Microsoft uses computing units to charge customers for security Copilot | Wilnesh News

Microsoft is rolling out an unorthodox pricing model for its new security chatbot, which will be available to the public on April 1.

As part of a series of generative AI announcements over the past year, Microsoft launched a preview version of Copilot for Security last March, which leverages large language models to help cybersecurity professionals understand critical issues.

On Wednesday, Microsoft said it would adopt a consumption-based model, charging $4 per “secure computing unit.” Andrew Conway, vice president of security marketing at Microsoft, said the types of tips and summaries will vary greatly in size, depending on the customer and workload type.

“Customers can buy what they need and make changes easily and without friction over time,” Conway said in a statement.

Security is an important business for Microsoft, and its revenue will exceed $20 billion by 2022, making it larger than games or search advertising at the time. With the acquisition of Activision Blizzard late last year, the gaming industry has become even bigger.

Microsoft has been working to add OpenAI’s generative artificial intelligence to Windows, Dynamics business applications and other products. Wall Street has been eager to see how Microsoft will make money from AI after investing billions of dollars in OpenAI and AI-related data center equipment.

Copilot for Security is priced to keep costs low for organizations trying to use the tool while scaling for advanced users. Vasu Jakkal, corporate vice president at Microsoft, told CNBC that Microsoft took into account input from early customers and the cost of using OpenAI to handle user prompts.

Microsoft charges for the use of its Azure OpenAI service based on the number of tokens used by the client. Each token is equal to approximately four English characters.

This is a more complex pricing model compared to other recently released Microsoft tools, such as customer service and general productivity assistants. For companies, Copilot for Microsoft 365 costs $30 per person per month.

blood pressure Be an early customer of the new security service. Chip Calhoun, the company’s vice president of cyber defense, said in an email, “Copilot increases our efficiency and helps us uncover attack patterns that could easily be overlooked without a specific use case.”

Copilot for Security can answer questions using information from Microsoft’s own security products and third-party vendors. It can explain security vulnerabilities, analyze scripts, answer questions about the device, and summarize incidents.

Other security software companies dabbling in generative AI include mass strikewhich has a chatbot called Charlotte that costs $20 per device per year.

Cyberattacks are increasingly becoming a bigger threat. Microsoft said in January that a Russian intelligence group had accessed the email accounts of some of its top executives. Year and UnitedHealth also said they had been attacked this year.

Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella said on the company’s latest earnings call that the latest wave of cyberattacks “highlights the urgent need for organizations to act faster to protect themselves from cyber threats.” “.