Microsoft Copilot: Free tier gets AI upgrade to GPT

UPDATE: Mar. 14, 2024, 12:48 p.m. EDT This article was updated to add a quote from Microsoft indicating how users can access the newly upgraded free Copilot tier.

GPT-4 Turbo now underpins ChatGPT rival Copilot, upgrading the Microsoft AI assistant from the less-developed GPT-4 model, according to Microsoft's CEO of Advertising and Web Services, Mikhail Parakhin.

The best part is that this upgrade is affecting the free tier, which means you needn't pay a penny to access the expanded capabilities.

GPT-4 Turbo is an updated variant of GPT-4. As Mashable's Cecily Mauran explained, it can process more text in a single prompt. Plus, it supports new vision, text-to-speech, and DALL-E features.

Curious about the three most significant upgrades coming to Microsoft Copilot? Stick around.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

SEE ALSO: Windows 11 Copilot, ChatGPT's rival, is smarter now: 16 new commands

3 new features coming to "free" Copilot, thanks to GPT-4 Turbo

The issue with GPT-4 is that it has a knowledge base that cuts off at September 2021. Thankfully, GPT-4 Turbo's knowledge base is less outdated.

1. New knowledge cut-off date

GPT-4 Turbo updates Copilot's knowledge base cut-off date from September 2021 to April 2023. As such, you should be able to ask it for more information that was once restricted for free users.

2. Handles about 300 pages of text in a single prompt

GPT-4 only has a context window of 8K. However, GPT-4 Turbo has a context window of 128K. To put this into perspective, as Mauran explained, Microsoft Copilot's free tier can now process nearly 300 pages of text in a single prompt.

3. Less "lazy"

Last December, OpenAI acknowledged that GPT-4 Turbo suffered from "laziness." In other words, the model offered lethargic responses to users' prompts. As such, as we reported in January, OpenAI updated GPT-4 Turbo, announcing, "This model completes tasks like code generation more thoroughly than the previous preview model and is intended to reduce cases of 'laziness' where the model doesn’t complete a task."

You may be wondering, why is Microsoft suddenly being so charitable? As XDA Developers pointed out, rumor has it that Microsoft is releasing a new GPT-4.5 Turbo model, which may be reserved for the paid tier, restricting non-paying users to GPT-4 Turbo.

"For free users of Copilot in Creative mode, GPT-4 Turbo is now powering that experience. Copilot Pro users remain able to toggle GPT-4 Turbo on or off in Creative mode," a Microsoft spokesperson told Mashable.