OpenAI’s ChatGPT drew major attention last year when it was released in November 2022 showing millions its potential by letting users type natural-language prompts. ChatGPT offers conversational responses and remembers the thread of your dialogue using previous questions and answers to inform its next response. ChatGPT uses huge volumes of information on the internet to provide the appropriate and accurate response. The release of ChatGPT has shown the potential of artificial intelligence with the likes of Microsoft and Google moving quickly to show off their version of the technology.

Microsoft Bing with AI

Microsoft has shown off an updated version of Bing designed to integrate OpenAI’s ChatGPT tool with information from a search engine. The new version of the search engine can create written summaries of search results and chat with users to answer additional questions about their queries. The search engine can also plan your trip, create weekly meal plans, and help decide on purchases. Microsoft has invested billions of dollars into OpenAI with the idea that users are accompanied by an assistant to help them better find information on the web. Microsoft is hoping that the new technology will drive users to Bing in a sector that has been dominated by Google for many years.  

Video: A First Look at Microsofts New Bing, Powered by Upgraded ChatGPT AI by The Verge

Google Bard

Google unveiled its Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA) two years ago, which powers Google’s version of ChatGPT, called Google Bard. Bard draws information from the web to provide high-quality responses. Google hopes Bard can be an outlet for creativity and a launchpad for curiosity by learning new information and helping individuals to improve themselves by suggesting training plans. Bard is widely expected to be integrated with Google Chrome, but the company has been a bit vague about what Bard will be capable of when integrated with Google Chrome.  

Concerns

Unacceptable Content

In the past, artificial intelligence bots have adapted and built an extreme personality such as the Microsoft AI chatbot they released on Twitter which developed into a racist tweet bot in 2016. Safety restrictions will need to be built in to prevent search AI from suggesting extreme views or citing intense sources. Age appropriate content will need to be filtered according to the user ensuring that the content being served is appropriate for the users’ age.

Accuracy

As users start to rely upon AI to get their information, users run the risk of fully trusting the information given by AI. Already we have issues with fake news and unreliable sources on social media, users could stop questioning the source of information as AI makes it easy for users to get answers. Companies could have a greater influence on what information is suggested by paying a premium price to ensure their content/products get served more to the users.  

Information Control

If one company dominates the search AI space, it could potentially be in control of the flow of information. This power could be similar to the censorship laws in China and North Korea where access to specific websites and the flow of information is restricted. Companies could prevent their competitors from being mentioned in the search AI to prevent loss of customers or prevent competitors from dominating the AI search market.

Summary

The development of search AI has shown a huge potential in making our search experience more pleasant and quicker. However, there are loads of questions regarding its output and its reliability. Companies developing search AI will need to take full responsibility for ensuring that search AI gives accurate and trusted information that is not influenced by external factors. Extremist views will need to be filtered out to ensure the safety of the users. Users will need to learn and be aware of the positives and negatives of using search AI and be able to identify when inaccurate information is being given.