Microsoft Unveils AI-Powered Bing, a New Challenge to Google Search – CNET

Microsoft on Tuesday unveiled a new version of its Bing search engine that adds the technology behind ChatGPT technology, an AI system for conversational and creative responses that marks the first big chance in years to get ahead of search king Google.

Bing now is an “AI-powered co-pilot for the web,” Microsoft said, delivering search results infused with information from the large language model from Microsoft partner OpenAI. Bing also gets a new chat window that Microsoft said will help deliver shopping lists, travel advice, shopping advice and trivia games. And the technology also is built into Microsoft’s Edge browser, able to perform tasks like summarizing PDFs and generating LinkedIn posts.

“All computer interaction is going to be mediated with an agent helping,” Chief Executive Satya Nadella said at a launch event at the company’s headquarters in Redmond, Wash. “We’re going to have this notion of a co-pilot that’s going to be there across every application.”

The technology is a major new development for the search business, which hasn’t changed much over the years. Google has worked to blend more answers into its results, but that pales in comparison to what ne AI technology can offer. Chat technology based on large language models — the a new AI technology based on huge swaths of text on the internet — offers vastly more complex answers and information.

Google, king of the search engine business, tried to upstage Microsoft by revealing its own AI chatbot, Bard, on Monday. Google invented the “transformer” AI technology key to these large language models, and it’s a serious contender. For one thing, Google, not Bing, is the go-to site for people searching for information today.

But Microsoft appears to be ahead in building the technology directly into its products.

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