Last month, a New York Times report revealed that Samsung is considering abandoning Google Search on its Galaxy phones and tablets in favor of Microsoft’s Bing AI engine, in what would be a historic move. However, a new report now says that Samsung is not planning to change the default search engine anytime soon.
According to the Wall Street Journal, citing “people familiar with the matter” (via Reuters), Samsung has suspended an internal review regarding the replacement of Google Search with Microsoft’s Bing AI and isn’t planning on making this change anytime soon.
Although the decision probably wouldn’t have been as clear-cut as initial reports suggested in the first place, now it seems like Samsung has halted its alleged plans and is no longer moving forward to adopting Microsoft Bing.
Google is developing its own generative AI
Whether this is because of renegotiations with Google, failed negotiations with Microsoft, Google’s own Bard AI taking more shape, or completely different reasons is unknown.
Nevertheless, it’s worth noting that Microsoft Bing already exists on most Galaxy smartphones and tablets, thanks to a recent SwiftKey update. Bing has not become the default search engine, but the generative AI is now embedded in the pre-installed SwiftKey keyboard. The latter is offered by Samsung as an alternative to its own Keyboard app, which is enabled by default on Galaxy devices.
As for Samsung’s other generative AI needs, the company recently made a new rule for employees not to use ChatGPT as a work tool following a few unintended leaks of sensitive semiconductor data to ChatGPT’s cloud servers. However, the company’s ambitions to assist employees using AI appear to have grown ever so higher. Samsung reportedly teamed up with Naver and is building its own generative AI to be used by employees in a closed network exclusively within the company’s limits.
