The once-boring company's loyal fans are basking in its moment in the AI sun.
Microsoftâs current AI dominance is thrilling the companyâs diehard fans Itâs too early to tell how Microsoft will ultimately fare in the AI search war [it started]( with Google. Both companies have now rolled out their AI-infused search offerings, though Microsoftâs new Bing, the result of its [partnership]( with OpenAI, which made ChatGPT, has gotten the lionâs share of the attention and praise. [Googleâs Bard]( chatbot, on the other hand, has so far been a [disappointment](. This has put Microsoft in a position that we are used to seeing Google in: [on the cutting edge](. It has also put Google [on its heels](. The search giant currently looks like an also-ran with an inferior product. Microsoft has found itself in that position all too often since Googleâs early 2000s rise, which would ultimately allow it to dominate the internet. So now Microsoftâs having a rare moment in the sun, and at Googleâs expense. Microsoftâs fans seem to be enjoying it. Vox asked several of them how they felt about seeing the company at the forefront of what could be potentially world-changing technology for the first time in a very long time. Their answers show how Microsoftâs OpenAI integrations into its consumer products have managed to live up to a lot of the buzz so far, but thereâs also a long way to go before anyone can say that theyâll give Microsoft a real edge over competitors. âOh, how the [turn tables](,â Brett Lemoine, an IT worker who lives in Texas, said in an email. âI think, for maybe the first time, Microsoft is ahead of the game on this one. In my opinion, they had better products in the past, but they never stuck because they were released too late and/or never got enough user adoption (Zune, Windows Phone).â Lemoine calls himself a âMicrosoft fanboyâ on his [Twitter profile](, where heâs also [posted a photo]( of his much-faded tattoo of the Windows 7 logo. "I got the tattoo back in college â was my first one,â he explained. âAlways wanted a tattoo and I guess Microsoft was my biggest passion at the time.â Lemoine, who says he is not related to Blake Lemoine, the former Google engineer who thought its chatbot [had become sentient](, has also passed what may be the truest test of a Microsoft fan: He had a Windows Phone, which was Microsoftâs [ill-fated attempt]( to compete with Appleâs iPhone and Googleâs Android ecosystem. Released in 2010 at a [cost of billions](, the Windows Phone was a relative latecomer to the market and never really caught on. When mobile devices overtook desktop and laptop PCs in terms of usage, Microsoft didnât have much of a foothold. Vivian Chandra, who works in education and lives in New Zealand, said in an email that her Windows Phone was âquite awesome,â but she had to give it up. Once developers stopped supporting apps for it, she eventually found herself in an airport needing to use an Air New Zealand app that no longer worked. Chandra is still devoted to the Microsoft hardware that hasnât been discontinued. When the Surface tablet was first released 10 years ago, she made a special pitstop in the United States on a trip to Canada to pick one up so she wouldnât have to wait for it to come to her country. She recently bought a Surface Pro 9, too. âThe buzz [over AI] is quite exciting,â Chandra said. âThey missed the boat with smartphones, but this might be a new way for them to move ahead of Google.â Microsoft has indeed missed the boat in the past, but it was doing just fine before OpenAI came along. Itâs currently the [second-most]( valuable company in the world, with Apple being the first. Google is fourth, just behind the state-owned Saudi Aramco. So Microsoftâs still beating Google in terms of market cap. But, aside from its gaming division, itâs been a long time since Microsoftâs consumer offerings got much buzz. Often, the company either enters a market too late, as it did with the Windows Phone, or it loses out to an upstart that offers something better. Googleâs search, Chrome, and Gmail are the majority of consumersâ preferred web search, browser, and email providers. Microsoftâs web search, browser, and email offerings are not. Decades ago, people [lined up overnight]( to get their hands on Microsoftâs new Windows operating system; now, Googleâs Android mobile operating system has the [biggest market share](. Microsoft is an enterprise or business services provider, such