
Business is business, and that it knows no friend.
Microsoft is known for being a huge backer of OpenAI. Soon after the company released ChatGPT, Microsoft saw the potential of Large Language Models began supporting the startup, helping with the funds and the computing resources.
But that doesn't mean Microsoft shouldn't create its own product to compete with ChatGPT.
This is where Microsoft developed, and later launched Copilot, which is pretty much an OpenAI's GPT-powered chatbot, but with tweaks.
Along the way, as the two companies continue developing their respective LLMs, Microsoft become a worthy competitor, by giving Copilot some of ChatGPT's premium features.
This time, Microsoft is doing that again by giving all Copilot users access to OpenAI o1 reasoning model through the Copilot chatbot.
Microsoft calls its Copilot integration with o1 the 'Think Deeper.'
The feature works by allowing Copilot to handle more complex questions. Users can tap the Think Deeper button inside Copilot, and make the AI think deeper, which means that it will take it around 30 seconds to "consider your question from all angles and perspectives."
It was back in October, when Microsoft introduced Think Deeper as a preview feature within Copilot Labs, allowing Copilot Pro subscribers to test out new tools in development.
Similar to ChatGPT Plus, Think Deeper offers detailed, step-by-step responses to complex queries, making it ideal for tasks like comparing options, generating app code, or planning a long road trip.
Think Deeper is essentially a more thoughtful version of the normal Copilot, which seems to have trended toward more cursory, shorter replies.
Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman revealed that the company will now offer Think Deeper at no extra cost to all Copilot users in a post.
"We’ve got so much more in the pipeline right now that I can’t wait to tell you about."
Today we’ve made Think Deeper free and available for all users of Copilot.
This now gives everyone access to OpenAI’s world class o1 reasoning model in Copilot, everywhere at no cost.
I urge you to give it a try. It’s truly magical. Think Deeper helps you: pic.twitter.com/nzccl0tdhL— Mustafa Suleyman (@mustafasuleyman) January 29, 2025
It's worth noting that Suleyman didn’t specify any limits to the new o1 model access.
Many people see this sudden shift towards a free option for o1 as Microsoft's response to DeepSeek's Deepseek-R1, which that company claimed surpassed o1 on several metrics with much lower resources and cost, and had the U.S. market, tech sector and government worried.
Regardless, as a major player in the industry, Microsoft must move quickly.
The sector it’s competing in is evolving so rapidly that anything or anyone not keeping up risks becoming irrelevant.
This time, OpenAI has already announced o3, which uses a "private chain of thought" to develop even more complex answers that the o1.
According to various benchmarks, the o3 is significantly better at solving software engineering challenges and solving logical problems.