On Tuesday, Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O) launched various AI updates to ChatGPT, Bing, and cloud services to compete with Alphabet Inc.’s (GOOGL.O) Google.
Bing now provides real-time search results to ChatGPT, OpenAI’s viral chatbot whose answers were confined to information until 2021.
ChatGPT announced that paying members can retrieve Bing online results at its annual Microsoft Build conference, and free users will come soon.
The company is also expanding Bing plug-ins, leveraging OpenAI’s standard to make business-consumer transactions easier.
Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s consumer chief marketing officer, said one such tool might help online surfers looking for supper ideas by suggesting a meal and ingredients that can be delivered through Instacart in one click.
“This is a profound change to how people will use the web,” he said in an interview.
Mehdi said Microsoft hasn’t sold plug-in ads yet, but “the model for how people acquire customers is changing.”
Microsoft updated Bing to capture more of the $286 billion global search advertising market.
Google, like Microsoft, has lately shown generative AI advancements for its search engine, learning from past data how to answer open-ended inquiries with no clear solutions.
Google hasn’t extensively released its upgraded search engine, so users’ preferences are unknown. However, Bard, a chatbot that competes with ChatGPT, already uses Google search results.
Mehdi said the apps offer different experiences but that Microsoft would profit either way because ChatGPT cites Bing.
Businesses may now build plug-ins for Microsoft 365 Copilot, its enterprise AI assistant.
Microsoft claimed a plug-in might enable staffers to ask the AI to schedule flights or explain vendor contract legal difficulties in plain terms. Microsoft wants companies to customize their AI copilots.
Microsoft will preview an AI assistant, or copilot, in June for some Windows users. Like Google, it unveiled ways people can tell if its AI created a picture or video.
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