Microsoft Corporation on Monday said it is widening access to hugely popular software from OpenAI, a start-up it is backing whose futuristic ChatGPT chatbot has captivated Silicon Valley, Reuters reported.

The start-up's tech, which it so far has previewed to its cloud-computing customers in a program it called the Azure OpenAI Service, was now generally available, a distinction that's expected to bring a flood of new usage, said the company.

The development comes as Microsoft is looking to add a $1 billion stake in OpenAI as announced in 2019, the report added.

OpenAI gained popularity following the release of ChatGPT in November, a text-based chatbot that can draft prose, poetry or even computer code on command. ChatGPT is powered by generative artificial intelligence (AI), which conjures new content after training on vast amounts of data, tech that Microsoft is letting more customers apply to use.

ChatGPT itself, not just its underlying tech, will soon be available via Microsoft's cloud, Microsoft revealed in a blog post.

The company is vetting customers' applications to mitigate potential abuse of the software, and its filters can screen for harmful content users might input or the tech might produce, Microsoft added.

The business potential of such software has reportedly garnered massive venture-capital investment in start-ups producing it, at a time funding has otherwise dried up. Already, some companies have used the tech to create marketing content or demonstrate how they could negotiate a cable bill.

Microsoft said CarMax, KPMG and others were using its Azure OpenAI service