It seems the bean counters over at Microsoft finally got around to crunching the numbers on its consumer facing Copilot Pro GPT Builder, and presumably calculated a potential money sink.
Three months after releasing Copilot Pro GPT Builder, Microsoft is shutting down the resource and will delete all generative pre-trained transformers created by its nascent tool by July 10, 2024.
According to an updated Microsoft 365 support page, the company “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.”
While privacy advocates might find solace in Microsoft noting that all data associated with the creation of GPTs will be deleted, the move to shutter Copilot Pro GPT only three months into its release seems out of left field for a company that’s made a reputation for supporting its outdated software efforts for decades.
Microsoft doesn’t directly point to any specific initial failures of Copilot Pro GPT Builder but does point to a shift in focus when it comes to consumer Copilot efforts.
We are continuing to evaluate our strategy for consumer Copilot extensibility and are prioritizing core product experiences, while remaining committed to developer opportunities,” the company said on the support page. To this end, we are shifting our focus on GPTs to Commercial and Enterprise scenarios and are stopping GPT efforts in consumer Copilot.
Microsoft’s version of GPT builder went up directly against its partner and investment business with OpenAI as its service did practically the same thing as ChatGPT Builder Plus. Aside from the ability to share to more judiciously to OpenAI’s GPT store, Microsoft’s Copilot also supported the private and specific sharing scenarios as OpenAI’s iteration of the GPT creator tool.
It is no secret that most GPT associated projects are resource intensive endeavors that are costing companies billions in data centers, cloud tools, offsetting emissions efforts, and energy consumption.
It would seem Microsoft may have been a bit zealous in offering a consumer facing ChatGPT builder, and going forward the company will focus more on revenue generating Copilot experiences rather than resource consuming ones.
As for anyone who jumped at the opportunity to create their own GPT experiences via Copilot ChatGPT Builder, Microsoft suggest:
- Open your GPT in edit mode
- Go to the configure tab
- Copy the instructions and save them elsewhere for reference
Presumably, these instructions will be supported by the same company that helped Microsoft power its own Copilot version in OpenAI’s ChatGPT Builder Plus, if customers are looking for a convenient place to store them.
