Nearly a quarter-century after Google鈥檚 search engine began to reshape how we use the internet, big tech companies are a familiar web tool into a gateway to a new form of artificial intelligence.
If it seems like this week鈥檚 newly announced AI search chatbots 鈥� Google鈥檚 Bard, Baidu鈥檚 Ernie Bot and Microsoft鈥檚 Bing chatbot 鈥� are coming out of nowhere, well, even some of their makers seem to think so. The spark rushing them to market was the popularity of ChatGPT, launched late last year by Microsoft鈥檚 partner OpenAI and now helping to power a new version of the Bing search engine.
First out of the gate among big tech companies with a publicly accessible search chatbot, Microsoft executives said this week they had been hard at work on the project since last summer. But the excitement around ChatGPT brought new urgency.
鈥淭he reception to ChatGPT and how that took off, that was certainly a surprise,鈥� said Yusuf Medhi, the executive leading Microsoft鈥檚 consumer division, in an interview. 鈥淗ow rapidly it went mainstream, where everybody鈥檚 talking about it, like, in every meeting. That did surprise me.鈥�
HOW鈥橲 THIS DIFFERENT FROM CHATGPT?
Millions of people using it to write silly poems and songs, compose letters, recipes and marketing campaigns or help write schoolwork. Trained on a huge trove of online writings, from instruction manuals to digitized books, it has a strong command of human language and grammar. But what the newest crop of search chatbots promise that ChatGPT doesn鈥檛 have is the immediacy of what can be found in a web search. Ask the preview version of the new Bing for the latest news 鈥� or just what people are talking about on Twitter 鈥� and it summarizes a selection of the day鈥檚 top stories or trends, with footnotes linking to media outlets or other data sources.
ARE THEY ACCURATE?
Frequently not, and that鈥檚 a problem for internet searches. Google鈥檚 started with an embarrassing error 鈥� first pointed out by Reuters 鈥� about NASA鈥檚 James Webb Space Telescope. But Google鈥檚 is not the only AI language model .
The Associated Press asked Bing on Wednesday for the most important thing to happen in sports over the past 24 hours 鈥� with the expectation it might say something about basketball star . Instead, it confidently spouted a false but detailed account of 鈥� days before it鈥檚 actually scheduled to happen.
鈥淚t was a thrilling game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs, two of the best teams in the NFL this season,鈥� Bing said. 鈥淭he Eagles, led by quarterback Jalen Hurts, won their second Lombardi Trophy in franchise history by defeating the Chiefs, led by quarterback Patrick Mahomes, with a score of 31-28.鈥� It kept going, describing the specific yard lengths of throws and field goals and naming three songs played in a 鈥渟pectacular half time show鈥� by Rihanna.
Unless Bing is clairvoyant 鈥� tune in Sunday to find out 鈥� it reflected a problem known as AI 鈥渉allucination鈥� that鈥檚 common with today鈥檚 large language-learning models. It鈥檚 one of the reasons why companies like Google and Facebook parent Meta had been reluctant to make these models publicly accessible.
IS THIS THE FUTURE OF THE INTERNET?
罢丑补迟鈥檚 , which is comparing the latest breakthroughs in generative AI 鈥� which can write but also create new images, video, computer code, slide shows and music 鈥� as akin to the revolution in personal computing many decades ago.
But the software giant also has less to lose in experimenting with Bing, which comes a distant second to Google鈥檚 search engine in many markets. Unlike Google, which relies on search-based advertising to make money, Bing is a fraction of Microsoft鈥檚 business.
鈥淲hen you鈥檙e a newer and smaller-share player in a category, it does allow us to continue to innovate at a great pace,鈥� Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood told investment analysts this week. 鈥淐ontinue to experiment, learn with our users, innovate with the model, learn from OpenAI.鈥�
Google has largely been seen as playing catch-up with the sudden announcement of its upcoming Bard chatbot Monday followed by a livestreamed demonstration of the technology at its Paris office Wednesday that offered few new details. Investors appeared unimpressed with the Paris event and Bard鈥檚 NASA flub Wednesday, causing an 8% drop in the shares of Google鈥檚 parent company, Alphabet Inc. But once released, its search chatbot could have far more reach than any other because of Google鈥檚 vast number of existing users.
DON鈥橳 CALL THEM BY THEIR NAME?
Coming up with a catchy name for their search chatbots has been a tricky one for tech companies in a race to introduce them 鈥� so much so that Bing tries not to talk about it.
In a dialogue with the AP about large language models, the new Bing, at first, disclosed without prompting that Microsoft had a search engine chatbot called Sydney. But upon further questioning, it denied it. Finally, it admitted that 鈥淪ydney does not reveal the name 鈥楽ydney鈥� to the user, as it is an internal code name for the chat mode of Microsoft Bing search.鈥�
In the years since Amazon released its female-sounding voice assistant Alexa, many leaders in the AI field have been increasingly reluctant to make their systems seem like a human, even as their language skills rapidly improve.
鈥淪ydney does not want to create confusion or false expectations for the user,鈥� Bing鈥檚 chatbot said when asked about the reasons for suppressing its apparent code name. 鈥淪ydney wants to provide informative, visual, logical and actionable responses to the user鈥檚 queries or messages, not pretend to be a person or a friend.鈥�
鈥擬att O鈥檅rien, The Associated Press
