Parmy Olson, Columnist

ChatGPT Is No Magic Bullet for Microsoft’s Bing

A significant AI upgrade for the beleaguered search tool could threaten Google, but it will be difficult to pull off.

January 4, 2023 at 6:58 PM UTC

Parmy Olson is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology. A former reporter for the Wall Street Journal and Forbes, she is author of “Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT and the Race That Will Change the World.”

A boost for Bing?
Photographer: Zed Jameson/Bloomberg

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Microsoft Corp.’s management would be forgiven for rubbing their hands in anticipation about their new toy. For years, the company’s Bing search engine has been the butt of jokes for its inability to make a dent in Google’s overwhelming market share. That the No. 1 search term on Bing is “Google ” just deepens the humiliation.

But Microsoft hasn’t given up on Bing. According to reports from Bloomberg News and The Information, Microsoft is preparing to upgrade its unloved search tool with the technology behind ChatGPT, the generative AI tool that grabbed the world’s attention late last year with its ability to answer wide-ranging questions in natural-sounding language.