Microsoft has sought to revive its ambitions of challenging Google’s search engine dominance in a deal with an artificial intelligence robot backed by Elon Musk.
The Silicon Valley company behind Windows and Office software is working with OpenAI, an AI company, on its ChatGPT software that has taken the technology world by storm.
The chatbot is able to provide human-like answers to questions and problems, akin to Amazon’s Alexa, presenting a potential rival to Google’s search tools.
Microsoft is looking to incorporate ChatGPT into its Bing search engine, which has struggled for relevance against Google’s search bar and Chrome Browser, and could launch it as soon as March, tech news site The Information reported.
Microsoft has long struggled to make a competitive search engine, launching Bing in 2009. Google handles roughly 90pc of all the world’s search queries, compared to around 3pc for Microsoft’s Bing.
Google has been grappling with the emergence and popularity of OpenAI’s technology. Executives have reportedly declared it a “code red” threat to the company’s search dominance. Google researchers also remain concerned about the accuracy of answers generated by ChatGPT.
OpenAI was founded by tech entrepreneur Sam Altman in 2015, along with billionaire Elon Musk, to pursue artificial intelligence research. Mr Musk resigned from its board in 2018. He has since criticised the company over its transparency and governance.