OpenAI's billion-dollar deal and major updates During DevDay

Last week was a busy one for OpenAI. In addition to raising a whopping $6.6 billion in funding, bringing the company to an impressive $157 billion valuation, CEO Sam Altman also had time for DevDay, the annual event where OpenAI presents the latest technologies and innovations to developers.

Several exciting announcements were made during DevDay that could change the future of AI. Below is an overview of the major updates and new features that OpenAI unveiled:

Direct interactions with AI through the real-time API

A key announcement is the new Realtime API, which allows developers to build AI-driven apps that function like real conversation partners. Through constant connection, the AI understands nuances such as emotions and accents, making for a more natural conversation. Another powerful part of this API is the ability to use function calls, which allow the AI to not only respond to queries, but also perform actions within the app. For example, consider automatically placing an order or performing a task based on a spoken command.

Speed and cost savings thanks to prompt caching

Another innovation is Prompt Caching, a feature that remembers and reuses previous AI tasks. This is especially useful if you regularly perform similar tasks, such as text generation or analysis. Prompt Caching makes execution up to 50% cheaper and faster. It works with all new OpenAI models. This can be especially interesting for companies that work with AI on a large scale and want to save costs.

Train smart and efficient AIs with model distillation

Model Distillation allows you to train smaller, specialized AI models with the knowledge of larger models. This allows you to create, for example, an AI that knows exactly how your brand communicates, without having to use the large and expensive models. This produces faster and more efficient results, making it attractive for companies to develop custom AI solutions.

Make AI understand images with vision fine-tuning

With the introduction of Vision Fine-Tuning, GPT-4 becomes even more powerful. The model can now also understand images, enabling numerous new applications, such as smart classification of products or improving image recognition. Developers can now train the model with both text and images, significantly increasing the potential for visual AI applications.

New Features in the Playground

For developers who like to experiment with AI, OpenAI has also added new features to the Playground. The new "Generate" button provides support for creating system prompts, function definitions and output schedules. This makes it easier to set up complex tasks quickly and efficiently.

Reduced costs for APIs

An added bonus for developers is that working with GPT-4 via the API is now cheaper. This lowers the barrier for companies and individuals to integrate advanced AI into their workflows. Also, OpenAI has announced that prices for the Realtime API for voice (now around €0.06 per minute of input and €0.23 per minute of output) are likely to drop soon, making the use of voice-driven AI apps even more attractive.

Future of voice-activated AI apps

With these announcements, OpenAI is taking a clear step toward a future in which real-time, voice-driven AI apps become the norm. The new features make it easier AND cheaper for developers to build AI solutions that can interact with users in real time. This opens the door to a wave of innovative applications across industries, from customer service to productivity tools.

OpenAI has indicated that developers can now try out these new features for free with the training tokens that are temporarily available. This provides a great opportunity to experiment and see how these new tools can be used for your projects.

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