Microsoft is pleased to announce the launch of Copilot Pro, an innovative new subscription service that promises to put the power of artificial intelligence in the hands of users who are not experts in the field. Copilot Pro grants you limited access to the most cutting-edge AI models ever developed, including the revolutionary GPT-4 and Dall-E 3, for a mere $20 monthly.
What does Copilot Pro do, and why is its release getting so much attention? Find out how this new Microsoft product could change the way we work and make things by reading on.
Access to Top-notch AI Models
Copilot Pro is based on having special access to OpenAI’s newest generative AI systems. People who pay for the service will be able to use GPT-4 and GPT-4 Turbo, even during times of high demand when free users may experience delays or throttling.
With GPT-4, OpenAI’s powerful natural language model has reached its most recent version. Deep learning has come a long way in the past year, and now GPT-4 can understand and write text that sounds like it was written by a person with previously unmatched accuracy. Early reviews suggest that it is better than earlier versions in areas like memory, reasoning, and answering follow-up questions.
Copilot Pro gives you access to GPT-4 Turbo, which gives you an even bigger speed boost. As the name suggests, this version runs on special hardware that is designed to make inferences very fast. Microsoft says that the GPT-4 Turbo can answer questions up to 15 times faster than the base GPT-4 model, but it still does so correctly.
As part of your Copilot Pro subscription, you can use Dall-E 3, OpenAI’s most powerful image generator to date, along with their cutting-edge language models. Dall-E 3 is capable of producing stunning photorealistic images and artwork based on natural language descriptions. Plus, Copilot Pro members can make images faster than ever with priority access.
Get access to Copilot in all of Microsoft 365
One of the best things about Copilot Pro is that it lets you use Copilot features in Microsoft 365 apps. Copilot first made a big splash last year when it added AI help directly to popular code editors like Visual Studio. With Copilot Pro, Microsoft is adding the same level of AI support to all of its office and productivity apps.
Copilot can give you writing tips in Microsoft Word to help you write anything from emails to research papers. It looks at the words and phrases you type and then gives you smart suggestions on how to continue your thoughts or come up with new ones. Copilot for Word also makes editing easier by pointing out possible problems with grammar and clarity.
People who use Excel and Copilot Pro also get an extra pair of AI-powered eyes to help them look at data and find meaningful insights. Copilot will write the functions or make the graphs and charts for you if you just use everyday language to describe what you want to calculate or see. It can even give you ideas on how to present your data in a better way.
Copilot’s uncanny ability to make presentations also helps Microsoft PowerPoint. With Copilot, you can skip the tedious process of assembling individual slides and instead have entire decks built for you with images and text using natural prompts. Then you can change the output that was made automatically in any way you want.
That’s not all. Eventually, Microsoft wants to add Copilot to more of its apps, so you can use it to do things like summarize emails in Outlook or make notes in OneNote.
Soon, You will be able to make your own AI Assistant
Now things start to get interesting. Microsoft announced that later this year, Copilot Pro members will be able to create and train their own AI models that are similar to GPT.
You can make your version of Copilot using your data and workflows with this cutting-edge feature, which is called Custom Copilot GPT. Professionals and novices will both be able to use the same technology that big companies like OpenAI and Anthropic use to make assistants for their products.
For example, lesson plans and course materials can be used to teach a custom Copilot model. The result is an AI teaching assistant who is ready to give one-on-one help with homework or grade papers. Engineers can feed Copilot secret project files and old code to make future work go faster. Once Copilot lets you easily record industry-specific information or personal details, the options are endless.
Plus, no advanced machine learning knowledge is needed from the user, says Microsoft. To make it easy for anyone to make and use smart Copilot agents, they want to abstract away the complexity.
Making cutting-edge AI more Accessible to Everyone
Access to the most advanced generative AI models has remained largely out of reach for the general public, even though in recent years there has been a lot of excitement surrounding systems such as GPT-3 and DALL-E 2. Only very well-off tech companies or institutions could afford to license them due to their prohibitively high prices.
Copilot Pro changes that by putting together premium features at a price that regular users can afford. You can use the same cutting-edge AI that powers gear from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and other tech giants for less than the price of a daily coffee.
