Microsoft to offer more AI features in cloud service in China

Credit: Zhu Shenshen / SHINE

Caption: A Microsoft Azure conference is held in Shanghai. Microsoft is a major investor in OpenAI, developer of ChatGPT.

Microsoft Corp, a major investor of ChatGPT developer, will add almost 40 new features in its Azure cloud service in the Chinese mainland in 2023, including many AI functions, the company said on Friday.

The company has also released Azure OpenAI services globally and serves both Chinese companies and multinational companies. Firms can access and adopt OpenAI's technologies directly, which are also used in ChatGPT, OpenAI's popular chatbot.

The new Azure OpenAI services cover text (GPT, a key technology used in ChatGPT), programming (Codex) and image, as well as video creation (Dall-E 2) services. The application fields cover the Internet, gaming, finance, retail, medicine and autonomous driving, Microsoft said at the conference in Shanghai.

With cloud service development, buzzy AI techs are starting to commercialize.

Meanwhile, almost 40 new Azure functions will debut in China this year. They cover support for high-performance computing (HPC), the Internet of Things and native cloud techs.

Other than Microsoft, Chinese tech giant Baidu will officially release a ChatGPT-like service Ernie Bot on March 16. Over 400 firms and organizations have joined its AI ecosystem, said Baidu.

Firms that want to use Azure OpenAI must purchase Microsoft's cloud services. Baidu hasn't revealed whether it will bundle Ernie Bot with its own cloud services.

Microsoft will also add HPC and AI capabilities in its Azure services in China to meet booming AI-related demands.