Microsoft has pulled out of deals to lease its data centres for additional training of OpenAI's language model ChatGPT. This news seems surprising given the perceived popularity of the model, but the field of AI technology is a contentious one, for a lot of good reasons. The combination of high running cost, relatively low returns, and increasing competition—plus working on it's own sickening AI-made Quake 2 demo—have proven enough reason for Microsoft to bow out of two gigawatt worth of projects across the US and Europe.
Sometimes AI can refer to clever machine learning that helps researchers find plastic eating enzymes, or teach robot dogs how to walk using its own nervous system. However, more often than not AI refers to power guzzling language models and image generators, usually trained on stolen uncredited data to provide shonky results. ChatGPT falls into the latter of these categories, and according to Reuters, a large portion of Microsoft's cut down on leasing is due to its decision to not support additional training workloads specifically for its creator, OpenAI.
