Microsoft threatens to restrict access to Bing’s internet-search data to rival companies providing AI-powered online search tools

Microsoft has told at least two licensee firms that using its Bing search index to feed their AI chat tools violates the terms of their contract

Bing’s search index – a map of the internet that can be quickly scanned in real time – is licensed by Microsoft to other firms that offer web search

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Microsoft Corp has integrated a cousin of ChatGPT, start-up OpenAI’s artificial intelligence-powered chat technology, into Bing. Photo: Tribune News Service

Published: 11:10am, 25 Mar 2023Updated: 12:10pm, 25 Mar 2023

Microsoft Corp has threatened to cut off access to its internet-search data, which it licences to rival search engines, if they do not stop using it as the basis for their own artificial intelligence (AI) chat products, according to people familiar with the dispute.

The software maker licences the data in its Bing search index – a map of the internet that can be quickly scanned in real time – to other companies that offer web search, such as Apollo Global Management’s Yahoo and DuckDuckGo.

In February, Microsoft integrated a cousin of ChatGPT, start-up OpenAI’s AI-powered chat technology, into Bing.

Rivals quickly moved to roll out their own AI chatbots as hype built around the buzzy technology.

Microsoft Corp shows how its long-struggling Bing search engine has integrated the powerful capabilities of language-based artificial intelligence at an event held in the company’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington, on February 7, 2023. Photo: Tribune News Service

This week, Alphabet’s Google publicly released Bard, its conversational AI product. DuckDuckGo, a search engine that emphasises privacy, introduced DuckAssist, a feature that uses AI to summarise answers to search queries.

Microsoft threatens to restrict access to Bing’s internet-search data to rival companies providing AI-powered online search tools

Microsoft has told at least two licensee firms that using its Bing search index to feed their AI chat tools violates the terms of their contract Bing’s search index – a map of the internet that can be quickly scanned in real time – is licensed by Microsoft to other firms that offer web search