Microsoft Edge shows Bing ad on Bard website
In a development version of the Microsoft browser Edge, a functionality is hidden that shows a Bing ad to users who visit the Google Bard website.
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Microsoft is trying to nip Google Bard in the bud
With the launch of ChatGPT and linking it to its own search engine Bing, Microsoft has dealt a hard blow to the once untouchable search engine giant Google.
Google is now trying to strike back with its own AI Bard. But it seems that Microsoft is playing the company’s well-known sneaky pranks to cheat competitors. This time to prevent the resurrection of arch-rival Google.
Google is half a year behind
Not that Microsoft has much to worry about. At the moment, Google Bard’s beta phase is only available to a select group of US and UK testers.
Whether Bard will be just as good, or even better, than ChatGPT and Bing is unknown. At the moment it seems to be quite disappointing. Google and parent company Alphabet have been developing artificial intelligence for more than twenty years. Its own AI LaMDA, which presumably lurks behind Bard, is quite powerful. So it cannot be ruled out. However, some things still have to happen to Bard.
Fear of cannibalization
Google is hesitant to go all out for two reasons. The first reason is formed by the ethical aspects. The many problems with ChatGPT, from students having their essays written by ChatGPT to erroneous, life-threatening advice, show that there are good reasons for this.
The second reason is that doing so would allow Google to cannibalize its own business model. Adding an AI means that people click a lot less on ads, the main way Google makes money. This would cost Google billions a year.
Just wait for Bard
For everyone outside these two countries, including the Netherlands and the rest of the world, it remains to be seen whether you register for the waiting list via an American or English proxy. The AI race has only really started now. In many ways this will be the most interesting decade of our lives.