Copilot Pro could make it easier for everyone to use new technologies that have never been seen before. Some might say that $240 a year is still too expensive for many people to make AI fully useful. But Microsoft makes this level of AI much more accessible by lowering costs and making expensive models run more efficiently.
Plus, the benefits might get better over time. If Copilot takes off as a subscription service for people, the service can keep its low price while getting better with the help of growing revenue.
Is Your Business Prepared for the AI Future?
When Microsoft releases its new product, it marks a turning point for business leaders who can see far into the future. This is similar to how personal computers and the internet changed almost every industry: AI will change almost every industry.
Organizations that are looking to the future are asking themselves a very important question: how can we use AI to change the world before our competitors fall behind?
With Copilot Pro, Microsoft has taken away the barriers of cost and complexity that kept top-level AI out of reach. A cheap monthly subscription is now all it takes to get access to transformative features.
In the age of AI, will you lead your company or risk falling behind? You can make that decision.
Most Valuable Features of Copilot Pro:
Get to GPT-4, GPT-4 Turbo, and Dall-E 3 first during busy times
Get Copilot, which is powered by AI, for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and more.
Generate content, look at data, and make presentations using only natural language prompts.
You can make AI assistants that are unique and fit your needs (coming later in 2023)
All this for only $20 a month per user—a price that has never been seen before
How can you Use Copilot with ease?
1. Research & Knowledge Management
Instantly pull out important ideas from long documents
Use plain language queries to search internal repositories
Automate putting research into formats that can be shared.
2. Content Creation & Copywriting
Use bullet points to make blog posts, social media captions, and newsletters.
Rewrite and rearrange old drafts to make them more clear.
Check the spelling and grammar of important messages
3. Data Analysis & Reporting
Visually look through datasets by naming patterns that you want to see.
Use natural prompts to make charts, graphs, and dashboards.
Help find outliers, trends, and correlations in data
4. Education & Tutoring
Create a unique Copilot agent to help students learn.
Review and grade homework based on your unique standards
Curate assignments and lesson plans on the fly
5. Engineering & Programming
Quick prototyping and making boilerplate code
Fix bugs that were found during testing.
Language-based search lets you ask about documentation and project history.
Custom Copilot
Copilot Pro is already appealing because it lets you use SOTA AI models, but the real crown jewel is just around the corner.
Microsoft is going to release features later this year that will let you make Copilot agents that are unique and fit your needs. By putting the same technology that companies like Anthropic use to develop their proprietary assistants into the hands of everyday users, this revolutionary feature, which has been given the name Custom Copilot GPT, will be able to deliver.
When it comes to artificial intelligence, Custom Copilot promises to unlock not-before-seen levels of personalization. As opposed to GPT-4, which was trained on web data, you’ll be able to give Copilot-specific knowledge from your documents and workflows.
Imagine that an engineer at a new robotics company taught Copilot all the details of a design, how to fix problems, and even the interesting history of the company. As a result? An AI assistant that is tailored to do specific tasks, such as writing specifications, figuring out why a build failed, or even onboarding new team members in the future.
Or, imagine an educator using customized Copilot to give each student a unique lesson plan. It can help teach concepts, grade assignments, and provide feedback that is tailored to each learner’s needs by ingesting lesson plans, practice problem sets, and previous student work.
If everyone has the chance to get niche expertise and institutional knowledge, Custom Copilot has the power to change the game in any industry. AI-powered assistants can help sales reps write pitches that meet the needs of each customer. Creative people and writers can get brainstorming help whenever they need it, tailored to their voice and style. New businesses can use it!
Bottom Line
With the new Copilot Pro subscription, Microsoft has taken a big step toward making AI available to everyone. Cutting-edge technology that was once only available to tech giants is now available to regular people thanks to lower costs and easier access to models like the GPT-4. And with the imminent capability of complete customization, almost every industry is positioned to gain from the burgeoning potential of AI. Anyone can now use the powerful effects of AI for $20 a month. The future has arrived, and Copilot Pro gives users direct access to it.