What is ChatGPT and why does it matter? Here's what you need to know

Microsoft was one of the early investors in OpenAI, the artificial intelligence research company that created ChatGPT, long before ChatGPT was introduced to the public. Microsoft first partnered with OpenAI in 2019, when it invested $1 billion and then $2 billion in the following years. In January, Microsoft expanded its partnership with OpenAI with a multibillion-dollar investment.

According to Bloomberg, neither company disclosed the amount of investment, but sources said it will total $10 billion over several years. In turn, Microsoft's Azure service will become the exclusive cloud computing provider for OpenAI, powering all of OpenAI's research, product and API services workloads.

Microsoft has also used its collaboration with OpenAI to modernize its Bing search engine and improve its browser.

On the 7th of February 2023, Microsoft unveiled Bing, a new search engine powered by OpenAI's next-generation GPT-4 large-language model specifically designed for search. Bing Chat has been a success, bringing the number of daily active Bing users to more than 100 million.

The latest partnership development was announced at the Microsoft Build conference, where Microsoft announced that Bing will become ChatGPT's default search engine. This integration will give ChatGPT access to the Internet and the ability to provide links.