news/GOOGL/2023.01.24/Microsoft attracting users to its code-writing, generative AI software.txt

Jan 24 (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp on Tuesday
aimed to assure investors that its big bet on artificial
intelligence (AI) is paying off, even as economic turbulence is
making Microsoft customers scrutinize their cloud spend.Early evidence is in usage of a little-discussed tool that
can write computer code for programmers, called GitHub Copilot.Opened up to the public in June of last year, the tool drew
400,000 subscribers within a month. On Tuesday, Microsoft Chief
Executive Satya Nadella said that more than 1 million people had
used Copilot to date.Microsoft shares dipped slightly in after-hours trade on
Tuesday following its forecast that cloud-computing revenue in
the current quarter was just below Wall Street expectations.Yet the growth in Copilot is a preliminary indication that
people will pay for so-called generative AI, tech that can
produce prose, imagery or in this case computer code on command
after having learned the skill from vast data.Copilot suggests to programmers what to type next, writing
up to 35% or 40% of a file's code when enabled, the CEO of
GitHub, owned by Microsoft, said last year. It costs $100
annually for individual subscribers, or can be billed through a
corporate account, according to a GitHub blog post.Microsoft this week said it would embark on a
multibillion-dollar investment including supercomputer
development and cloud support to power a startup it first backed
in 2019, known as OpenAI, which is at the forefront of
generative AI.Copilot itself relies on OpenAI's tech, as does a chatbot
sensation that Open AI released last year known as ChatGPT.
Microsoft has said it will make ChatGPT, which can draft code as
well as essays or poetry, available via its cloud.ChatGPT has grabbed enough attention to prompt industry
observers to say it could answer any user query if updated,
potentially letting Microsoft's Bing search engine take on
Alphabet Inc's Google, the industry leader. Google is
working on its own major AI launch, Reuters previously reported.Nadella said the Azure OpenAI Service, which offers the
startup's tech through Microsoft's cloud, has already attracted
200 customers, including KPMG and Al Jazeera.
(Reporting by Jeffrey Dastin in Palo Alto, Calif.; Editing by
Leslie Adler)