Microsoft Harnesses ChatGPT To Make Bing The New Google Search

OpenAI’s artificial intelligence chatbot, ChatGPT, has been making headlines ever since its launch at the end of last year, most recently with a college professor catching his student using the algorithm to write her essay. 

Now, it seems one of the biggest names in technology is hopping on the bandwagon, as The Information has reported Microsoft could potentially integrate the AI-powered feature into its Bing search engine. 

According to the Search Engine Journal, this will allow the chatbot to process natural language and answer search queries in complete sentences, rather than just producing a page full of links to other websites. 

This could help Bing bridge the popularity gap with its main competitor, Google Search, and there’s no doubt Microsoft’s plan to add the trendy algorithm to its toolbox by the end of March is an attempt at drawing users over. 

As the publication points out, this move could be a clever way for the technology firm to get a return on its hefty US$1 billion investment it made in OpenAI back in 2019. There’s talk it could pump in tens of billions more. 

However, as with the aforementioned student who used ChatGPT to pen her assignment, not everyone’s too keen on the proliferation of the chatbot, though it remains to be seen how that sentiment will translate to search engines. 

New York City’s Department of Education recently moved to ban access to the tool for professors and students, citing concern for “safety and accuracy” and “negative impacts on student learning.” 

Only individual institutions working on the study of AI and technology-related subjects will be allowed to submit a request to access ChatGPT on school-based internet networks.

Could Microsoft successfully draw Google users over to Bing with ChatGPT? With how popular the chatbot has become, it’ll certainly drum up hype, though it’s still unclear if that will be enough to rival the king of search engines. 

[via Search Engine Journal and Vice, cover image via Dimarik16 | Dreamstime.com]