by STORY: In one of its biggest efforts yet to lead a new wave of technology and reshape the way people gather information, Microsoft said Tuesday it is revamping its Bing search engine and Edge web browser with a new update. , powered by artificial intelligence.
Microsoft announced that it will use technology from its partnership with startup OpenAI to embed technology similar to ChatGPT into Microsoft’s search engine… with the goal of outpacing its main rival, Google.
Reuters technology correspondent Jeffrey Dastin was in Redmond, Washington for the announcement.
“The company essentially announced its biggest challenge to Google yet by planning to launch and deploy a fully AI-infused search engine and web browser. So the idea is that Microsoft’s Bing search engine and Edge web browser will have a chatbot-style functionality, sort of like the ChatGPT chatbot feel.”
A preview of ChatGPT was made publicly available by OpenAI late last year. Their human-like responses to any message have given people new ways of thinking about the possibilities of marketing, writing jobs, or spreading the news.
DASTIN: “The technology known as ChatGPT that many of us have played with, experimented with, is based on a system that is actually a few years old. And the creator of that technology, OpenAI, has been continually working to improve it, not just in the version we see online today, but in things that haven’t been released yet. And also, for example, in this next Bing search engine. Basically, there will be a more advanced version of that powerful AI in Microsoft’s new search engine. One important thing to keep in mind though is that you still have a lot to learn. It still relies on feedback so that it can provide the best factual answers to consumers.”
The Bing chatbot will help users refine questions more easily, provide more relevant up-to-date results, and even make shopping easier.
“For example, if you want to know if a car seat will fit in the back of your particular vehicle, it will know the information you give it and give you an answer so you don’t have to try to make sense of different web pages on your own. .”
Bing is way behind Google in search market share. But AI could alter the landscape.
“AI is essentially the frontier right now in search engine technology. So Google for years has been the number one provider.
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“Bing, with Microsoft’s search engine, is trying to change that. And the idea is if AI can help you answer things that don’t exist on the web yet and can create all kinds of new experiences and functionality like email email… writing and translation and even shopping list and shopping help, then Microsoft hopes to win, share and compete with Google.”
Google on Monday unveiled a chatbot of its own called Bard… and plans to roll out AI for its search engine.
But it remains to be seen which AI-powered search engine consumers will prefer in the long run.
