Azure Cosmos DB joins the AI toolchain
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella described the arrival of large language AI models like GPT-4 as “a Mosaic moment,” comparable to the arrival of the first graphical web browser. Unlike that original Mosaic moment, when Microsoft was late to the browser wars and was forced to buy its first web development tooling, the company has taken a pole position in AI, rapidly rolling out AI technologies across enterprise and consumer products.
One key to understanding Microsoft is its view of itself as a platform company. That internal culture drives it to deliver tools and technologies for developers and foundations on which developers can build. For AI, that starts with the Azure OpenAI APIs and extends to tools like Prompt Engine and Semantic Kernel, which simplify the development of custom experiences on top of OpenAI’s Transformer-based neural networks.