Microsoft has extended its multiyear, multibillion dollar partnership with OpenAI.

The third phase of the partnership aims to accelerate breakthroughs in AI.

OpenAI has been a huge part of the recent AI discourse following the the launch of ChatGPT, its advanced chatbot which can respond to questions with human-like cadence. The tech has spurned both excitement and concern  about the future of AI technology. 

Microsoft also recently announced that it would be laying off 10,000 jobs globally in anticipation of a slump in consumer spending, also citing investment in AI as a priority. 

Also joining the onslaught of tech layoffs, Google parent company Alphabet also cited AI as a priority to rationalise their announcement to cut 12,000 jobs globally.

The chief executive Satya Nadella said in the announcement of layoffs that the tech world is “unforgiving to anyone who doesn’t adapt.”

AI seems to be the target adaptation, as Google also said it was a priority when it announced plans to cut 12,000 jobs globally.

As part of the partnership extension, Microsoft announced a three-pronged plan to accelerate and commercialise AI technology. 

Increasing investments in the development and deployment of specialised supercomputing systems will be one of their priorities, as well as building Azure’s AI infrastructure to help customers build and deploy their AI applications globally. 

Microsoft will also deploy OpenAi’s models accorse their products for both consumers and enterprises, including their Azure OpenAI Service. 

They will also use OpenAI’s exclusive cloud provider, Azure, to power all of their workloads across research, products, and API services. 

“In this next phase of our partnership, developers and organisations across industries will have access to the best AI infrastructure, models, and toolchain with Azure to build and run their applications,” Nadella said in the statement. 

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OpenAI has not only faced applause, but controversy. 

Their ChatGPT has caused worry for academics who are concerned about plagiarism, as well as the chatbot’s inability to discern fact from fiction, causing it to answer certain questions incorrectly. 

Most recently, The Independent reported that ChatGPT hired underpaid Kenyans working as part of the tech’s data labelling process. The workers were potentially exploited and were subject to graphic content to clean the platform of harmful and violent matter. 

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