Microsoft to Cut Off Bing Results to AI Rivals
- Paul Thurrott
- Mar 25, 2023
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Bloomberg reports that Microsoft has alerted partners that they cannot use Bing search results in AI products that compete with its Bing Chatbot.
The publication cites multiple sources who claim that Microsoft will cut off access to its Bing search results if they don’t stop using this data in their own AI-based chat products. The company has long licensed its real-time Bing search results to companies that make rival search products. But with its ChatGPT integration, it apparently sees its Bing chatbot results as a competitive differentiator.
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And it’s seen some modest results from that integration. A report from Similarweb cited by Reuters shows that traffic to Bing.com is up almost 16 percent, while usage in the much bigger Google.com is down 1 percent. The search market is worth $120 billion annually, so every little bit helps.
And while Google’s rival AI product, Bard, has launched to curiously negative reviews, I wouldn’t count out the search giant quite yet, as its dominance in this market is tied to its ranking algorithms and its ubiquity.