Microsoft doesn’t have access to OpenAI’s research, this was part of the deal. They only have access to the weights and inference code of production models and even then who has access to that inside MS is extremely gated and only a few employees have access to this based on absolute need to actually run the service.
AI researcher at MSFT barely have more insights about OpenAI than you do reading HN.
No. They have early access. Example: MSFT was using Dall-e Exp (early 3 version) in PUBLIC, since February of 2023.
In the same month, they were also using GPT4 in public - before OpenAI.
And they had access to GPT4 in 2022 (which was when they decided to create Bing Chat, now called Copilot).
All the current GPT4 models at MSFT are also finetuned versions (literally Creative and Precise mode runs different finetuned versions of GPT4). It runs finetuned versions since launch even...
Microsoft said that they could continue OpenAI's research with no slowdown if OpenAI cut them off by hiring all OpenAI's people, so from that statement it sounds like they have access.
AI researcher at MSFT barely have more insights about OpenAI than you do reading HN.