Microsoft Seeks to Enhance Bing with OpenAI's Chatbot Technology

Microsoft Corp. is planning to incorporate OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot into its Bing search engine in an effort to draw users away from its competitor, Google, according to a source with knowledge of the plans.

Microsoft is hoping that by providing more conversational and contextual responses to user inquiries, they will be able to gain an advantage over other search engines by offering higher-quality answers that go beyond just providing links. An anonymous source, who wished to remain unnamed due to the confidential nature of the product plans, which are still subject to change, made this statement.

The tech giant based in Redmond, Washington is considering the possibility of introducing a new feature in the upcoming months. They are currently assessing the accuracy of the chatbot and the speed of its integration into the search engine. It is likely that the initial launch will be a trial version, available to a select group of users.

Microsoft, the software company behind the Bing search engine, which is much smaller than Alphabet Inc.'s Google, has been testing out ChatGPT for a few months, according to a source. This was previously reported by The Information.

In November, OpenAI, the AI research company that received a $1 billion investment from Microsoft, made ChatGPT available to the public. This chatbot has gained a lot of attention due to its ability to provide cocktail recipes and school essays that sound genuine. Although it sometimes provides inaccurate information with a sense of authority, some analysts and experts have proposed that its capacity to summarize publicly available data can make it a reliable alternative to Google search and a list of search-generated links.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, recently expressed his opinion on ChatGPT in a tweet, cautioning against relying on it for anything of importance.

ChatGPT may appear to be a great tool, but it is actually quite limited. It is not wise to depend on it for anything important at this time. It is a demonstration of progress, but there is still much to be done in terms of reliability and accuracy.

Last month, Google employees posed questions to CEO Sundar Pichai and AI research head Jeff Dean regarding the potential danger of a chatbot to the company. CNBC reported that the two executives acknowledged the risk of any mistakes or errors that could be made with the LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications) system, which Google has been developing. The New York Times reported that Pichai and the company's management have since taken action, forming teams of researchers to address the "code red" threat posed by ChatGPT.

Microsoft chose not to make a statement. OpenAI did not give a response to a request for comment right away.