News

OpenAI's New GPT-4o Immediately Available in Azure Playground

OpenAI's new GPT-4o, the company's latest/greatest large language model (LLM), is immediately available for Azure developers, Microsoft announced today.

OpenAI, which started the generative AI craze, today announced the new model (with "o" standing for omni), describing it as "a step towards much more natural human-computer interaction -- it accepts as input any combination of text, audio, and image and generates any combination of text, audio, and image outputs."

Rollout of the new tool started immediately, with OpenAI saying, "capabilities will be rolled out iteratively (with extended red team access starting today)."

Also starting today is a preview of the hot new tech on the Azure cloud, which Microsoft wasted no time in announcing, perhaps getting a head start on other cloud giants because of a $13 billion investment in OpenAI.

"Azure OpenAI Service customers can explore GPT-4o's extensive capabilities through a preview playground in Azure OpenAI Studio starting today in two regions in the US. This initial release focuses on text and vision inputs to provide a glimpse into the model's potential, paving the way for further capabilities like audio and video."

Early Access Playground with GPT-4o
[Click on image for larger view.] Early Access Playground with GPT-4o (source: Microsoft).

Possibilities opened up with the new tech as listed by Microsoft include:

  • Enhanced customer service: By integrating diverse data inputs, GPT-4o enables more dynamic and comprehensive customer support interactions.
  • Advanced analytics: Leverage GPT-4o's capability to process and analyze different types of data to enhance decision-making and uncover deeper insights.
  • Content innovation: Use GPT-4o's generative capabilities to create engaging and diverse content formats, catering to a broad range of consumer preferences.

Directions on how to use the early access playground are here.

You can read all about the new GPT-4o model at sister publication PureAI in John K. Waters' article "OpenAI Releases New Iteration of GPT-4: 'GPT 4o'."

OpenAI, which started the generative AI craze, today announced the new model (with "o" standing for omni), describing it as "a step towards much more natural human-computer interaction -- it accepts as input any combination of text, audio, and image and generates any combination of text, audio, and image outputs."

Rollout of the new tool started immediately, with OpenAI saying, "capabilities will be rolled out iteratively (with extended red team access starting today)."

Also starting today is a preview of the hot new tech on the Azure cloud, which Microsoft wasted no time in announcing, perhaps getting a head start on other cloud giants because of a $13 billion investment in OpenAI.

"Azure OpenAI Service customers can explore GPT-4o's extensive capabilities through a preview playground in Azure OpenAI Studio starting today in two regions in the US. This initial release focuses on text and vision inputs to provide a glimpse into the model's potential, paving the way for further capabilities like audio and video."

Early Access Playground with GPT-4o
[Click on image for larger view.] Early Access Playground with GPT-4o (source: Microsoft).

Possibilities opened up with the new tech as listed by Microsoft include:

  • Enhanced customer service: By integrating diverse data inputs, GPT-4o enables more dynamic and comprehensive customer support interactions.
  • Advanced analytics: Leverage GPT-4o's capability to process and analyze different types of data to enhance decision-making and uncover deeper insights.
  • Content innovation: Use GPT-4o's generative capabilities to create engaging and diverse content formats, catering to a broad range of consumer preferences.

Directions on how to use the early access playground are here.

You can read all about the new GPT-4o model at sister publication PureAI in John K. Waters' article "OpenAI Releases New Iteration of GPT-4: 'GPT 4o'."

About the Author

David Ramel is an editor and writer at Converge 360.

comments powered by Disqus

Featured

  • Microsoft Highlights Visual Studio Live! Event Lineup and Longtime Developer Community Role

    A Microsoft MVP Blog post on Visual Studio Live!'s longevity arrives as the 2026 conference series continues with upcoming stops at Microsoft HQ, San Diego and Orlando.

  • Using Local AI to Cut Copilot Usage-Based Billing Shock

    After being gobsmacked by the new billing plan using almost all my monthly credits in one or two days, I tried pushing some Copilot-style coding work onto local models in VS Code. What I found was less "free AI" and more "pick your pain": cloud charges on one side, heavy local resource use and long waits on the other.

  • .NET 11 Preview 5 Focuses on Performance, Productivity and Safer Code

    .NET 11 Preview 5 focuses on under-the-hood runtime performance gains, streamlined APIs and language features that reduce boilerplate, plus built‑in security checks and incremental ASP.NET Core and EF Core improvements aimed at everyday developer productivity.

  • VS Code 1.124 Focuses on Agent Autonomy and Parallel Sessions

    Microsoft's June 2026 VS Code update turns on Autopilot by default and adds background sending for agent sessions.

Subscribe on YouTube