Dina Bass, reporting for Bloomberg:
Microsoft Corp. is preparing to add OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot to its Bing search engine in a bid to lure users from rival Google, according to a person familiar with the plans.
Microsoft is betting that the more conversational and contextual replies to users’ queries will win over search users by supplying better-quality answers beyond links
The Redmond, Washington-based company may roll out the additional feature in the next several months, but it is still weighing both the chatbot’s accuracy and how quickly it can be included in the search engine
Whether or not this succeeds will be determined by the UI decisions Microsoft makes here. I think the best idea, particularly when introducing this as a new interface element, is to frame the AI as an extension of the existing “instant answers” box. Allow the user to ask the AI clarifying questions in the context of their search. Leave the standard search results as they are. Don’t touch anything else. Below is a quick mockup of the UI I am imagining.
Although I am not completely convinced that this will be an overall improvement for web search as a tool I am excited to see how other players respond — especially Google. We may finally start seeing some innovation and experimentation again.