OpenAI on Monday launched a new AI model and desktop version of ChatGPT, along with an updated user interface, the company’s latest effort to expand use of its popular chatbot.
The update brings GPT-4 to everyone, including OpenAI’s free users, technology chief Mira Murati said in a livestreamed event. She added that the new model, GPT-4o, is “much faster,” with improved capabilities in text, video and audio.
“This is the first time that we are really making a huge step forward when it comes to the ease of use,” Murati said.
OpenAI, backed by Microsoft, has been valued by more than $80 billion by investors. The company, founded in 2015, is under pressure to stay on top of the generative AI market while finding ways to make money as it spends massive sums on processors and infrastructure to build and train its models.
The new model also has improved quality and speed of ChatGPT for 50 different languages, and it will also be available via OpenAI’s API so that developers can begin building applications using the new model today, Murati said. GPT-4o is twice as fast as, and half the cost of, GPT-4 Turbo, Murati said.
OpenAI team members demonstrated the new model’s audio capabilities, asking for help calming down ahead of a public speech. OpenAI researcher Mark Chen said the model has the capability to “perceive your emotion,” adding that the model can also handle users interrupting it. The team also asked it to analyze a user’s facial expression to comment on the emotions the person may be experiencing.
“Hey there, what’s up? How can I brighten your day today?” ChatGPT’s audio mode said when a user greeted it.
Chen demonstrated the model’s ability to tell a bedtime story and asked it to change the tone of its voice to be more dramatic or robotic. He even asked it to sing the story.
OpenAI’s new model can also function as a translator, even in audio mode, the company said. Chen demonstrated the tool’s ability to listen to Murati speaking Italian while he spoke English and to translate into their respective languages as they conversed.
Team members also demonstrated the model’s ability to solve math equations and help write code, positioning it as a stronger competitor to Microsoft’s own GitHub Copilot.
For OpenAI, it’s one of the company’s biggest announcements since its August launch of ChatGPT Enterprise, the AI chatbot’s business tier. That tool was in development for “under a year” and had the help of more than 20 companies of varying sizes and industries, OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap told CNBC at the time.
OpenAI, Microsoft and Google are at the helm of a generative AI gold rush as companies in seemingly every industry race to add AI-powered chatbots and agents to key services to avoid being left behind by competitors. Earlier this month, OpenAI rival Anthropic announced its first-ever enterprise offering and a free iPhone app.
A record $29.1 billion was invested across nearly 700 generative AI deals in 2023, an increase of more than 260% from the prior year, according to PitchBook. The market is predicted to top $1 trillion in revenue within a decade.
Some in the industry have raised concerns about the speed at which untested new services are coming to market, and academics and ethicists are distressed about the technology’s tendency to propagate bias.
After ChatGPT’s launch in November 2022, it broke records at the time as the fastest-growing consumer app in history, and now has about 100 million weekly active users. OpenAI says that more than 92% of Fortune 500 companies are using the platform.
Murati said during the Monday event that OpenAI wants to “remove some of the mysticism from the technology.”
“Over the next few weeks, we’ll be rolling out these capabilities to everyone,” Murati said, adding.
She concluded by thanking Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and his company for providing the necessary graphics processing units (GPUs) to power OpenAI’s technology.
“I just want to thank the incredible OpenAI team, and also thanks to Jensen and the Nvidia team for bringing us the most advanced GPUs to make this demo possible today,” she said.
Lisa Su, chair and CEO of Advanced Micro Devices Inc., during the AMD Advancing AI event in San Jose, California, on Dec. 6, 2023.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Advanced Micro Devices shares fell 7% on Wednesday after the chipmaker under-delivered on Wall Street’s estimates for its important data center business.
Shares traded at a 52-week low and were on pace for their worst session since October.
AMD reported better-than-expected results on the top and bottom lines, but it also reported data center sales of $3.86 billion. That reflected 69% growth from a year ago but fell short of the $4.14 billion in sales expected by analysts polled by LSEG.
The key unit, responsible for selling advanced chips for data centers, has benefited in recent years from growing demand for its graphics processing units, as megacap technology companies race to develop advanced artificial intelligence tools.
