Microsoft Corp showed off plans to use new tools from start-up OpenAI to improve its little-used Internet search and browsing services, seeking to gain ground against market leader Google by being first to offer conversational responses powered by artificial intelligence (AI).
The company unveiled a new version of its Bing search engine and Edge browser that incorporate technology from OpenAI, maker of the viral chatbot ChatGPT, a revamp designed to make it easier for users to create content and find answers on the Web.
“This technology is going to reshape pretty much every software category,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said at an event on Tuesday at the company’s Redmond, Washington, headquarters.
Photo: AFP
It is “high time” innovation was restored to Internet search, he said.
The new Bing, which runs on an OpenAI language model that is more advanced than the one behind ChatGPT, can be switched in and out of chat mode, and users can tap the bot to compose e-mails.
The new Edge browser adds the AI-based Bing for chat and writing text, and it can summarize Web pages and respond conversationally to queries. The answers come with citations to their sources, so users can see where the information is coming from.
A flurry of product announcements from Microsoft and Google in recent weeks comes amid a sudden intense focus on generative AI, which can generate new content from digital troves of text, photographs and art.
Last week, Microsoft unveiled a customer-management program that uses OpenAI text-generation tools to compose e-mails for salespeople, and jazzed up the premium tier of its Teams chat and meeting software with AI-written post-meeting notes.
Microsoft recently announced a multibillion-dollar investment in OpenAI, solidifying ties with the start-up to get the inside track on its AI models like ChatGPT and Dall-E, which have attracted millions of users in just months.
Beyond search, Microsoft executives have said they want to add OpenAI’s technology into Office productivity software, security programs and video-game tools.
The new Bing search query box can accept up to 1,000 characters. In a demonstration, Microsoft vice president Yusuf Mehdi asked the chat-based engine about events in Scottsdale, Arizona, during this weekend’s Super Bowl. The new Bing returned information about a Super Bowl week party, a culinary event and other related happenings.
The souped-up service can also estimate whether an IKEA love seat would fit in a 2019 Honda Odyssey — Bing told Mehdi it was not sure, and it depends on whether the second and third row of the vehicle are folded down.
Asked for an egg substitute in recipes, Bing offered several choices and the measurements of each that equals one egg. It also discussed the properties of each substitute, such as which one would make the recipe fluffier.
Microsoft said the new version of Bing is available now as a preview, which means users can try a limited number of queries.
People can also join a waitlist for full access, which the company hopes to expand to millions in the coming weeks, Mehdi said.
It also intends to bring the AI search features to rival Web browsers.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman appeared at the event to tout the company’s partnership with Microsoft.
“We’re so grateful to have a partner to share our vision and values of building advanced AI that is safe and will have a very positive impact on society,” he said.
Alphabet Inc’s Google, whose search engine has almost 90 percent of the market, uses AI, but relies on an older language model. In the past few months, Google’s once-vaunted AI unit has lost momentum and lately has been overshadowed by OpenAI.
The larger company has been stuck, puzzling over whether or when to release its work, and how to innovate without imperiling its core search and ad businesses.
The success of ChatGPT and Microsoft’s increased investment in its developer seem to have accelerated CEO Sundar Pichai’s timeline. Google’s management mobilized teams of researchers to respond to ChatGPT, declaring the situation a “code red” threat.
On Monday, Google said its own conversational AI service, Bard, is opening up to trusted testers, and that the company is readying the service for the public “in the coming weeks.”
Bard aims to generate detailed answers when given simple prompts, such as what to make for lunch or how to plan a friend’s baby shower, Google said.
The service is based on LaMDA, Google’s Language Model for Dialogue Applications system.
Google also offered a look at some AI-powered features that are soon to appear in its search and are intended to offer users insights for queries where there is no one correct answer.
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