificing the performance of its free products." [1]

1. Business Version of ChatGPT Unveiled --- New product will put AI startup in direct competition with backer Microsoft. Seetharaman, Deepa. 
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 29 Aug 2023: B.1.