Data center revenue grew 94% for the full year to $12.6 billion, with $5 billion of those sales stemming from AMD’s AI-focused Instinct GPUs. The company is the second-largest producer for gaming after Nvidia, which has triumphed as the market leader in AI chips and ballooned in value to a nearly $3 trillion market value.
“We believe this places AMD on a steep long-term growth trajectory, led by the rapid scaling of our data center AI franchise from more than $5 billion of revenue in 2024 to tens of billions of dollars of annual revenue over the coming years,” AMD CEO Lisa Su said on the earnings call with analysts.
Several Wall Street firms trimmed their price targets on shares amid the disappointing data center results and expectations for a weak first half. Citi downgraded shares to neutral from a buy rating, while JPMorgan its target to $130 from $180. Bank of America’s Vivek Arya said the company has yet to “articulate how it can carve an important niche” relative to Nvidia.
Morgan Stanley highlighted AI expectations as the most significant pressure point, saying that “visibility likely needs to improve for the stock to find its footing.”
CEO of Alphabet and Google Sundar Pichai in Warsaw, Poland on March 29, 2022.
Mateusz Wlodarczyk | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Alphabet shares dropped more than 7% on Wednesday after the search giant fell short of Wall Street’s fourth-quarter revenue expectations and announced big spending plans for its ongoing artificial intelligence buildout.
The stock headed for its worst session in more than a year.
The company topped earnings estimates by 2 cents per share. Revenue came in at $96.47 billion, behind the $96.56 billion expected by LSEG. Alphabet’s revenue grew 12% overall from a year ago, while its YouTube advertising business, search business and services segment slowed year over year.
Alphabet also said it plans to spend $75 billion on capital expenditures as it builds out its AI offerings and races against megacap rivals to build out data centers and new infrastructure. The figure was much higher than the $58.84 billion expected by Wall Street analysts, according to FactSet.
Finance chief Anat Ashkenazi said the higher expenses will help “support the growth of our business across Google Services, Google Cloud and Google DeepMind.” She also said the spending will go toward “technical infrastructure, primarily for servers, followed by data centers and networking.”
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The company expects capital expenditures to range between $16 billion and $18 billion. That was higher than the $14.3 billion estimate from FactSet.
JPMorgan analyst Doug Anmuth highlighted costs, capex and cloud revenue as the “culprits” for the stock’s post-earnings performance. Bernstein’s Mark Shmulik also noted that this is the third quarter that the stock move connects to Google’s cloud segment.
“If digital ad growth is akin to a long drive competition, then Google would be sitting comfortably here with strong Search and YouTube bombs down the fairway,” Shmulik said.
“But as the game shifts to the AI putting green, there’s little room for error with a slight cloud miss, a whopping CAPEX guide up to $75B for 2025, and lack of actionable operating leverage commentary leaves Google 3- putting for bogey,” he added.
Teladoc Health on Wednesday announced it will acquire the preventative care company Catapult Health in an all-cash deal for $65 million.
Catapult offers an at-home wellness exam that allows members to check their blood pressure, collect a blood sample, log other screening information and meet virtually with a nurse practitioner. Teladoc, a virtual care platform, said the acquisition will help it improve its ability to detect health conditions early.
The company said Catapult will operate within its integrated care segment after the deal closes. At JPMorgan’s health-care conferencein January, Teladoc said it is actively working to grow membership and use of services within its integrated care segment.
“Catapult Health’s capabilities will help advance our strategy in meaningful ways — from giving more members access to convenient and impactful wellness and preventative care, to unlocking greater value for our customers,” Teladoc CEO Chuck Divita said in a statement.
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Catapult generated around $30 million in trailing twelve-month revenue as of the third quarter of 2024, Teladoc said. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of this year.
Teladoc’s acquisition of Catapult comes after a tumultuous period for the company. When Teladoc acquired Livongo in 2020, the companies had a combined enterprise value of $37 billion. The stock has tumbled since then, and Teladoc’s market cap now sits under $2 billion.
In April, Teladoc announced the sudden departure of Jason Gorevic, who joined as CEO in 2009 and steered the company through the Livongo deal and the Covid-19 pandemic. Divita took over as chief executive in June and pledged to position the company for “long-term, sustainable success.”
