Microsoft is partnering with Harvard Medical School to integrate its health information into the Copilot AI assistant, marking a strategic move to reduce the company’s dependency on OpenAI. An update scheduled for later this month will allow Copilot to use information from Harvard Health Publishing to respond to medical queries, with Microsoft paying a licensing fee to Harvard. The goal of this collaboration is to provide users with more credible and trustworthy answers, aiming for responses similar to those a medical practitioner would offer, which addresses concerns about AI chatbots giving inappropriate medical advice. This healthcare push is part of Microsoft’s broader effort to carve out its own niche in the competitive AI landscape, as the company is also developing homegrown AI models and utilizing rival models like Anthropic’s Claude to diversify its technology base.
