News
Microsoft To Wind Down Copilot Pro's 'GPT Builder' Feature
- By Gladys Rama
- June 12, 2024
Subscribers of Microsoft's Copilot Pro solution will lose access to a key perk starting next month.
GPT Builder in Copilot Pro will be retired on July 10, Microsoft told subscribers this week. The feature, which was part of the $20-per-month Copilot Pro subscription, enabled users to train, create, edit and share custom AI chatbots ("Copilot GPTs") that specialize in specific micro-tasks.
The chatbots could be used "for specific purposes, such as for specialized knowledge, implementing specific processes, or simply to save time by reusing a set of AI prompts," Microsoft explained in the feature's overview page.
Owners of Copilot GPTs could share their chatbots with other Copilot users, regardless of whether they had a "Pro" subscription or not.
The retirement of GPT Builder means that starting July 10, Copilot Pro users will not only lose their ability to create new custom chatbots, but they'll also lose access to all chatbots they've ever made with the feature. The deletions will start on July 10 and be completed by July 14, according to a Microsoft FAQ.
Any subscriber data that was accessed by Copilot GPTs will also be scrubbed. For users who want to save the training instructions for any Copilot GPTs they've made, Microsoft recommends they "[c]opy the instructions and save them elsewhere for reference."
Microsoft did not give a specific reason for killing Copilot GPT, which was a key benefit of the for-pay Copilot Pro plan. In the FAQ, the company seems to suggest that the feature did not have enough of a case for business or developer users.
"We are continuing to evaluate our strategy for consumer Copilot extensibility and are prioritizing core product experiences, while remaining committed to developer opportunities," Microsoft said. "To this end, we are shifting our focus on GPTs to Commercial and Enterprise scenarios and are stopping GPT efforts in consumer Copilot."