Microsoft Adds ChatGPT AI Technology to Bing Search Engine
$Microsoft(MSFT)$
The breakout success of the bot from the Microsoft-backed OpenAI has put the software giant at the forefront of what some see as the next wave of technological innovation: generative artificial intelligence.
In an event Tuesday to launch the technology, Microsoft said the Bing upgrade will enable a new kind of search in which people will pose questions to the search engine in natural language and it will generate direct answers and suggestions.
Mr. Nadella put the significance of AI-powered search on the same level of importance as the development of web browsers and mobile devices.
Unlike ChatGPT, which wasn't able to answer questions about current events, the updated Bing uses newer technology tailored for search engines. It will have access to the latest information such as news stories, train schedules and product pricing. It will also be able to provide links to demonstrate where its answers are coming from, another feature that wasn't part of ChatGPT.
Microsoft shares rose 4% to $267.56 in 4 p.m. trading Tuesday.
Microsoft, which is investing billions of dollars into OpenAI, is integrating the technology into many of its products, marking what it pitches as a new era of AI-powered software that has the potential to upend power in the tech industry. Some analysts say AI-powered searches could help Microsoft's Bing search engine take market share away from Alphabet Inc.'s Google, which controls around 90% of the market.
The industry has been buzzing about the possibilities of generative AI since OpenAI released its image generation tech Dall-E 2 to the public last year. Dall-E 2 can create original images based on simple prompts, such as, "Draw a robot dancing in a field of flowers." OpenAI released ChatGPT in November. Millions of people have since used it to generate essays, sales pitches and poems.
The popularity of the tools has put pressure on Google, which has long been at the forefront of AI technology, to match it.
Earlier this week, Google announced it is rolling out its own conversational artificial-intelligence service to a set of testers and plans a broader public launch in the coming weeks. The new experimental service, called Bard, generates responses to questions posed by users, based on information drawn from the web, Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Google parent Alphabet, said in a blog post published Monday.
Shares of Chinese internet giant $Baidu(BIDU)$ $BIDU-SW(09888)$ surged in Hong Kong Tuesday as it confirmed plans to launch an artificial-intelligence chatbot. Baidu said it expects to launch its AI chatbot, called Ernie Bot, in March.
Some artificial intelligence analysts warn there are still potential problems with generative AI. ChatGPT, for example, can be expensive to run and slow, and it sometimes produces responses that contain made-up facts, they have said.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was at the Microsoft event, saying the new uses for AI technology mark the "beginning of a new era." In the past he has warned that it is still evolving and prone to inaccuracies.
Mr. Altman said both OpenAI and Microsoft are taking a cautious approach in how they roll out the technology, trying to take measures to ensure that Bing won't generate dangerous or offensive content.
The technology is proving powerful in some cases, such as when it is paired with professionals for specific tasks. Last year Microsoft released GitHub Copilot which uses OpenAI tools to help programmers write and fix computer code. Microsoft estimated that in files in which it is enabled, Copilot generates 40% of the code. The company last year also integrated OpenAI's image-generation tech into its Bing and graphical design software Microsoft Designer.
The latest applications of the technology to Bing as well as Microsoft's Edge browser are aimed at creating similar partnerships between people and AI, Mr. Nadella said.
On Tuesday Microsoft showed off Bing's new ability to spit out brief biographies of famous Mexican artists, compare features of new televisions and generate a family's weekly dinner menu.
Using a Bing integration into Microsoft's Edge web browser, people can converse with the search engine to refine initial answers. For example, it can take a suggested menu and generate a shopping list for the ingredients.
The search engine cites sources of the information that make up its responses. While that citation ability is an improvement over ChatGPT and gives people a better sense of where answers are coming from, it could raise questions about copyright and the effect this new search model will have on web traffic.
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