Coexistence of Cooperation and Competition
In Microsoft's FORM 10-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Microsoft listed OpenAI as a competitor in the fields of artificial intelligence products, search engines, and news advertising.
Currently, some companies choose to pay OpenAI for access to its models, while others obtain them through Microsoft's Azure OpenAI service. Microsoft's own Copilot chatbot, as an alternative to ChatGPT, is available to users through the Bing search engine and Windows operating system.
Just last week, OpenAI released a search engine prototype called SearchGPT, which made Microsoft a bit uneasy. The model is currently being tested among a small group of users and publishers, with the ultimate plan to integrate the tool into the ChatGPT chatbot.
Regarding this new product, OpenAI pointed out that users have the opportunity to search in a more natural and intuitive way, seeing not only answers to queries but also attributions to creators and news publishers. "We are using AI to enhance this experience, highlighting high-quality content in a conversational interface, providing users with multiple opportunities for interaction."
OpenAI has captured a share of the search engine market by offering consumers new ways to search for information online, which has put the existing giants in this market on high alert.
Regarding the increasingly apparent competitive relationship between Microsoft and OpenAI, an OpenAI spokesperson clarified that there has been no change in the relationship between the two companies, and their partnership is built on the basis of mutual competition. He added that Microsoft remains a good partner of OpenAI.
Nevertheless, this year has still been dramatic. This year, after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman returned to the company and reorganized the board, OpenAI gave Microsoft a non-voting board seat, which Microsoft announced earlier this month that it would relinquish.
In March, Microsoft CEO Nadella brought in DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman, indicating that Microsoft is broadening its path in the AI field. DeepMind is an AI research company founded before OpenAI and was acquired by Google in 2014.
Suleyman later founded Inflection AI, which previously reached a cooperation agreement with Microsoft. As part of the collaboration, Suleyman was appointed as the head of Microsoft's new AI division, and several Inflection AI employees also joined the division.
On the surface, Nadella still maintains a close relationship with Altman, with Nadella repeatedly expressing his appreciation for Altman in interviews.