New versions of Microsoft’s search engine and web browser will use AI

(PA) (PA Archive)

New versions of Microsoft’s search engine and web browser will use artificial intelligence (AI) to provide users with instant written answers, the company has announced.

Software developed by ChatGPT creators OpenAI now allows Bing and Edge to provide footnoted responses to search queries and aggregate detailed information from multiple sources.

Users can test the technology now ahead of a full rollout in the “coming weeks”.

The announcement comes just a day after Google unveiled its own AI-powered search engine chatbot called Bard.

Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella said the changes were necessary because search engines haven’t made any progress in 20 years and half of Bing searches aren’t currently responding to user queries.

“I think this technology is going to transform pretty much every category of software,” he said at a press conference at the company’s Seattle headquarters.

“The race starts today and we will move and move fast. Above all, we want to have a lot of fun innovating in the search, because it’s high time.

“It’s a new day for search, it’s a new paradigm for search, rapid innovation is to come.”

Responses generated by the AI ​​are now displayed on the right side of the Bing interface, while the traditional website links and images remain on the left.

The company is also rolling out a “chat” feature for Bing, similar to ChatGPT, the parent company Microsoft has invested billions of dollars in.

On the Edge browser, customized meal plans, travel routes and music quizzes can be created at the user’s request using next-generation AI technology.

It can also instantly summarize academic articles and company reports, compare them to others, and rewrite code in different languages.

The competition to innovate using AI was evident throughout the press conference as Microsoft executives slammed other search engines’ failures to innovate.

Yusuf Mehdi, Chief Marketing Officer, said: “We need to adapt to search, not the other way around.

“The quest has stayed the same since the last big turn. The user experience is the same as it was 20 years ago.”

Google will host a dedicated launch event for Bard on Wednesday, which was announced Monday, just minutes before Microsoft announced today’s press conference.

Sundar Pichai, its chief executive, said AI will be integrated into the company’s search engine “soon” to provide written answers to search queries alongside links to relevant web pages, images and videos.

He added that the tool would allow Google to answer questions in a smarter way that went beyond providing basic facts.

Mr Pichai insisted the bot would be both “brave and responsible” but did not specify how the company would prevent it from producing harmful or abusive content.

Bard will use the company’s existing Lambda software, which one engineer last year described as “sentient” and the intellectual equivalent of a human child.

Blake Lemoine, 41, was fired from the company after making the claims, which she described as “completely unfounded”.

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