INTERVIEW businessinfomag.uk magazine 22 Business Info (BI): ChatGPT has taken the world by storm. Has its rise surprised you? Matt Weston (MW): The sudden burst of acceleration we’ve seen from ChatGPT has certainly been surprising. It’s been released to widespread use and has already been adopted all over the globe. That said, the use of AI within the IT industry has been steadily increasing over the last 10 years, with natural language processing, image recognition and form recognition among the most common uses. With the large-scale adoption of no-code and low-code frameworks, this was already starting to gain traction before ChatGPT came onto the scene, through the likes of AI Builder in Microsoft PowerPlatform and the launch of Microsoft Syntex. BI: Why has ChatGPT been so successful? MW: The big reason behind ChatGPT’s success is the ease of use for end users. Anyone can use natural language to generate output, whether that is graphical AI: a view from the channel or textual in nature. The immediate ability not only to search the internet but to ask it to answer questions is something that generates both excitement and curiosity about the platform. The rapid advances in AI capabilities have opened up new possibilities for using machines in various domains, with the technology poised to revolutionise the way people work. One of the primary reasons why AI is essential is its remarkable capacity to automate repetitive and mundane tasks, freeing up valuable time and resources for more creative and high-level activities. Additionally, AI is a crucial tool for augmenting decisionmaking processes by providing real-time insights and predictions based on extensive data analysis. This empowers businesses and organisation to make informed decisions and gain a competitive edge. BI: What are the limitations of ChatGPT? MW: Although ChatGPT is a highly sophisticated language model that produces contextually relevant and coherent responses it’s not without its limitations. For example, it suffers from an absence of common sense. While ChatGPT can generate technically correct responses, it lacks the reasoning that is inherent in human thought. As a result, its responses can sometimes be logically flawed or plainly nonsensical, despite superficially appearing coherent. In addition to this, the platform is reliant on input data. The quality and quantity of input data used to train ChatGPT heavily influence the quality of its responses. If the input data is biased or incomplete, the model can produce biased or inaccurate responses. BI: Microsoft has recently launched Copilot, its answer to ChatGPT. How does Copilot improve upon ChatGPT? MW: Copilot represents a significant leap forward in natural language processing technology, taking AI-powered assistance beyond general conversation and into specific industries and domains. What sets Copilot apart from ChatGPT is a highly specialised focus on solving business problems, ranging from code writing to low-code app generation, which demonstrates the potential for AI to enhance specific industries and workflows. It has leveraged OpenAI’s GPT-3 language to advance to GPT-4, an expansive model and massive dataset of publicly available code, to generate highly relevant and accurate suggestions that are tailored to the specific context in which the user is working, whether that is development or content creation in SharePoint. The platform excels where it’s embedded into our everyday working environment, becoming part of SharePoint, GitHub or PowerPlatform (and more – see right) to assist in the creation of content. BI: What does the future of collaborative AI look like? Are we only now scratching the surface of what’s possible? MW: The future of collaborative AI is certainly a promising one, with endless possibilities for enhancing productivity, creativity and problem solving in a wide range of industries and domains. As AI continues to evolve and improve, we can expect to see even more sophisticated collaborative AI systems that can work seamlessly with humans to tackle complex tasks and challenges. These systems will likely incorporate Matt Weston, Managing Director of Microsoft 365 consultancy Vantage 365, on the rise of AI and what it means for Microsoft customers. Matt Weston
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