Microsoft unveiled new tools for automatically generating computer code and formulas on Tuesday morning, in a new adaptation of the GPT-3 natural-language technology more commonly known for replicating human language.
The capability, to be offered as part of Microsoft’s Power Platform, is one of the fruits of the company’s partnership with OpenAI, the San Francisco-based artificial intelligence company behind GPT-3. Microsoft invested $1 billion in OpenAI in 2019.
“The code writes itself,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, announcing the news in a recorded keynote address to open the company’s Build developer conference.
The feature is called Power Apps Ideas. It’s part of a broader push by Microsoft and other technology companies to make software development more accessible to non-developers, known as low-code or no-code development.
Microsoft fine-tuned GPT-3 to “leverage the model’s existing strengths in natural language input to give Power Apps makers the ability to describe logic just like they would to a friend or co-worker, and end up with the right formula for their app,” says Ryan Cunningham of the Power Apps team in a post describing how it works.
