When OpenAI released ChatGPT last year, many claimed it was the next evolution in online search. ChatGPT was also labelled as the ‘Google killer’, of course, if provided with the ability to surf the net. Now, Microsoft, which has invested USD 1 billion in OpenAI, could possibly leverage the potential of ChatGPT and launch a new version of its search engine Bing, according to The Information. This is being done to rival Google Search, the popular search engine, which holds a global market share of more than 90% compared to Bing’s 3.19%, according to StatCounter.

Previously, in a blog post, Microsoft said it would integrate OpenAI’s DALL-E2 into Image Creator in Microsoft Bing. So, a ChatGPT-integrated version of Bing is a strong possibility. According to the San Francisco-based news website, we may see a ChatGPT-integrated version of Bing before the end of March. 

ChatGPT-powered Bing, the next evolution in search?

With the advent of ChatGPT, things could change for Bing. Samanyou Garg, founder and CEO at Writesonic, believes the integration of ChatGPT into Microsoft’s Bing search engine has the potential to bring some amazing new capabilities to our web searches. What makes ChatGPT interesting is it gives you answers upfront and human-like. While a simple query on Google Search throws multiple links at you, ChatGPT gives you answers upfront, which is a boon for users. It saves the time you spend browsing multiple sites and blogs.

“This technology allows ChatGPT to generate answers more accurately than traditional search engines. With the Bing integration, ChatGPT can now bypass its limitation of only being trained on content until 2021 and can instead access information off the web to generate answers that are more informative than traditional search results and up-to-date. 

“Thus, adding ChatGPT to Bing search might represent an evolution in search, providing us with more accurate, faster, and to-the-point responses,” Garg told AIM.

Why has Bing failed so far?

Google Search was launched in 1998, whereas Microsoft launched Bing in 2009. Besides having a comparatively significant head start, there are multiple reasons Bing has failed to compete with Google Search. First, Google originated as a search engine. Larry Page and Sergey Brin wanted to build the best search engine in the world. On the other hand, Microsoft’s intent was widespread, with a larger focus on Windows and Office.

Second, Google has better data on its users. This helps its algorithm process better results for its users compared to Bing. Also, Google has better resources at its disposal. For many years, Google was seen as a developer-friendly company, which helped the tech giant attract the best talent available. 

But, can it compete with Google?

Today, Google is synonymous with search. However, ChatGPT integration could make Bing more competitive against Google Search. “By leveraging the power of OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 language models, Bing can help provide users with the exact thing they are looking for by understanding the content of user queries better instead of having to scour through tens of different search results,” Garg said.

The improved accuracy and speed of ChatGPT will enable Bing to deliver more relevant results to users than Google does. This could make Bing a more viable alternative to Google Search for users looking for specific Information. Even though powering Bing with ChatGPT could give it an edge, Google has all the resources at its disposal to create something similar. In fact, Google has already been working on similar technologies but has been slow in making it publicly available. 

Google also has access to a wide range of data and resources, as well as its own custom chips, TPUs, and AI models such as LaMDA, PaLM, and Chinchilla, which could be used to create a technology similar to ChatGPT. 

Google will hit back

Google has already established itself as the leader in AI and ML with a team of experts and a wide range of application areas, such as natural language processing, computer vision, and speech recognition. The giant had been working on many LLM projects before ChatGPT was launched. Further, the launch of ChatGPT has prompted the tech giant to press the panic button and re-assess conversational AI’s use in its search function.

A ChatGPT-augmented Bing could mean Google integrates its search engine with a similar conversational chatbot AI – LaMDA, for instance. Google already has the market share, and a ChatGPT-like chatbot integration could really blow it out of proportion. However, Google has so far refrained from making its technology public due to ‘reputational risk’.

“It’s unclear how Google would monetise such a technology, which could be a key factor in its decision to pursue a similar project,” Garg concluded.