Yandex to open YandexGPT to testing for business customers, monetization model still undefined

MOSCOW. June 19 (Interfax) - Yandex will open its generative AI YandexGPT (YaLM 2.0 neural network, similar to ChatGPT) in July for testing (Tech Preview) by business clients on its Yandex Cloud platform, Yandex said in a statement.

"Starting in July 2023, the first users will be able to test the service to resolve urgent business issues and, together with the Yandex Cloud team, determine the most significant business scenarios for the development of YandexGPT on the cloud platform," Yandex notes.

Interfax clarified that the capabilities of YandexGPT may be in demand in large banks, retail, industrial companies and other large companies from various industries.

Two modes of YandexGPT will be available to business users, the statement says. As part of one of them, Playground (UI), it is planned to test the ability of the service to solve business problems and assess the quality of responses. Another mode, YandexGPT API, allows for the integration of YandexGPT into customer applications in test mode.

It is also envisaged that companies, in their applications for taking part in the testing, will need to describe the task that is supposed to be solved using YandexGPT. This will allow Yandex Cloud specialists to evaluate whether the current version of the neural network is a suitable solution.

During closed testing, a limited number of companies will be granted access to the service.

Yandex added that at the testing stage YandexGPT would not be billed.

"The billing model is still being worked out, one of the possible options is bill for requests to the API," the company said.

Yandex launched YandexGPT in May. This neural network is designed to create chat bots and smart assistants, and to generate, structure and summarize textual information, as well as solve other business problems.