Microsoft Corp on Tuesday started adding its recently upgraded Bing search engine to its Windows computer software, aiming to put artificial intelligence (AI) at the fingertips of hundreds of millions of people.
The Windows 11 update, Microsoft’s latest in a flurry of product revamps this month, shows how the Redmond, Washington-based software maker is marching ahead on AI notwithstanding recent scrutiny of its technology.
Microsoft’s operating system will include the new Bing in desktop computers’ search box, which helps half a billion monthly users navigate their files and the Internet, the company said.
The search engine is still in a preview mode, accessible to more than 1 million people in 169 countries, with a wait list for others, Microsoft said.
The company unveiled its AI-powered chatbot for Bing as it aims to wrest market share from Alphabet Inc’s Google, moving faster with ChatGPT-like software for search.
Microsoft has been gathering feedback on the new Bing before a wider rollout. The engine’s AI chatbot reportedly professed love or made threats to some testers, leading the company to cap long chats it said “provoked” responses it did not intend.
In addition to the new Bing, Microsoft’s Windows update is to include software that can connect to iPhone messages and calls starting with a limited set of users, the company said.
Separately, Elon Musk has approached AI researchers in recent weeks about forming a new research lab to develop an alternative to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the Information reported on Monday, citing people with direct knowledge of the effort.
Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc and Twitter Inc, has been recruiting Igor Babuschkin, a researcher who recently left Alphabet’s DeepMind AI unit, the report said.
Musk, who cofounded OpenAI along with Silicon Valley investor Sam Altman in 2015 as a nonprofit start-up, had left its board in 2018, but chimed in with his take on the chatbot, calling it “scary good.”
Musk and Babuschkin have discussed assembling a team to pursue AI research, but the project is still in the early stages, with no concrete plan to develop specific products, the report said, quoting an interview with the latter.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
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