Microsoft is reportedly exploring ways to add the capabilities of OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot to its Bing search engine to attract users from competitor Google. ChatGPT’s conversational features could give Microsoft more opportunities to improve the Bing user experience. A source familiar with Microsoft’s plans reports that the company could launch this new version of Bing before the end of March. In a blog post last year, Microsoft said it plans to integrate OpenAI’s imaging software, DALL-E 2, with Bing.
In 2019, Microsoft invested $1 billion in the OpenAI artificial intelligence (AI) laboratory as part of a multi-year partnership. The latter aimed to develop AI-driven supercomputing technologies on Microsoft’s cloud computing service Azure. OpenAI’s AI products have come a long way since then, including the releases of GPT-2 and GTP-3, Dall-E and Dall-E 2, and several other language models such as the new AI chatbot, AI ChatGPT. From now on, Microsoft intends to take advantage of the remarkable capabilities offered by these new technologies, particularly those underlying the chatbot ChatGPT.
Microsoft is said to be releasing a ChatGPT-driven version of its Bing search engine, itself based on GPT-3.5, before the end of the first quarter of this year. The Redmond-based company is reportedly betting that more conversational and contextual responses to queries will engage users of its Bing search engine by delivering better-quality answers beyond the links. However, a person with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be named, said the company is still evaluating the accuracy of the ChatGPT chatbot and how quickly it can integrate with the search engine.
OpenAI released ChatGPT for users to try out last November. The chatbot’s ability to produce everything from cocktail recipes to the most authentic school essays has catapulted it into the limelight ever since. While the AI service is sometimes self-consciously offering flawed information, some analysts and experts suggest its ability to aggregate publicly available data may make it a credible alternative to Google search and a search-generated link list. It can answer a variety of questions by mimicking the human style of speaking.
Last month, Google employees asked CEO Sundar Pichai and Jeff Dean, head of AI research, about the threat the chatbot poses to Google. Google has been working on similar technology in its LaMDA system, a language model for dialog applications, but would have faced reputational risk in the event of mistakes or errors. According to multiple reports on the matter, Pichai and company management have since mobilized research teams to respond to ChatGPT and declared the situation a “Code Red” threat. Microsoft declined to comment on the rumor.
Google has cited bias and objectivity issues with existing AI chatbots as a reason it’s not ready to replace search just yet. But Google has used various high-profile language models to subtly improve its search engine for years. Additionally, Google recently announced that it has trained a language model that can answer medical questions with 92.6% accuracy, about as good as doctors (92.9). According to the reviewers, the model, called Med-PaLM, generates responses judged to be consistent with scientific consensus.
By using the technology behind ChatGPT, GPT-3.5, Bing could provide more human-like answers to questions instead of just links to information. Google and Bing already show relevant information from links at the top of many searches, but Google’s knowledge panels are particularly popular when it comes to finding information about people, places, organizations, and individuals. Microsoft’s use of a ChatGPT-like feature could help its search engine compete with Google’s Knowledge Graph.
Knowledge Graph is a knowledge base that Google uses to provide regularly updated instant answers based on web crawling and user feedback. However, if Microsoft is ambitious, it could go much further and develop many new types of AI-based features. Microsoft has a close relationship with OpenAI. Aside from its billion dollar investment in 2019, Microsoft is working to add OpenAI to Bing’s DALL-E 2 and has an exclusive license to use its GPT-3 AI-driven text generator.
How Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI can help Bing’s ChatGPT integration is still unclear. Microsoft has been using AI for at least six years, with CEO Satya Nadella speaking about the importance of smarter apps and services in a 2016 interview with The Verge. “Conversation as a Platform”, a bet on chat-based interfaces that go beyond applications to use the Internet and find information. With ChatGPT, Microsoft now seems to want to try to make this offer a reality in Bing as well.
According to Statcounter data, as of December 2022, Google held a 92.21% market share, while Bing only held around 3.42%. Google largely dominates the search engine market, but a successful integration of ChatGPT functionality into Bing could allow the Redmond-based company to claw market share from its competitor. It is difficult to predict how much interest this new version of Bing might generate among Internet users. But according to some analysts, given the buzz ChatGPT generated upon its release (more than a million registrations in less than a week), Google has reason to tremble.
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