Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1492169
10 WORLD 9.2.2023 MICROSOFT has incorporat- ed a next-generation artificial intelligence "large language model", that it says is more powerful than ChatGPT, into its Bing search engine and Edge internet browser. e tech giant has collaborat- ed with OpenAI, the creator of the powerful AI chatbot that has sparked talk of a new wave of automation, to arm its prod- ucts with the latest innovations with AI and keep pace with Google. Microsoft announced at an event at its headquarters on Tuesday that Bing is now run- ning a large language mod- el that has taken "key learn- ings and advancements" from ChatGPT and GPT-3.5 and been specifically customised for search. It claims Bing is "even faster, more accurate and more capa- ble," and that it seeks to make information more accessible and help users to become more productive by bringing togeth- er search, browsing and chat into a "unified experience". "To empower people to un- lock the joy of discovery, feel the wonder of creation and better harness the world's knowledge, today we're im- proving how the world benefits from the web by reinventing the tools billions of people use every day, the search engine and the browse," said Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice presi- dent and consumer chief mar- keting officer at Microsoft. "There are 10bn search que- ries a day, but we estimate half of them go unanswered. That's because people are using search to do things it wasn't originally designed to do. It's great for finding a website, but for more com- plex questions or tasks too often it falls short." Using Microsoft's Pro- metheus OpenAI model, Bing will now provide "more rele- vant results" when user search for things like sports scores, stock prices and weather, and a new sidebar is available with more comprehensive answers. e search engine will also review results from across the web to find and summarise an- swers in response to user ques- tions. For instance, it will offer de- tailed instructions for how to substitute eggs in a recipe for a cake without requiring users to scroll through multiple results. An interactive chat function has been created for more complex searches such as plan- ning a detailed trip itinerary or researching what TV to buy. It will seek to provide more complete answers by asking for more details. e Edge browser has also been updated with AI as well as chat and compose function- alities. Using the chat function, us- ers can ask for summaries of financial reports using the Edge sidebar and then ask for comparisons with competing companies' financials. Edge can also help users to compose content with some prompts. Microsoft's announcement comes shortly after Google unveiled its own AI chatbot, Bard, in response to the viral success of ChatGPT. Microsoft last month announced that it would cut around 10,000 jobs globally. Microsoft incorporates ChatGPT creators' AI technology into Bing and Edge Russia looks at one-off big business tax as oil revenues drop RUSSIA is looking at introducing a one-off, voluntary windfall tax on big business, an official said on Wednesday, as the country's month- ly revenues from oil and gas drop to their lowest levels since 2020. e price of Russian oil has fallen around 20% since early December, when Western countries set a $60 price cap on Russian oil exports. Urals oil is currently trading at about $56 a barrel, lower than the $70 needed to balance the budget. e finance ministry said last week that it was trebling its daily sales of foreign currency to cover the short- fall, but analysts have warned that tax rises are inevitable if Russia con- tinues to ramp up defence spending. "A voluntary contribution from business... is being discussed, a one-off contribution," First Depu- ty Prime Minister Andrei Belousov said, in comments published by Russian news agencies. "e fact is that last year's finan- cial results were very good and many companies, especially in the first half of the year... for the first three quarters, had results that were sharply higher," he said. "is is not a tax increase. It is a windfall tax, a concept in tax prac- tice known as a one-time tax collec- tion," he said, adding that the meas- ure is currently under discussion and would be voluntary in nature. Unless prices for Russian oil recov- er in the coming months, Moscow's budget deficit could hit 5.5 trillion roubles ($76.5 billion) this year, equivalent to 3.8% of GDP, analysts at Credit Bank of Moscow warned last week. e government has already sharp- ly increased the tax burden on the oil and gas industry for 2023-2025, the biggest such rises in its history, as its invasion of Ukraine grinds on. e conflict in Ukraine and ensu- ing barrage of Western sanctions have upended some sectors of Rus- sia's economy, cutting its biggest banks from the SWIFT financial network, curbing its access to tech- nology and restricting its ability to export oil. While the government and cen- tral bank have acknowledged "dif- ficulties", Moscow says its economy is resilient and that sanctions have boomeranged against the West by driving up inflation and energy pric- es.