Microsoft sees 'new day' in war with Google over AI search engines

Microsoft's long-struggling Bing search engine will integrate the powerful capabilities of language-based artificial intelligence, CEO Satya Nadella said, declaring what he called a new era for online search.

"It's a new day for searching... The race starts today," Nadella said at a launch event, marking the start of what Microsoft hopes will be an unprecedented challenge to Google's two-decade dominance of the search engine market, using the technology created by the developers of AI bot ChatGPT.

ChatGPT has sparked a gold rush in artificial intelligence technology (AI) with more than 100 million users testing the bot's capabilities, receiving essays, speeches, or law exam results within seconds to the consternation of educators and school authorities worried about cheating.

Microsoft hopes that beefing up Bing with ChatGPT-like qualities will radically update online search by providing ready-made answers using multiple sources instead of the familiar list of links to outside websites.

In its new format, Bing would review results from across the web and summarise them instead of merely presenting a list of links that the user must click and choose from.

The new Bing will more directly ape ChatGPT with a so-called creative option, in which the search engine will help the user write an email or prepare for a job interview, but unlike ChatGPT, always citing its sources, Microsoft said.