Will OpenAI Be an Arms Merchant?

The Mac represented a new interface paradigm for computing, one that Microsoft ignored — until it couldn’t. Will Google do the same?

(original post on Searchblog)

Just last week I predicted that Google would leverage ChatGPT to create a conversational interface to its search business, and that Microsoft would do the same in the enterprise data market. I briefly considered that I might have gotten it exactly backwards — Google has a robust enterprise data business in its cloud business (known as GCP), and of course Microsoft has Bing. But I quickly dismissed that notion — figuring that each behemoth would play the GPT card toward their strengths.

While I may have been right about ChatGPT getting a business model this year, it looks like I could be wrong on the details. Here’s The Information with a scoop:

Microsoft is preparing to launch a version of its Bing search engine that uses the artificial intelligence behind ChatGPT to answer some search queries rather than just showing a list of links, according to two people with direct knowledge of the plans. Microsoft hopes the new feature, which could launch before the end of March, will help it outflank Google, its much bigger search rival.

The link is behind a rather expensive paywall (I’m a newly refreshed subscriber), but Engadget and many others have more. Apparently Microsoft negotiated the right to integrate ChatGPT into Bing as part of its $1 billion investment back in 2019, and the fact…