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Google Bard enters the A.I. battleground as Microsoft steps up investment in ChatGPT

Yahoo Finance tech reporter Allie Garfinkle discusses the latest investments in A.I. by Microsoft and Google.

Video Transcript

[AUDIO LOGO]

- Tech Giants Google and Microsoft are going head to head over the future of AI. Microsoft announcing earlier this afternoon the integration of Chat GPT into its search engine, and then Google is scheduled to hold an event on chat and AI, their own plans tomorrow. So who's going to come out on top? Yahoo Finance tech reporter Allie Garfinkle joining us. Allie, what did you think of the announcement that we've gotten from Microsoft today?

ALLIE GARFINKLE: You know, I actually want to play a little bit of a game with you guys, Shawna. All right?

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- You like games?

ALLIE GARFINKLE: You like games?

- Always down for them.

ALLIE GARFINKLE: OK, so I'm going to lay out the pros and cons of who's going to win here, Microsoft or Google. And you guys are going to choose your fighter. Does that sound good?

- Got it.

- Good.

ALLIE GARFINKLE: So on Google's hand, before we get to Microsoft, it's important to say that Google has already announced its Chat GPT competitor. It's called Bard. And it's important that if search is the goal here, Google is still absolutely the dominant leader in search.

Google has a search linguistic advantage. We don't say we're searching for something. We say we're googling something. However, Google is already seen as behind on this.

I had a source text me this morning saying Bard screams, we rushed. And I think there's a lot of pressure on Bard to be excellent. And if it doesn't surpass Chat GPT, or is at least not as good, it's going to look pretty rough on them. So that's the Google-- that's the case for and against Google.

Now, the case for Microsoft. Microsoft is absolutely seen as having a head start here because of their long-standing investment in OpenAI and the fact that they've now already announced. this Bing integration. I also think that Chat GPT right now has a linguistic advantage in generative AI. We're saying Chat GPT, not generative AI.

I also think that the world of applications that Microsoft can plug Chat GPT into are pretty obvious. You have the 365. You have Azure. And while Google has that, it's not as well setup of an ecosystem.

Now, the cons-- if search is the goal, Bing only has 9% of the search market right now, so which puts Microsoft way behind. And it's also not really clear how much Microsoft's head start will matter. OK, so those are the two cases. Who do you believe in?

- I get to go first.

- I'll let you go first.

- Go ahead.

- Well, no question about it. For me, this is Microsoft because of Chat GPT, because of first-mover advantage. Think of Tesla, why don't we? OK, a market cap north of $600 billion where GM and Ford between $53 and $57 billion. They got to 100 million users in just a few months.

That's faster than Instagram, faster than even TikTok. They are already changing the way we live and work. Real estate agents are already using Chat GPT to rewrite their property listings, to write legal documents. It is way ahead of the game here.

This isn't about a couple of months. It is, what Allie said, several years of advantage. They made that commitment early and often with billions of dollars.

And Satya Nadella said earlier today it's the most exciting thing he's seen since he became the Microsoft CEO. Your only advantage is it's a verb, Google. That's all you got.

- That is a massive advantage. When you take a look at the fact that the numbers that Allie put up there that Bing only counts for what-- 9% of search? Google has more than 80%. So that there gives Google a huge advantage.

Yes, I would agree with you in terms of the timeline of this. Google is coming out a little bit behind their huge competitor out there, Chat GPT and Microsoft. But you can't count Google out given the past success.

In the memo yesterday from CEO Sundar Pichai, he was saying that Google-- you got to take a step back and think about the wins that Google has already had. And he went on to say that a lot of the technology that is being used in Chat GPT, that is being used in other AI services was invented at Google.

They have a track record. They have a history of coming out on top. They've been investing in AI now for quite some time. They're late to the chat part of it, but I think they're going to be the winner.

- Our friend Laura Martin would point to you that her note suggests Google has an innovator problem and have had it for quite some time.