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Oh Copilot GPT Builder, we hardly knew ye…
As first reported by Microsoft-focused tech journalist Paul Thurrott on his website, Microsoft is killing off its consumer-facing feature for making custom versions of its Copilot AI service in less than a month.
Microsoft announced the news in an email to Copilot Pro subscribers — you had to be a Pro subscriber at $30 per month to use the feature — as well as on a support webpage on its website.
On that support page, the company states: “Microsoft will remove the ability to create GPTs starting July 10, 2024, and then remove all GPTs (created by Microsoft and by customers) along with their associated GPT data also starting July 10, 2024, through July 14, 2024.”
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Microsoft calls this move a “retirement” but let’s be honest, it’s retiring the service in the way Old Yeller was retired — from existence.
Why and why so soon?
Why is Microsoft doing this, especially after it launched custom Copilot GPTs and the Copilot GPT Builder to some fanfare less than three months ago, in March 2024?
The company also states on its support page:
“We are shifting our focus on GPTs to Commercial and Enterprise scenarios and are stopping GPT efforts in consumer Copilot. “
This suggests a form of the Copilot GPT Builder will exist for enterprise Copilot subscribers/users, but Microsoft has yet to publicly announce such a service.
On Thurott’s website, commenters muse that the feature likely saw low adoption.
AI influencer and Pennsylvania University Wharton School of Business professor Ethan Mollick also offered his surprise at the move, noting it could hamper innovation from grassroots users.
A small but ultimately fairly meaningless concession
Microsoft is throwing one small concession towards Copilot GPT Builder users who have already used the tool to make custom Copilot GPTs: by opening their custom Copilot GPT in the “Edit” mode, users can click the “Configure” tab and “Copy the instructions and save them elsewhere for reference,” the company notes on its webpage.
But this is likely to be cold comfort to users who depended on the Custom GPTs to work within Copilot. Now, they’ll have to either have those custom instructions installed always, or paste them into Copilot as a kind of prompt for specific actions, a less-than-idea user experience and certainly one that is much worse and more cumbersome than what was offered through the Copilot GPT Builder previously.
What was Copilot GPT Builder good for, anyway?
The tool allowed Copilot Pro subscribers to create and share customized, task-specific chatbots, similar to Microsoft investment OpenAI’s custom GPT Builder and GPT Store.
The Copilot GPT Builder featured a “Create” tab for building and a “Configure” tab for further customization, including retrieval augmented generation (RAG) for integrating external data and toggling web browsing and image generation capabilities.
But now all these custom-built GPTs will no longer be accessible post-July 14, 2024.
Data will be deleted
Microsoft also seeks to reassure Copilot subscribers that it will delete data collected through the Copilot GPT Builder, in line with its commitment to data privacy as outlined in its Privacy Statement.
For those wishing to cancel their Copilot Pro subscriptions or seeking information on subscription management, Microsoft provides detailed guidance on its website.
Users can cancel subscriptions via the Microsoft account portal or through the respective app stores if purchased via Google Play or Apple App Store.
What did we learn from this?
Reflecting on the journey of Copilot GPT Builder, its launch was met with enthusiasm as it empowered users to tailor AI tools to specific needs.
The tool opened up possibilities for employees to create apps suited to their job roles without technical expertise.
Despite the absence of direct collaboration, the tool drew inspiration from OpenAI’s GPT Builder, indicating a trend towards customizable AI solutions in the market.
Looking forward, Microsoft’s shift towards Commercial and Enterprise scenarios suggests a targeted approach to leveraging AI’s capabilities in a business context.
Yet the move is not likely to be viewed favorably by users who already spent time, energy, and money on a subscription to create custom Copilot GPTs, and also may raise questions about Microsoft’s overall commitment to any new AI products and services it releases going forward.
It also makes me wonder at least about the fate of OpenAI’s analogous GPT Builder and custom GPT Store, which launched with much fanfare in November 2023 and January 2024, respectively, but which OpenAI has not spent much time updating or mentioning since then. Are they long for this world, as well?
OpenAI did move to make it possible for free users of ChatGPT and GPT-4o to access custom GPTs created by third parties following its Spring Updates event back in May, so hopefully that is a good sign that the company still feels custom GPTs have value to a wide audience.
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