Microsoft on Tuesday unveiled a new version of Bing, its very own search engine, and the most interesting thing about this is that it incorporates the latest in artificial intelligence or AI.
The overhaul deploys the ChatGPT technology of OpenAI, which you very well know has taken the world by storm since it was launched last year.
This recent announcement is, so far, the biggest threat to Google and its dominance in web searches. It also marks the beginning of what seems like an AI arms race between these companies.
“The race starts today,” Microsoft’s chief executive officer Satya Nadella said.
Developed by OpenAI, which Microsoft backs, ChatGPT utilizes deep learning techniques to generate human-like responses to search requests.
Poised to change the nature of online search
Nadella also said this new development is poised to change the nature of online search and interactions with several other software.
“This technology will reshape pretty much every software category that we know,” the Microsoft CEO also stated.
Bing will now respond to people’s search queries with more detailed answers, not just links to websites as what are seen before.
Moreover, users may also chat with the bot to tailor their search queries better. Plus, more contextual answers will be added on the right-hand side of a search page.
“All computer interaction is going to be mediated with an agent helping,” Nadella shared during a launch event at the company’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington. “We’re going to have this notion of a co-pilot that’s going to be there across every application.”
The new AI-powered Bing search engine will be live immediately, but with a limited number of searches for each person for now.
Poised to challenge Google
This unveiling by Microsoft came a day after Google unveiled details of its own new chatbot, Bard.
“We’ve been working on an experimental conversational AI service, powered by LaMDA, that we’re calling Bard. And today, we’re taking another step forward by opening it up to trusted testers ahead of making it more widely available to the public in the coming weeks,” Google said in an official statement.
According to tech experts, the new AI-powered Bing is the greatest competitor of Google’s Bard so far.
Microsoft, an early backer of San Francisco-headquartered OpenAI, has invested billions in AI.
As a matter of fact, last month, Microsoft announced it was extending its collaboration with OpenAI in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar investment.”
Furthermore, the company also said Bing will use OpenAI technology which is even more advanced compared to the ChatGPT technology revealed last year. The powers will also be incorporated into its Edge web browser.
Netizens are pretty overjoyed with this new development. Some even share demos of the latest search feature over the web.
AI4Diversity founder Steve Nouri tweeted, “Seamless integration of search results with #AI powered chat in the new #bing! Goodbye, 20 pages of search results?…”
