Microsoft’s big AI announcement means that Bing could replace Google as top search app

Bing can generate $2 billion in ad revenue for each percentage point of the “search” market share it adds

While Bing currently has about 9% of the online search market, Microsoft expects to generate $2 billion in additional advertising revenue for each percentage point of market share it adds. For Q4 2022 Google Search generated revenue of $42.6 billion compared to “only” $3.2 billion for Microsoft’s search and news advertising revenue. That’s a gap Microsoft is hoping to close and more.

During a press briefing at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington, CEO Satya Nadella said, “This technology is going to reshape pretty much every software category.” ChatGPT is available on the Bing website for a limited number of users and will be ready for mobile users via the Bing app in the weeks ahead. But before you get too excited, during the “limited preview stage,” only pre-set queries will be allowed. At a later date in the future, free-form queries will be answered.

Bing will use OpenAI’s most powerful Prometheus model which will use real-time web data from Bing. That means Bing’s chatbot will be able to give answers based on current events rather than post answers that are limited to 2021 data. And with ChatGPT, Bing users will be able to get a summary of the articles they are reading, compose emails, and translate them to reach more readers. Microsoft warns that ChatGPT, like most AI chatbots, is apt to give incorrect information which it calls a hallucination. The company says more user feedback will help reduce hallucinations.

Microsoft says that the AI-driven Bing will no longer simply disseminate links. Instead, it will give users clear answers in simple language combining answers that Bing found on the web and from its collection of data. On the Edge web browser, ChatGPT could be used to help users understand long and complex documents. 

Google introduced its own conversational AI platform on Monday

There are some downsides to this technology besides hallucinations. AI chatbots can create racist content and without morals, some content can be distasteful to humans. And even when it writes about something that is obviously wrong, it can convince people to believe the content.