Why artificial intelligence spells trouble for search -- and everyone else - Independent.ie

Microsoft, so long big tech's dull but wealthy uncle, has seized the zeitgeist by integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into its search engine, Bing. It has made the most of the explosion of generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney that can automatically generate text, images and code. There are many reasons why the application of AI to search is intriguing. On a human level we suddenly have an interface that seems straight out of sci-fi: a dialogue-based personal assistant that can search the web for us and answer our questions. On a business level, Microsoft has shown us that these tools have the potential to shake up the online search market which is expected to be worth $256bn (€242bn) this year, and which is dominated by Google.