Oct 1 (Reuters) - OpenAI unveiled a host of new tools on

Tuesday that would make it easier for developers to build

applications based on its artificial intelligence technology, as

the ChatGPT maker wrestles with tech giants to keep up in the

generative AI race.

The Microsoft ( MSFT )-backed startup said a new real-time

tool, rolling out immediately for testing, would allow

developers to create AI voice applications using a single set of

instructions.

The process earlier required developers to go through at

least three steps: first transcribing audio, then running the

generated-text model to come up with an answer to the query and

finally using a separate text-to-speech model.

A large chunk of OpenAI's revenue comes from businesses that

use its services to build their own AI applications, making the

rollout of advanced capabilities a key selling point.

Competition has also been heating up as technology giants,

including Google-parent Alphabet, integrate AI models

capable of crunching different forms of information such as

video, audio and text across their businesses.

OpenAI expects its revenue to jump to $11.6 billion next

year from an estimated $3.7 billion in 2024, Reuters reported

last month. The company is also in the middle of a $6.5 billion

fundraise that could value it at $150 billion.

As part of Tuesday's rollout, OpenAI introduced a

fine-tuning tool for models after training that would allow

developers to improve the responses generated by models using

images and text.

This fine-tuning process can include feedback from humans

who feed the model examples of good and bad answers based on its

responses.

Using images to fine-tune models would give them stronger

image understanding capabilities, enabling applications such as

enhanced visual search and improved object detection for

autonomous vehicles, OpenAI said.

The startup also unveiled a tool that would allow smaller

models to learn from larger ones, along with "Prompt Caching"

that cuts some development costs by half by reusing pieces of

the text AI has previously processed.