Microsoft considering adding ChatGPT to its Bing Search engine

Microsoft is considering integrating ChatGPT into its Microsoft Bing search engine in an effort to boost its attractiveness. The plan, first revealed by The Informer, appears to be in early stages at the moment.

The news article, which is unfortunately behind a paywall, cites a person familiar with the plan as its source.

ChatGPT is a language model developed by OpenAI that is created specifically for dialogs. Patrick explained how ChatGPT works here on this site, and you may want to check out the informational article to better understand what it does and does not do.

It is also of interest that extensions are already available that add ChatGPT to search engines. These display content produced by ChatGPT in the search results, but do not alter the classic results returned by the search engine.

Microsoft seems to consider integrating ChatGPT more deeply into Bing. The conversational nature of ChatGPT could help the company better understand user requests, and users of Bing might favor conversational answers over traditional search results.

The report suggests that Microsoft is still evaluating the possibility, as it is considering factors such as the accuracy of results and technical factors. Microsoft could release an initial test version to a small group of Bing users later this year.

OpenAI, the company that developed ChatGPT, has received a $1 billion investment from Microsoft. ChatGPT was released in November 2022 to the public. Anyone may use ChatGPT at the moment, but usage requires verification of an email address and mobile phone number.

ChatGPT works very well for certain types of query, but not necessarily for all. There is also always the question of accuracy.

A likely scenario is the integration for certain types of user queries only and exclude it from returning results for requests considering health or investment topics.

The creators of ChatGPT highlight that it may "occasionally produce harmful instructions or biased content", and "may occasionally generate incorrect information".

Added with care, it could improve the search quality of Bing for certain queries.

ChatGPT produced the following response when asked about its integration into Bing or other search engines:

It's possible that integrating a language model like ChatGPT into a search engine like Bing could potentially be beneficial in certain ways. For example, a language model like ChatGPT could potentially be used to generate more natural-sounding responses to user queries, or to generate relevant summaries of search results. However, it's also important to consider any potential drawbacks or challenges that might arise from such an integration. For example, it could be difficult to ensure that the language model's responses are always accurate and appropriate, or to ensure that the model's output is consistent with the search engine's overall tone and style. Ultimately, the decision of whether to integrate a language model like ChatGPT into a search engine would depend on a variety of factors, including the specific goals and needs of the search engine, as well as the potential benefits and challenges of such an integration.

Now You: what is your take on this? Should products such as ChatGPT be included into search engines? Will it be the end for certain types of Internet sites?

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