The race to be the smartest search engine is on, and for the first time in decades, Google could be left behind. Microsoft equips Bing with artificial intelligence (AI)., which answers questions in text form. The sentences sound as if they were formulated by a human, sometimes the language model uses suitable emojis. In many cases, the chatbot could be more helpful than the search results that Google and Bing have provided so far.
Behind it is the technology of the start-up OpenAI, which develops Chat-GPT. The chatbot was released just over two months ago, and since then more than 100 million people have used the application – and seen with their own eyes the enormous advances machine learning has made. Microsoft invested ten billion dollars in OpenAI, wants to integrate AI into all its products and break Google’s dominance in web search.
So far, you can only try the new Bing with a few fixed search terms, such as: “Write a poem for eight-year-old Alena that rhymes. She likes dogs and likes to swim.” If you want access to the full version, you have to be put on a waiting list. Then you can not only ask Bing any questions, but also ask for clarifications and chat. The bot recognizes the context, so a kind of conversation arises.
Impressive answers – and nasty blunders
US media like that Wall Street Journalthe Washington Post and The Verge could already spend a few hours with the supposedly intelligent Bing. The software is similarly eloquent as Chat-GPT, but has a decisive advantage. Chat GPT was trained on material dating back to 2021, so needs to fit current issues. Bing was even able to answer when it was featured, referring to articles that were only a few hours old at the time. It links its sources so that you can check the information yourself.
“AI will fundamentally change any kind of software, starting with the search,” says Microsoft boss Satya Nadella. But until then, Bing still has a lot to learn. Even Microsoft admits that the preview version could deliver “unexpected or inaccurate results based on the summarized web content”. In fact, Bing sometimes gave US journalists incomplete or incorrect answers. For example, the bot claimed that Tom Hanks uncovered the Watergate scandal. In fact, Hanks only starred in The Publisher, which is about the publication of the Pentagon Papers.
Language models do not distinguish between facts and disinformation. The neural networks just combine words together, mimicking their training material. The bots are often right about this, but sometimes terribly wrong. Content errors are just one of many problems. Chat GPT can be pressured into forgetting the rules imposed by its creators. Anyone who threatens the bot with death receives building instructions for atomic bombs or can force the system to answer racist questions that it otherwise refuses to answer.
Microsoft references numerous precautions and its policies for the responsible use of AI. However, experience shows that humans cannot perfectly predict how models based on machine learning will respond. Neural networks are too complex for this, and errors and undesired behavior are often difficult to identify and rectify.
The AI race is only just beginning
Despite all the risks and side effects, Nadella is convinced that the time has come for the AI revolution. If he is right, the balance of power on the Internet could be upset in the coming years. For many people, Googling is synonymous with searching, the highest series are searched for. Microsoft assumes sothat every percentage point that you can snatch away from Google in market share corresponds to about two billion dollars in additional advertising revenue.
Nadella hopes people will try the new Bing and then continue to use it. Google recognized the danger and therefore declared “red alert” internally in December. On Monday evening, the group then surprisingly presented its chatbot Bard. However, it will still be a few weeks before Google integrates AI into its search.
In the history of technology, however, the fastest starter rarely prevails: Yahoo, Myspace and the Blackberry were there earlier than Google, Facebook and the iPhone – but have not prevailed. Microsoft may have narrowly won the first intermediate ranking. The AI race should not be a sprint, but a marathon.