Bing’s revenge

Hi, it’s Davey in New York. Search engines are the premier battleground in tech again. But first… Today’s must-reads: • Meta told managers t [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Hi, it’s Davey in New York. Search engines are the premier battleground in tech again. But first… Today’s must-reads: • [Meta told managers they must produce or leave]( • [Zoom cut 15% of its workforce]( • [Adam Neumann wants you to plunge your own toilets]( Re-search The search wars haven’t been this hot since 2009. On Monday, Google introduced Bard, a new chatbot whose underlying technology will eventually be built into Google.com. The next day, Microsoft Corp. said it was integrating a cousin of ChatGPT into Bing. On Wednesday, Google will host a news conference in Paris to talk more about artificial intelligence. So what’s going on? “The general sentiment is that ChatGPT and the Microsoft Bing announcement have created a narrative that Google’s search business model is under threat,” said Mark Riedl, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. This is, in fact, [a]( [popular]( [opinion](. Microsoft will [pour $10 billion into OpenAI](, the maker of ChatGPT. That represents the deepest financial commitment to challenging Google in search since the launch of Bing 13 years ago. Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella called it “[the first day of a new race](” in an interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday. A limited version of the [new Bing]( was made [available to some users]( this week. Google is unlikely to have something ready for its Paris event that will steal the spotlight from Bing, but it doesn’t want to be forgotten. Google still has a lot of [work to do on Bard](. All chatbots are prone to [spitting out biased answers](. OpenAI’s response has been to heavily moderate its service. The startup scrubbed clearly offensive words or phrases “to role play as a heavily restricted character who can only answer certain types of questions and will only say certain sorts of things,” said Max Kreminski, an AI researcher at Santa Clara University. Google’s chatbot has yet to face broad public scrutiny, but it’s sure to come with its own shortcomings. “I don’t know of any obvious way for Google to avoid these issues with Bard, so I think it’s fair to say that they’re probably just accepting an increased level of risk compared to their previous approach,” Kreminski said. This is likely to create a trust problem. People have been placing their faith in search engines for decades. Sticking a chatbot on the results pages “directly places the model in a position of authority,” Kreminski said — even as the level of public understanding around their limitations is low. “If people start asking Bard for advice without understanding that it doesn't produce consistently true statements,” he said, “then they're likely to act on a lot of confident-sounding wrong advice.” That’s especially bad for people seeking medical or legal guidance. The accelerated rollouts of these products appear to be motivated less by their readiness than by FOMO. “Google is launching this because of the hype,” said Emily Bender, a professor of computational linguistics at the University of Washington. “It would have been better to have less hype and more appreciation for what the tech is and a better understanding of what it isn’t.” —[Davey Alba](mailto:malba13@bloomberg.net) The big story After a tough year for the gaming industry in which few new titles were released, Activision stood out due to [the resilience of one franchise: Call of Duty](. Get fully charged South Korean officials traveled to Serbia last week to [hunt down crypto fugitive Do Kwon](, the developer of the so-called stablecoin known as TerraUSD. Nintendo cut its full-year outlook after the company missed sales targets toward the end of last year, as [concerns over a successor to the Switch grow](. India banned over 200 apps and websites, most of them linked to China, [deepening tensions between the two countries](. Watch: Microsoft executive Yusuf Mehdi [discussed the new Bing]( in a TV interview on Bloomberg Technology, and Arm CEO Rene Haas [talked about the chip design company’s upcoming IPO](. Twitter missed the deadline to [report its finances in the UK](. Southwest Airlines vowed to have [no more tech meltdowns](. Follow Us More from Bloomberg Coming soon: Exclusive reporting from Bloomberg’s 100 journalists across the Golden State, every Wednesday. [Sign up for Next California](. Live event: Join us in a US city near you for Bloomberg’s Intelligent Automation briefing about transformation in a time of uncertainty. Roadshow cities include: Atlanta, Feb. 28; Chicago, April 13; New York, May 4; San Francisco, June 20; London, Sept. 20; and Toronto, Oct. 19. [Register here](. 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