Microsoft creates an 'iPhone moment' for AI with new ChatGPT support
lcva2/iStock Editorial via Getty Images

With Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) investing billions of dollars into ChatGPT, and set to integrate the technology into its Azure cloud service, the world of artificial intelligence stands on the brink of a widespread breakthrough that until now had only been hinted at.
That's the opinion of Oppenheimer analyst Timothy Horan, who on Wednesday said that Microsoft (MSFT) pairing up with ChatGPT developer OpenAI has created an 'iPhone Moment" for artificial intelligence, and that "things will now move fast" for AI at a speed that until now wasn't possible.
Horan called ChatGPT's breakthrough "epochal" and that, finally, "the AI Age has arrived."
ChatGPT has quickly become a sort-of buzzword for AI technology, while also creating some controversy over just how the program should be used. Horan used the computer HAL from the 1968 Stanley Kubrick movie 2001: A Space Odyssey as an example of what might be the potential, and also the limitations of ChatGPT.
"The technology may never reach HAL's sentience," Horan said. "But ChatGPT can compose new music, write poetry, and make art, turning what seemingly was confined to magic plausible."
Horan said the growth of ChatGPT in the public consciousness has been "truly grassroots [as] the people are not waiting, creating new industries and independently creating extensions" that work with social-media apps like Telegram, WhatsApp, Twitter "and most tellingly attaching to Google searches and Microsoft Word."
On Tuesday, Microsoft (MSFT) raised the bar for ChatGPT and its usage when it said it would expand access to the AI technology through Azure, and would soon be available for use with a program called Azure OpenAI Service, which itself is now generally available. Horan said this is likely the beginning of ChatGPT being integrated across the Microsoft (MSFT) product catalog, and as a result, the software giant should soon see a huge new stream of business.
"We expect Microsoft to embed this technology in all of its services," Horan said. "And for it to be a major driver of incremental revenue and ultimately position the company in a more dominant position within every cloud segment with shocking, but organic new services.
Separately, Microsoft (MSFT) on Wednesday confirmed plans to lay off 10,000 employees and take a charge of $1.2B related to the job cuts in the second quarter of this year.