What happened
Shares of Microsoft (MSFT 0.37%) rose on Thursday after the company rolled out new productivity tools powered by artificial intelligence (AI). As of 1:10 p.m. ET today, Microsoft's stock was up more than 3%.
So what
The tech company wasted little time putting its recent multibillion-dollar investment in AI powerhouse OpenAI to good use. Microsoft will integrate the research lab's popular ChatGPT application into a premium version of its Teams messaging app.
ChatGPT resides at the cutting edge of generative AI -- advanced technology that can be used to create new content, such as text and images, with computer algorithms. ChatGPT allows users to interact with its AI-powered chatbot in a conversational way. Users can have their questions answered almost instantly.
It can also quickly produce novel content, such as articles, essays, and even music.
By integrating ChatGPT and other AI capabilities into its new Microsoft Teams Premium offering, the company can now provide subscribers with automatically-generated meeting notes, recommended tasks, and live translations, along with a host of other AI-produced features.
Microsoft Teams Premium is available for an introductory price of $7 per month. The company said it would increase the price to $10 per month on July 1.
Now what
Microsoft has grand ambitions for its partnership with OpenAI. It reportedly plans to use ChatGPT to strengthen its Bing search engine, hoping the advanced AI tech will help it wrestle away market share from Alphabet's Google.
Microsoft is also likely to use the innovative technology to enhance more of its productivity offerings in the coming months.
