#29: Microsoft May Invest $10B in OpenAI, AI Clones Voices, and AI Disrupts Marketing Agencies

It’s been another exciting week in the world of artificial
intelligence. What does it mean for marketers? The guys break it
down on The Marketing AI Show.  First up, Paul and Mike have
hypothesized about this, and now the speculation has come true.
According to a scoop from The Information, Microsoft plans to
incorporate OpenAI’s ChatGPT into its Bing search engine. Today,
Google handles more than 80% of search traffic. In comparison, Bing
processed about 9% of worldwide searches in 2022. Rumor has it
Microsoft is making a major play into using ChatGPT-like AI answers
in search. Not to mention, this could open the door to using
ChatGPT in Word and other Office products. Just days after the
scoop, Semafor reported that Microsoft has been in talks to invest
up to $10 billion in OpenAI. The funding would eventually give
Microsoft a 49% stake in the company, valuing it at $29 billion
total. Next, Microsoft just announced a major milestone development
in voice AI. The company revealed an AI model called VALL-E that
can synthesize anyone’s voice using just 3 seconds of audio.
Microsoft shared some audio samples, and simply put, Mike Kaput
said they are “pretty stunning.” Based on just a few seconds of a
person saying a random sentence, VALL-E can create completely new
speech from scratch in their exact voice. The implications of
hyper-realistic voice AI technology are widespread and
mind-blowing.  Finally, Paul’s recent LinkedIn post on AI
disrupting marketing agencies got a lot of attention. In it, Paul
said, “Artificial intelligence is going to disrupt a lot of
marketing agencies in 2023. Some will seize the opportunity and
create enormous value for themselves and their clients, while many
will be obsoleted. These laggards won’t all die off overnight, but
their relevance and value will quickly fade, and their clients (and
people) will move on.” Hear Paul’s motivation for writing the post
and the conversation that ensues.  As advancements become more
prevalent, conversations have become more important for marketers
and business leaders. Tune in to see how you can act on these
developments. Listen to the podcast below or in your favorite
podcast player.