Microsoft plans to integrate OpenAI's GPT models into Bing search, according to sources at The Information.
OpenAI's ChatGPT launched in November 2022, reached one million users within five days and quickly became an Internet phenomenon. The large language model answers questions so well that search engine giant Google is rumored to perceive the chatbot as competition. An investigation by the data labeling platform "Surge" came to the conclusion that ChatGPT is an "existential threat" after comparing 500 search queries.
Now The Information reports that Microsoft wants to use the technology behind ChatGPT for Bing search. The magazine cites two people with direct knowledge of the plans. The language model is expected to help Bing answer some search queries or provide additional context instead of just displaying a list of links. Microsoft said it hopes the new feature, which could be rolled out before the end of March, will give Google a run for its money.
Microsoft continues to invest in OpenAI
Microsoft and OpenAI have been working together since 2019. In October, The Information reported Microsoft was planning a second investment in the AI company and pays almost entirely for the computational costs of training OpenAI's advanced AI models.
The collaboration has so far resulted in several AI features for Microsoft products, including GitHub's CoPilot. An integration of DALL-E 2 into Bing's Image Creator tool is also available. Microsoft also sells GPT-3 and other models to enterprise customers.
As The Information reports, the 2019 Microsoft investment already included an agreement with OpenAI to integrate aspects of GPT into Bing. An older version of GPT was already integrated and supported automatic search suggestions. However, the upcoming announcement will reveal more significant features, the sources said.
Google under pressure to move?
Which model Microsoft wants to use for Bing and how exactly, the sources did not reveal yet. Hot candidates are probably GPT-3.5 or ChatGPT. The models could generate complete answers to search queries or provide related search suggestions. It is not yet known how Microsoft wants to handle hallucinations or other forms of errors in the output of the language models.
The details of the integration will determine whether Google will have to follow suit. The company has its own alternatives to ChatGPT, such as LaMDA, but has so far held back on publishing or integrating them into its core search business.
The search giant has been relying on the BERT language model to better understand search queries since 2019 and is developing the MUM multimodal AI model that can process combined image and text search queries.
