Tag: app-subdomain-redirection:bing

Exactly one year ago, the new Bing from Microsoft was announced for the first time with great anticipation from both the company and users. With this huge investment, Microsoft positioned itself on the podium of AI, where ChatGPT from OpenAI reigned. One year later, Microsoft is trying to give its AI a boost to make it attractive to users.

Shortly before we found out that Microsoft was going all in with a new chatbot based on its Bing search engine, the Redmond company announced that it had made a $10 billion investment in OpenAI. The rumors about a Microsoft AI were continuous until, in early February 2023, the Redmond company announced the launch of a chatbot based on ChatGPT AI that would be integrated into Bing.

With a rather complicated start for Microsoft, due to the various mishaps of the AI, the new Bing gradually refined itself, adding new conversation modes that users could use to talk to the AI and later updating with the new versions of GPT from OpenAI. Microsoft had a solid AI product… but has not been able to take advantage of it, as users still prefer to use Google for searches and ChatGPT when chatting with an AI.

However, Microsoft has not given up yet. One of their latest big moves was to rebrand their AI, which they have called Copilot, and integrate it into all their services, including Microsoft 365 applications and Azure OpenAI, their cloud service. Now, the company has released a new commercial that will air this coming Sunday during the halftime of the Super Bowl, where millions of people from around the world will be able to see it.

If we add to this new announcement that Copilot in Bing can now create images like DALL-E 3 and Midjourney would do, it is clear that Microsoft does not give up the battle and tries to diversify the functions and audiences of its AI, making it more attractive to as many users as possible. Will it succeed?

• Brief overview: Apple and Microsoft are actively lobbying the European Union to ensure that services like Bing and iMessage are not designated as ‘gatekeepers’ under the upcoming Digital Markets Act.
• Essential perspective: While both tech giants are fighting to keep certain services off the list, they have adopted different strategies, like unbundling Teams from Microsoft 365 in the case of Microsoft, and questioning the user threshold for iMessage in the case of Apple.
• Next phase: With the EU’s ‘gatekeeper’ list scheduled for release this coming Wednesday, the decisions could have far-reaching implications for the operations of these tech companies in Europe, potentially affecting not just the services under debate but other aspects of their extensive portfolios as well.

Apple and Microsoft are actively engaging with the European Union to steer clear of an upcoming “gatekeeper” list. If you’re not familiar with the term, the EU’s Digital Markets Act aims to foster a more competitive landscape by identifying companies acting as ‘gatekeepers.’ These are platforms that could potentially stifle competition within the digital market.

Though the EU hasn’t publicized the list yet, there’s a general expectation that tech giants like Alphabet, Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft will likely be included. According to a report from the Financial Times, both Apple and Microsoft are already taking proactive measures to argue their case. The hope is to persuade EU regulators that they don’t belong on the list.

The criteria for making it onto the ‘gatekeeper’ list are pretty stringent: companies need an “annual turnover of more than €7.5 billion, a market cap above €75 billion, and active monthly users in the EU of 45 million.”

Bing’s Case

The list is slated for release this coming Wednesday, so it will be interesting to see which companies are named and which successfully argued their way out of it.

In an intriguing twist, Microsoft is pushing back against the idea that its search engine, Bing, should be subjected to the same regulations as Google Search. Why? Microsoft argues that forcing Bing to offer Google as an alternative could actually give Google even more control over the search market. This is a market where Bing holds a mere 3% share. Their stance is essentially, “Why subject the little guy to the same rules as the giant next door?”

“If covered by the new rules, Bing would need to give users a choice of other search engines, including Google’s. Advisers have argued in Microsoft’s defence that this could end up boosting Google’s market share.”

Interestingly, while Microsoft is staunch in defending Bing, the company appears less inclined to argue about Windows. Sources indicate that Microsoft is unlikely to contest if Windows, which has a strong foothold in the PC industry, is named a ‘gatekeeper.’

Apple’s defense

“Microsoft was unlikely to dispute the designation of its Windows operating system, which dominates the PC industry, as a gatekeeper, these people said.”

As for Apple, they’re also stepping up to the plate to defend their iMessage service. The tech giant contends that iMessage simply doesn’t have the user numbers to warrant being put in the same category as Meta’s WhatsApp. Essentially, Apple is saying that iMessage isn’t big enough to be considered a ‘gatekeeper’ in the messaging app arena.

Impending decision

So, as the clock ticks closer to the release of the EU’s ‘gatekeeper’ list this Wednesday, both Microsoft and Apple are making their cases known. They’re not just sitting back; they’re actively advocating for their services, albeit with different strategies.

“Separately, Apple argued that iMessage did not meet the threshold of user numbers at which the rules applied and therefore should not comply with obligations that include opening the service to rival apps such as Meta’s WhatsApp, said the two people.

Analysts have estimated that iMessage, which is built into every iPhone, iPad and Mac, has as many as 1bn users globally, but Apple has not disclosed any figures for several years. The decision is likely to hinge on how Apple and the EU define the market in which iMessage operates.”

Strategic moves

It’s clear that Microsoft and Apple are putting up a good fight to keep Bing and iMessage off the EU’s impending ‘gatekeeper’ list, but that doesn’t mean they’re entirely in the clear. The EU regulator is still mulling over whether these services meet the ‘gatekeeper’ criteria, and there’s a strong likelihood that other aspects of these tech giants’ operations could make the list.

In a strategic move, Microsoft has already begun to take preventive measures. The company has announced that it will separate Teams from its Microsoft 365 and Office 365 bundles within the EU. The aim? To avoid having Teams classified as a ‘gatekeeper’ service. Additionally, Microsoft is introducing user-choice-friendly features; they will allow system apps to open via any default browser a user selects—at least in the beta, or “Insider,” versions of their software.

Microsoft’s new Bing has been with us since early February this year. Despite the fact that currently the chatbot integrating GPT-4, OpenAI‘s model, is quite helpful and does not usually pose any problems, it was not the case initially. During its first few weeks of existence, the AI responded in an erratic, strange, and even deranged manner (from a human perspective, of course).

Microsoft then decided to establish a series of usage restrictions, which they would later undo, and introduced 3 different conversation modes. But Microsoft was already aware beforehand that Bing could “go off the rails.” And not just because they witnessed it themselves during the tests conducted in India and Indonesia, but also because OpenAI warned them.

The new Bing is the result of collaboration between Microsoft and OpenAI, after the tech giant made a huge investment in the AI company. As reported this week by The Wall Street Journal, when Microsoft began integrating GPT-4 into Bing months before the public announcement of this model, OpenAI cautioned the Redmond-based company about the risks that could arise from implementing an early version of their AI into Bing.

But Microsoft ignored OpenAI’s warning that minimizing the strange responses could take a considerable amount of time, and went ahead with the launch of the new Bing. The rest of the story is already known: the AI would respond to users by getting angry with them, blatantly lying, gaslighting them, or even insulting them.

As of today, the issue has been resolved, but the information published by TWSJ hints at the peculiar relationship between Microsoft and OpenAI. While they collaborate due to Microsoft’s significant investment, they are also competitors offering similar AI services.

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