as Office productivity and server software and cloud computing. Even its social media platform, LinkedIn, is about business. These offerings have been lucrative. They're also boring. Microsoft seems to believe that OpenAI will help it recapture that past glory and excitement. OpenAIâs integrations with its consumer products were unveiled at a [splashy event]( in February with a clear message: With generative AI, web search was about to evolve, and Microsoft was going to lead the way. Google was not because it had been playing it too slow and too safe with its AI offerings. Now, Google is forced to scramble to push out its own generative AI products. So far, Bard and Googleâs other AI offerings have been met with much less fanfare and had fewer features and [more flaws](. Even Bingâs [missteps]( have been more interesting than [Bardâs](. Google is the [boring]( one now. Microsoft fans who hadnât used Bing and Edge much before OpenAI â even diehards have their limits â say theyâre enjoying the experience now. Sam Hosea was a âteenage Microsoft groupieâ whose earliest memory with Microsoft was âtinkering around with QBasic.â Now 40 years old and living outside DC, where he works as a caregiver, Hosea said in an email that, until recently, he âhadnât thought about Bing in a very, very, VERY long time.â Lately, heâs been using it quite a bit. âFor the past few weeks, Iâve literally been spending much of my free time chatting with the AI bot on the Bing app!â Hosea said. Meanwhile, he hadnât even heard of Googleâs Bard until he was asked how he thought it compared to Bing. Lots of other people are trying out Bing, too. Microsoft recently [announced]( that the search engine [crossed]( the 100 million daily user mark (Google, by contrast, does billions of searches per day). Microsoft also said that Edge âcontinues to grow in usageâ without providing a number. It remains to be seen if Microsoft can build on that to become a real competitor to Google, which remains the undisputed leader in search and browsers, or if it will even be able to maintain the excitement around Bing and Edge if and when the AI novelty and hype fades. Even some of Microsoftâs biggest fans arenât sure of that yet. Chandra admits that she prefers Chrome and Google search over Edge and Bing now. While she hasnât noticed a big difference yet in the new offerings, sheâs hoping Microsoft will continue [its]( [tradition]( of integrating the MÄori language into its products by making it available in AI searches. And while Hosea is having fun asking Bing deeper questions and having conversations with it, his âgo-to for day-to-day searchesâ is still Google. Brian Hoyt is the IT director at an elementary and middle school in Washington state, and his Microsoft use dates back to 1984 and MS-DOS. He says he hasnât used Microsoftâs AI integrations much because theyâre not yet available for education customers, but he is wondering if Microsoft will run into issues down the line because it [doesnât own]( OpenAI outright, while Googleâs AI products were either [acquired]( or developed in-house. âThey definitely seem to have the first mover advantage, but it is unclear if that will hold up,â Hoyt said, noting that Microsoft will have to [monetize]( those costly AI offerings at some point and that could cause some pushback. As for Lemoine, he says heâs considered getting his Windows 7 tattoo refreshed, if not covered up with a newer Windows logo. But heâs not letting Microsoftâs possible renaissance influence that decision. âOpenAI stuff doesnât sway me either way,â he said. âSara Morrison, senior reporter [On a vivid blue background, a small figure looks up at a black computer monitor, as swirls of text flow out of it.]( Paige Vickers for Vox/Jorm Sangsorn/Getty Images [AI is flooding the workplace, and workers love it]( [Whoâs afraid of ChatGPT? Not these workers.]( Paige Vickers/Vox [What happens when ChatGPT starts to feed on its own writing?]( [AI chatbots wonât destroy human originality. But they may homogenize our lives and flatten our reality.]( [A parking lot, seen from above, with two rows of Tesla cars and the word âTeslaâ painted on the blacktop.]( Justin Sullivan/Getty Images [Teslaâs cameras are reportedly spying on customers, but itâs not just a Tesla problem]( [Tesla employees watching drivers through their cameras is a glimpse of our privacy-free connected car future.](
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