Microsoft recently unveiled an updated version of its Bing search engine that makes use of cutting-edge AI technology.
The ChatGPT technology developed by OpenAI and released last year is being used in the revamp.
The action is the most serious challenge Google has faced to its web search dominance to date and the beginning of an AI arms race between the two businesses.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella declared, “The race starts today.“
OpenAI, a research and development arm of Microsoft, has created ChatGPT, which employs deep learning algorithms to simulate human conversation in response to search queries.
Mr Nadella said he believed it would revolutionize online search and the way people interact with a wide variety of other applications.
He predicted that “very much every software category that we know” would be altered by this new technology.
Bing will soon provide expanded explanations in response to search requests rather than simply providing external links.
Conversation with the bot allows for more specific questions to be asked. The right side of a search results page will soon feature a greater number of contextual replies.
There will be a trial period for the new Bing search engine, beginning as soon as it goes live.
This news arrived just one day after Google introduced its own chatbot, named Bard.
Each firm is rushing to bring a new product to consumers.
Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said in a post-announcement note to clients that the company’s investment from Microsoft will “massively increase” its competitiveness.
“This is simply the first move on the AI front… as [the] AI arms race takes place among Big Tech,” he remarked.
Microsoft has spent billions on AI research, and the company was an early supporter of OpenAI in San Francisco.
It revealed last month that it would be investing “multiyear and multibillion dollars” into its partnership with OpenAI.
Since then, Microsoft has revealed that its messaging app, Microsoft Teams, will soon include a premium tier that will include ChatGPT, among other enhancements, including an automatic note-taking and highlight-generating function for meetings.
Even more advanced than Microsoft’s previous-announced year’s ChatGPT technology is the OpenAI technology that will power Bing. Microsoft will also add these capabilities to its Edge web browser.
ChatGPT, which students have used to ace exams and other assessments, is predicted to cause major disruption across several industries, including media.
However, it has been criticized for supposedly definitively delivering incorrect responses. Datasets are typically scraped from 2021 or earlier. Therefore the answers it provides may seem dated.