In reaction to Microsoft’s decision to integrate OpenAI technology into Bing, Google is apparently rushing to add artificial intelligence (AI) elements to its search engine. Google is developing a new search engine project called “Magi,” and it intends to integrate AI technology into its existing search platform.
The decision comes amid rising concerns that Samsung and Apple would abandon Google in favor of Microsoft’s Bing, despite the fact that their existing search contracts with Google are worth an estimated $3 billion and $20 billion, respectively. In February, Microsoft announced the addition of AI-powered search tools to Bing and its Edge browser, utilizing OpenAI’s GPT-4 language model and ChatGPT chatbot. Bing’s popularity has risen since its introduction, but its global market share remains less than 3%, compared to Google’s 93%.
According to The New York Times, Google officials were in a “panic” after learning that Samsung would replace Google with Bing as the default search engine on their smartphones. Google, on the other hand, dismissed the news, claiming that it has been working for years to bring AI to Google Search. “Not every brainstorm deck or product idea leads to a launch, but as we’ve said before, we’re excited about bringing new AI-powered features to Search, and will share more details soon,” a Google representative said.
Following the story, shares of Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, plummeted as much as 4%. Meanwhile, neither Samsung nor Apple have commented on the situation.
The sources for this piece include articles in Reuters and TheRegister.