Excitement is building in the artificial intelligence (AI) community as Microsoft Germany’s CTO, Andreas Braun, recently announced that GPT-4 will be introduced next week. GPT-4 is the fourth generation of the groundbreaking large language model (LLM) series, which enables machines to understand natural language, a skill previously unique to humans. According to Braun, GPT-4 will offer new possibilities, such as video processing, as well as multimodality, making the models comprehensive.

The announcement was made during an AI in Focus – Digital Kickoff event that took place in Germany, attended by news outlet Heise. During the event, Marianne Janik, CEO of Microsoft Germany, emphasized the value creation potential of AI and spoke of a turning point in time – the current AI development and GPT-4 were “an iPhone moment.” She noted that disruption does not necessarily mean job losses, and companies should focus on training their employees to use AI effectively.

Microsoft has been integrating AI into its products, such as Teams, and it’s expected that GPT-4 will also be integrated into Microsoft’s products. The AI model is likely to be available through OpenAI’s API and could upgrade Bing Chat.

Microsoft paid $10 billion for a 49% share of OpenAI to productize their technology and is involved in an AI arms race with Google. GPT-4 is expected to be a significant improvement over GPT-3.5, with a much larger context window, greater reliability, and new emergent properties. Google’s PALM-e has already demonstrated the benefits of attaching image interpretation modes to LLMs, suggesting that GPT-4 may perform well beyond text and into sensory modes.

The Microsoft CEO’s comments reflect a growing awareness of the potential of AI in the business world, with companies increasingly seeking to leverage the technology to optimize productivity and streamline processes. As the industry continues to advance, we can expect to see more developments in LLMs and multimodal models, offering new opportunities and possibilities. GPT-4’s imminent arrival is likely to generate a lot of interest and could represent another significant milestone in the development of AI technology.