Microsoft is expanding its Azure Government cloud computing service by incorporating the advanced AI language models that power ChatGPT. This move follows the release of the commercial version of Azure OpenAI offering.
The tech giant is slated to unveil a new feature on Wednesday that will allow Azure Government customers to leverage the prowess of two of OpenAI’s expansive language models, namely, GPT-4, the start-up’s latest and most advanced model, and GPT-3, an earlier variant.
The forthcoming release is likely to refrain from explicitly mentioning the US government agencies that are anticipated to adopt the technology, however, Bloomberg suggests that the US Defense Department, the Energy Department, and NASA could potentially be included, given that they are federal government clients that have utilized Microsoft’s Azure Government solution.
The move provides government entities access to two of OpenAI’s large language models, namely the most recent and potent GPT-4 and its antecedent GPT-3, through Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI service. It has been confirmed that the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC), an arm of the Defense Department that specializes in assembling and distributing military discoveries, will conduct trials employing the GPT models via Microsoft’s latest offering.
According to a recent blog post reviewed by Bloomberg, Microsoft’s government clients can leverage OpenAI’s LLMs for a vast array of tasks such as answering crucial research queries, computer code generation, and field report summarization. Azure Global CTO William Chappell revealed this information in the post. Nevertheless, the company’s representative noted that these agencies could not access ChatGPT directly, though they could utilize OpenAI’s models through a chat-like interface.
Microsoft has designated a segregated commercial cloud computing space to accommodate the OpenAI models. The area is distinct from the cloud utilized by Azure Government customers, which strictly observes various security and data compliance regulations. As per Chappell’s statement, the data transmitted to the models remains within the Azure OpenAI service since Microsoft hosts them in its Azure infrastructure. Moreover, it was also mentioned that the AI models won’t be trained using data from Azure Government customers.
Via Bloomberg
