Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said today, “It’s a new era in search. For 13 years, Microsoft tried to get people to use Bing, but users didn’t want it, so its global market share is in the single digits.” The company is now doing everything it can to be more competitive with Google.At a press event in Redmond, Washington today, Microsoft announced the long-rumored GPT of OpenAI. -4 announced the integration of the model into Bing to provide a ChatGPT-like experience within the search engine.
The company is also releasing a new version of the Edge browser today with new AI features built into the sidebar.
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As expected, the new Bing has an option to start a chat in the toolbar for a ChatGPT-like conversation experience. One important thing to note here is that OpenAI’s ChatGPT bot was trained on data that only covers up to 2021, whereas Bing’s version is much more current and follows much more recent events. Being able to process related queries.
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As Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella pointed out, the team wants to stay true to its AI principles, and as with all new technology, it’s important to stay aware of potential negative impacts. I admit that “It’s also about keeping a clear eye on the unintended consequences of new technology,” he said. He emphasized that Microsoft wants to make humans more productive and use technology that aligns with human values.
Noting that he believes this technology will reshape “almost every software category,” Nadella emphasized that such technology could reshape the web. In his view, all future interactions with computers will be mediated through agents. The first stage of this, at least for Microsoft, is search.
As Microsoft’s Yusuf Mehdi pointed out, today’s search engines still do very well for navigational and informational queries that seek basic facts. But for the more complex queries (“Can you recommend his 5-day itinerary to Mexico City?”), which make up half of today’s queries, modern search engines just don’t work.
As for the new Bing experience, Microsoft displays these GPT-based results in the box on the right side of the search results page. These pop up when you search for facts that Bing knows the answer to.
But there is also a ChatGPT-like experience for questions that are a little more vague and don’t have precise answers. The only other big difference you’ll notice right away is that Bing occasionally prompts users with their own questions and tries to suggest potential answers to those questions. Microsoft’s model is clearly modern compared to what ChatGPT currently offers. This includes, for example, pricing data and the ability to use recent data for travel tips and itineraries. I will also be happy to send you an email to share this itinerary with your family.
Another important feature here (a feature you’ll likely find in most of these tools) is that Bing cites sources and links in the “Details” section at the end of their answer. All results also include feedback options.
It should also be emphasized that the old, link-centric versions of Bing are not going away. It works the same as before, but is enhanced with AI.
Microsoft emphasized that it uses a newer version of GPT that can provide more relevant answers, annotate these, and provide up-to-date results while providing a more secure user experience. We call this the Prometheus model.
Microsoft obviously has a very close relationship with OpenAI. After his initial $1 billion investment, the company recently announced it would invest even more and extend its partnership with OpenAI. This led to today’s announcement. And while Bing has always been a competent search engine (and arguably better than most people ever rated it), it never gained mainstream traction. but that’s no reason to switch to User. ChatGPT may provide a reason for this — at least until Google exposes its competitors to a wider audience.
There are currently no ads attached to the new Bing ChatGPT feature.
Unlike Google, Microsoft doesn’t have a massive ad empire to protect, so the company is willing to give up some revenue to take market share away from rival Google, which announced Bard yesterday. I don’t think so. However, Google doesn’t provide many details about how Bard will work and integrate into the search experience. Currently only available to a select group of trusted testers.
One area that these systems naturally target is voice assistants. As usual, Microsoft made a big announcement of its Cortana voice assistant, positioning it as a competitor to Google’s Assistant and Siri. Like Bing, it was a capable product (more than Samsung’s Bixby), but it didn’t pick up steam, and Microsoft slowly withdrew. In 2021, we’re repositioning Cortana as a service that powers AI-based productivity experiences in Microsoft 365. The new Bing could also give Microsoft the tools to enter this market.
What all this means for the future of the web and the financial health of online publishers who rely on people clicking links remains to be seen. However, using such tools will very likely result in fewer clicks and lower advertising costs for publishers. This has the potential for a massive paradigm shift.
