Salesforce, a major business software company that acquired the popular office communication app, Slack, in 2021, has announced a partnership with OpenAI to bring the power of its ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) chatbot technology to its products. This latest deal is part of a growing trend among tech companies to deploy generative AI technology into their products.
With this new integration, the ChatGPT-powered bot will be able to draft replies, summarize conversations and help users research topics within Slack. Salesforce’s sales software, which is used by thousands of companies and organizations to market and sell products worldwide, will also incorporate advanced AI technology. The integration of the chatbot technology will enable users to have human-like conversations, create images, and answer complex questions.
Generative AI tools like ChatGPT have become more popular in recent years, with major tech companies like Google, Microsoft, and Facebook investing in the technology. In January, Microsoft announced a multibillion-dollar deal with OpenAI to use its technology to answer questions directly on Bing, its search engine. Google has also announced that it will be releasing its chatbot, called Bard, to the public in the near future.
While proponents of the technology believe that chatbots will revolutionize how people interact with computers and software, sceptics have expressed concerns over the potential for AI-powered tools to make glaring mistakes and reflect the biases and prejudices that are prevalent on the internet. This was demonstrated shortly after Microsoft’s launch of its Bing bot, which gave bizarre and hostile answers in some longer conversations and accused users of malicious intent.
AI ethics experts have urged caution among companies pushing these new AI tools out to millions of people without more thorough testing and development. The integration of ChatGPT into Salesforce’s products is a significant move towards the future of conversational AI, but it is important to continue to monitor and address potential ethical concerns that come with the technology’s increasing usage.
