Microsoft and Google’s AI race

Google has long ruled the internet as Microsoft remained a distant competitor. By market share:

• Search engine: Google holds ~84%; Bing holds ~9%
• Browser: Chrome holds ~65%; Edge holds 4.5%

However, Microsoft is leveraging the billions it invested in OpenAI to shake things up.

Can Bing be king?

This week, Microsoft revealed Bing and Edge will integrate an OpenAI model more powerful than ChatGPT and tailored for web searches — “an AI copilot for the web,” the company claims.

Bing will still return links and images, but also provide complete answers to questions and summarize detailed info. An accompanying chatbot can refine searches or generate content, such as:

• Meal plans based on dietary preferences
• Vacation itineraries
• Drafts of emails or LinkedIn posts

Not to be outdone…

… Google announced Bard, its own AI chatbot.

It will also scour the web to retrieve and distill information, but details were scant in comparison to Microsoft’s — Alphabet’s stock fell 7%+ after Google’s AI event Wednesday.

So far…

… it’s impossible to say whose will be better. Bard is only available to a few external testers; Bing’s preview is public, but there’s a waitlist; and both are still works in progress.

Journalists who tried Bing seemed to find it useful, if a bit flawed.

• CNN’s Clare Duffy got Bing to generate a meal plan and shopping list, but it gave her outdated info on an upcoming election.
• Meanwhile, Bard gave incorrect info about the James Webb Space Telescope in a demo Google shared.

Either way, it’s a huge opportunity for Microsoft to lure in new Bing and Edge users. And so far, Microsoft seems to be ahead.

BTW: If Bing overtakes Google’s popularity, will we tell people to “Bing it”?