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OpenAI plans to roll out the personalization capability, commonly known in the AI industry as “fine-tuning.” | Photo: Reuters
OpenAI is launching a new feature that will allow enterprise customers to use their own corporate data to customize the AI startup’s most powerful model, GPT-4o.
The move comes as startups face increasing competition for their enterprise-grade AI products, and companies face increasing pressure to demonstrate the gains from investing in AI.
OpenAI plans to roll out this customization feature, commonly known in the AI industry as “fine-tuning,” on Tuesday. Fine-tuning allows existing AI models to be trained on additional information about a particular type of task or domain. For example, a company that makes skateboards could fine-tune an AI model so that it could be used as a customer service chatbot that could answer questions about wheels and the specifics of maintaining a board.
This feature is new to OpenAI’s flagship model: fine-tuning was not previously available on GPT-4o or its predecessor GPT-4. However, the company has allowed users to fine-tune many of its other models, including GPT-4o mini, which is a cheaper and more simplified version of GPT-4o.
Many tech companies offer the ability to customize AI models of all sizes. OpenAI is banking on the fact that it will be easier for its customers to fine-tune its most powerful model by working directly with the company, rather than relying on an external service or less powerful product, said Olivier Godement, OpenAI’s API product manager.
“We’ve been extremely focused on lowering the bar, the friction, the amount of work it takes to get started,” Godement said.
To fine-tune a model, customers must upload their data to OpenAI’s servers. Training takes an average of an hour or two, said John Allard, an OpenAI software engineer who works on customization. At first, users will only be able to fine-tune the model with text data, Allard said, not images or other content.
First published: August 20, 2024 | 11:54 p.m. IST
