Harvard medical school licenses health content to Microsoft for Copilot AI

Dominic King of Microsoft AI said Copilot aims to give answers that closely match what users would get from a medical practitioner, improving on current capabilities

Harvard University said on Wednesday that its graduate medical school has entered a licensing agreement with Microsoft, granting the tech company access to its consumer health content on specific diseases and wellness topics. 

As a part of the agreement, Microsoft will pay Harvard a licensing fee. 

The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news earlier in the day, said the partnership will help enhance Microsoft's Copilot AI assistant with health-related content, as part of the company's broader strategy to reduce its dependence on ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. 

Microsoft declined to comment on the WSJ report. 

Dominic King, vice president of health at Microsoft AI, told the WSJ that the company's aim is for Copilot to provide answers that closely reflect the information a user might receive from a medical practitioner, compared with what's currently available. 

Microsoft's Copilot has so far relied primarily on OpenAI's models to power tools across its productivity suite, including Word and Outlook. 

The company has recently begun integrating Anthropic's Claude and is also developing its own AI models, as it looks to diversify its artificial intelligence strategy. 

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