What ChatGPT says about how artificial intelligence can affect internet searches
Google launched Bard to compete with ChatGPT
The way we search and find information online could be revolutionized following recent announcements by Google and Microsoft about incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) into their search engines.
To find out how they work and what difference they can make in our lives, we asked what we thought was the most appropriate source: an AI chatbot.
"AI is already changing the way we search and will continue to do so in the future," was a response given by ChatGPT, powered by OpenAI, to the BBC.A version of the software that powers this chatbot will soon help power Microsoft's Bing search engine, and ChatGPT itself admits that overcoming Google's dominance in the industry will be a challenge.
"Google is the most used search engine and is known for providing highly relevant and accurate results," ChatGPT says of its rival.
"From my training data (2021), Google is the most popular search engine."
Microsoft hopes that an improved version of ChatGPT's AI technology, which since its launch has had 100 million users, will help it turn the tables on its competitor.
As the chatbot itself admits, its training is a few years out of date, we also turned to some human experts to find out why the technology is seen as so revolutionary.
viral technology
ChatGPT 'hypnotized' users by its ability to hold natural conversations
"One of the reasons it went viral is because this is the first time anyone with a web browser has been able to experience the AI. You talk to it and it responds," said Michael Wooldridge, professor of computer science at the University of Oxford. , about ChatGPT.
It "hypnotized" users with its ability to carry on natural conversations, answering queries in text and generating speeches, codes, music and essays.
It has been dubbed the "Google Killer" for its ability to provide complete answers instead of links.
It was its technology's ability to revolutionize Microsoft's search engine that caused Google's rivals to announce their own AI upgrade.
The search giant has just announced that it is testing Bard, a competing chatbot.
What is artificial intelligence and what are chatbots?
We asked ChatGPT to tell us what a chatbot is.
"The conversation between a chatbot and a human user is typically based on natural language processing techniques," says the tool.
Once integrated into search engines, they are expected to provide us with a different type of results when we look for answers online.
"Instead of being given a list of sites, you'll be given a window to the site, through a system that summarizes the content for you," says Beth Singler, an assistant professor at the University of Zurich.
"It's like someone else is reading it and then telling you about it."
Chatbots are able to do this due to AI and machine learning.
AI is a technology that allows a computer to "think or act" by absorbing information from the environment and responding based on what it learns.
It also "learns" from mistakes and changes the way it approaches a task next time.
AI chatbots are specifically designed to answer questions and find information.
Bard and ChatGPT are based on large language models, which mimic the underlying architecture of the computer-like brain.
The models are fed with information from the internet in a process that teaches them how to generate responses to commands in text.
"They look at a large body of language and try to form connections between words. They try to understand what the next word is going to be based on your question," says Singler.
What can search engines do?
Trend is for web searches to become 'conversations'
"Searching the web will be much like having a conversation with a very experienced, if occasionally slightly misguided, human being," says Professor Michael Wooldridge.
Improved versions of Bing and the Google search engine using AI are not yet available to the general public.
While we wait for Google to test Bard and Microsoft to release the new Bing, we only have access to the version of ChatGPT that has been fed information and has updated knowledge as of 2021.
But anyone who wants to try out the new AI-enhanced Bing can get on a waiting list.
Bing is expected to change search results and synthesize findings to answer complex queries in a chatbot window.
Users must be available to interact with Bing using a chatbox interface, according to Microsoft.
The company's chief executive, Satya Nadell, said it would change the nature of online research and interactions with many other software.
"This technology will reshape virtually every software category we know."
It's not yet clear how different Bing and Bard will be.
Google said it would soon integrate AI capable of generating text and other content in search results.
"They can help a local baker collaborate on a cake design with a customer, or a toy maker dream up a new creation," said Prabhakar Raghavan, an executive at Google, during the company's recent presentation on the technology.
Announcing Bard's launch, Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Google's parent company Alphabet, said the chatbot would be able to synthesize material for complex queries, such as figuring out whether it's easier to learn to play guitar or piano.
Who teaches chatbots about ethics and values?
Companies will need to work on developing filters for inappropriate content
Professor Beth Singler has been studying the consequences of AI and robotics and closely following how ChatGPT has been used since its launch.
"I saw someone ask ChatGPT to produce a poem praising Donald Trump and he declined. But when asked to produce a eulogy for Joe Biden, he wrote a poem," says Singler.
"The AI will have values defined by the creators of the system," she said.
But how easy is it to teach AI about ethics and values?
"We don't know a lot about it because it's being developed behind closed doors by big tech companies. I think it's a real concern," says Wooldridge.
He believes that companies building AI-powered search engines will need to work on developing filters for inappropriate content.
"The thing is, you don't have to look very far on the world wide web to find biased, toxic, misogynistic or racist content, and the AI is just reflecting that."
Who is winning the race?
China is also in the running to develop its own AI chatbot
It's not just Google and Microsoft that are advancing in the AI race.
In China, search engine giant Baidu announced that it would finish testing its own ChatGPT, dubbed the Ernie Bot, in March.
"But Microsoft has a year head start on everyone else in getting the product out to the public," says Professor Wooldridge.
Every query made by its 100 million users has helped ChatGPT learn new information and work better.
"They have millions and millions of interactions logged, understanding how people want to use it and what they want to get out of it. And they will quickly bring that experience back to the product," says Wooldridge.
But Google also has some advantages, Singler believes.
"We're most familiar with Google when it comes to web search. We use the word 'google' almost naturally: 'I'll Google it.' So this race is going to be interesting."
But the technology behind AI-powered search doesn't come cheap.
"Every time you talk to a chatbot, behind the scenes there's a really powerful computer serving just you," says Professor Wooldridge.
He believes there may be two web search models in the future.
"We can see a differentiation between premium search, which is rich in artificial intelligence, based on the subscription model, and the kind of free search that we have right now, which is ad-based."
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