Microsoft, the tech giant, is reportedly restricting access to its Bing search index if rival AI chatbot developers continue to use it. According to Bloomberg, some customers of Microsoft, such as You.com and Neeva, have recently developed AI-fueled searches like YouChat and NeevaAI and the data they need to feed into these chatbots breaches the terms of the contract they signed with the company.
Microsoft licenses its data – essentially a map of the internet – to search engines like Yahoo and DuckDuckGo who use it as the basis for their AI chatbots. This data is one of the only sources for companies to index the internet as it requires servers for continual digging into the web and ensures the accuracy of their AI chatbots. However, Microsoft have recently threatened to cut access to their Bing search index if their customer’s continue to use it, leaving the customers with limited options.
With the rise of AI chatbots, this threatening move by Microsoft could significantly affect the companies that are depending on the Bing index data. One company taking the lead on this matter is Open AI, whose popular chatbot ChatGPT, is estimated to possibly affect 19% of US jobs.
Meanwhile, the other source of data is Google, which also imposes limitations on how their index can be used, making it far less appealing to other search engines. Therefore, Microsofts’s choice to limit the use of its Bing search data is a major issue for those companies dependent on it.
It is yet to be seen what the outcome of this dispute is.
