Microsoft aims for AI-powered version of Bing

Microsoft Corp is in the works to launch a version of its search engine Bing, using the artificial intelligence behind OpenAI-launched chatbot ChatGPT, The Information reported on Tuesday, citing two people with direct knowledge of the plans.

Microsoft could launch the new feature before the end of March, and hopes to challenge Alphabet-owned search engine Google, the report from the San Francisco-based technology news website said.

Microsoft said in a blog post last year that it planned to integrate image-generation software from OpenAI, known as DALL-E 2, into Bing.

OpenAI declined to comment, while Microsoft did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.

The San Francisco-based artificial intelligence company OpenAI was backed by Microsoft with $1 billion in funding in 2019. The two had formed a multi-year partnership to develop artificial intelligence supercomputing technologies on Microsoft's Azure cloud computing service.

OpenAI made its creation ChatGPT chatbot available for free public testing on Nov. 30. The chatbot is a software application designed to mimic human-like conversation based on user prompts and can respond to a large range of questions while imitating human speaking styles.