GPT-4’s early Bing availability fueled expectations of a Microsoft challenge to Google

A recollection described as “lore” held that GPT-4 was first—and at the time only—available through Bing. That prompted expectations that Microsoft would use Bing AI to challenge Google, but Microsoft later pulled back.

At the time Microsoft was investing heavily in OpenAI, it was not obvious that the companies would ultimately compete as much as they partnered.