Following Google, which announced a chatbot with artificial intelligence Bard, Microsoft has strengthened its search engine
How did it all start?
The last 20 years of search enginesdid not change dramatically and Google was the leader. However, perhaps everything will change with the advent of the updated Bing browser, which integrates a chatbot. As Microsoft representatives noted at the presentation, 40% of people click on search links and immediately return back, and therefore the system does not work.
Unlike Bard, who is nowOnly "trusted testers" are using Bing.com to try out the search engine or sign up for the waitlist, Microsoft said in a blog post. The company will roll out a preview version to millions of users in the coming weeks. For now it will only work on desktop computers.
What can Bing do?
Bing will be conversational and responsive like ChatGPT.According to Microsoft's presentation, it "looks through results on the Internet to find and summarize the answer to a query." However, the new Bing is equipped with a Prometheus bot on the new next-generation OpenAI language model, which is “more powerful” than ChatGPT. “It uses the key knowledge and achievements of ChatGPT and GPT-3.5, but is even faster, more accurate and more efficient,” wrote company representatives. Microsoft also applied an AI model to its core search ranking engine, Bing, “resulting in the biggest jump in relevancy in two decades.”
Prometheus will appear in all browsers starting fromEdge to make search results more relevant. Perhaps later third-party developers will receive the API, and then the bot will be able to be integrated into various services and applications.
The author of the “Backdoor” telegram channel attended the presentation and told us what other “tricks” Microsoft had prepared:
- Bing understands queries up to 1,000 characters. At the same time, when searching for recipes, guides and schemes, it will provide clear and structured information;
— New Bing provides “meaningful instructions.”For example, for a vacation, a traveler will receive a travel itinerary, hotels where you can stay, prices, cost of accommodation and will tell you about all the “pitfalls”;
— Also, the new search engine can create a “meal plan for a family of four with vegetarian dishes and for people who don’t like nuts”;
— At the same time, there will be no links in the usual form—at first, the company plans to add familiar links with answers to the AI answers;
— If a multi-page PDF appears in the search results, it will help pull out important information “in a couple of seconds.”
Usually new technological productsroll out gradually and today Bing is not available on the territory of the Russian Federation. Now access is open to the US audience, if you want to test, you can use the appropriate VPN.
Bing will replace Google?
Microsoft has been planning for quite some time to providecompetition in the search segment, when, having abandoned its old search engines, (Live Search/MSN Search) was looking for an alternative. One of the options was the purchase of Internet giant Yahoo! in 2008. Then the deal fell through, but in 2010 Yahoo began using Bing search technology. In 2009, Microsoft officially launched the Bing search engine onto the market. Since then, Microsoft has been trying to bring its search engine to the top around the world. “With the purchase of OpenAI and the ChatGPT product, they seem to be succeeding. Microsoft is integrating AI into its other products, for example, Microsoft Office,” said Marat Zalotdinov, technical director of IMBA IT, in an interview with Hi-Tech.
Almost from the very beginning of correct operationChatGPT, Google announced a “red danger level”, as it understood that it could lose its leading position in search (the majority of the profit is generated by search in Alphabet). Thus, on February 8, Alphabet Inc lost about $100 billion in capitalization because their AI Bard, integrated into the search, answered the question incorrectly. That is, most companies that specialize in search engines will change or are already doing so. It is clear that Microsoft got a slight head start and bought a ready-made product, but competitors will slowly begin to catch up, the expert is sure.
Alexander Shramenko, CDTO of the Atlanta business cluband the director of digital business transformation noted the long-standing “feud” between Google and Microsoft. They compete in different services and products, periodically “trying to attack someone else’s field of play,” he noted. However, he was skeptical about the loud statements about the collapse of Google.
Bing will be in its PR campaignposition itself as a “Google killer,” but I’m skeptical of such emotional statements. In our modern life there have already been “iPhone killers” and “Facebook and Instagram killers”.
Alexander Shramenko, CDTO of the Atlanta business club and director of digital business transformation
Yes, Microsoft has now implemented a more advancedsmart search technology using AI and open source. One of the trump cards is that Bing will be built into the Edge browser, accordingly, a huge audience of Windows users will immediately have access to their updated search engine. But there are also difficulties: Microsoft will have to reinvent the previous user experience with the Google search engine, and this is not an easy task. Also, don’t forget that today Google is not only a search, but also a large ecosystem consisting of many services. We can say for sure that in the next couple of years the number of Microsoft Edge users will increase, the expert noted in an interview with Hi-Tech.
Also, don't forget:Google is not only a search engine, but also a very successful advertising business model with ADS at its core. To date, the IT giant is the leader in processing search requests, every day it processes several billion hits. This business model worked flawlessly, and prior to Bing, Google had nothing to worry about. Today, Bing offers better search. Absolutely, Google will not leave this unattended, and in the next year and a half, you can expect an answer. Judging by the capabilities that Bing has, the battle for users is going to be serious, and in general, we are in for a technological leap in the growth of search engines in the near future.
Pavel Zhukov, CTO of Hornhoo web development studio,I'm sure you'll have to try very hard to destroy Google's Bing search. Google currently holds about 90% of the search engine market, versus 3% for Bing.
In any case, the technology looks sufficientpromising and loud (where is chatGPT not yet used?), but in my opinion, the user is not yet ready for a complete abandonment of standard search results. When you can make a vacation plan and do other useful things through search, this is interesting, but for such requests there is a smart assistant.
Pavel Zhukov, CTO of Hornhoo web development studio
Microsoft likely wants to take a leadership position in the intelligent search space. At the moment, other large companies are planning to introduce a similar tool, the expert concludes.
Will Bing replace Yandex and Google in Russia?
Alexander Shramenko suggests waitingwith forecasts: first you need to understand how users and the market will respond to the appearance of the updated Bing. “Will Bing, with more advanced algorithms and AI inside, be able to disrupt the global search query market? Or will the hype pass and Bing remain a toy for a relatively small audience of power users? One can definitely say about Yandex - now they are very carefully watching what will happen with both Bing and Google’s audience, and then adjust their technologies, algorithms and business model to the needs of the market,” the expert is sure.
Marat Zalotdinov also agrees with him, who believes that, perhaps, AI integrated into search will be popular in the Russian Federation, both in domestic solutions and in foreign ones.
In addition, search engines are verya well-developed tool, and most of the further improvements concern improving the ranking of results. Bing in Russia is relevant only as a search engine through which you can find links to download other browsers; in our market the company hardly occupies more than 1%, Pavel Zhukov noted in an interview with Hi-Tech.
It is important to mention that Microsoft, due topolitical situation has limited the sale of new licenses for its products on the territory of the Russian Federation. Perhaps something will change in the future, but time will tell whether this will happen.
The AI race is just getting started
The emergence of ChatGPT provoked an AI race betweentech giants. In addition to Google releasing Bard, China's Baidu also announced the release of a generative AI chatbot based on a language model greater than GPT-3.
“This is just the first step on the AI front...as an “arms race” continues among tech giants,” analyst Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities said in a note to investors following the announcement. Perhaps more market players will soon join the “battle.”
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