OpenAI launched ChatGPT on November 30, and the program went viral soon thereafter.

Sources having knowledge of the matter have revealed to Bloomberg that Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) is negotiating to invest as much as $10 billion in OpenAI, the startup that created the wildly popular AI bot named ChatGPT.

The sources also disclosed that the talks had been going on for months, and that the investment would be spread over a number of years. However, the terms of the deal are still tentative and may change.

Previous media reports had claimed that other parties, including venture capital firms, were also interested in buying a stake in OpenAI at a valuation of as much as $29 billion.

ChatGPT’s popularity was such that over a million users signed up within a week of its launch, leading to speculation that it was capable enough to give professional writers a run for their money. The bot is capable of responding to queries in a natural and humanlike manner, carrying on a conversation and answering follow-up questions.

However, OpenAI founder Sam Altman has himself admitted that ChatGPT stumbled sometimes and served up inaccurate answers. Concern also surrounds the use of the app for plagiarism in academic essay assignments and cheating – as a result New York City schools have banned its students from accessing ChatGPT.

Other reports said Microsoft was evaluating an integration of the bot into its Bing search engine for delivering search results as conversation instead of links.

The tech giant already has an investment of about $1 billion in OpenAI.

Related Story:  ChatGPT Creator OpenAI May Value At $29B In Share Sale

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay