Microsoft, OpenAI, ChatGPT ... and Bing? The surprising way it could work

Rather than simply replacing traditional search results in Microsoft’s Bing, OpenAI’s ChatGPT could fulfill Microsoft’s longtime dream to integrate elements of a virtual concierge or assistant into its search engine.

• That’s the take from longtime journalist Mary Jo Foley,  editor-in-chief at DirectionsOnMicrosoft.com, on this week’s GeekWire Podcast. 

• Our conversation follows a report this week by The Information, citing sources who say Microsoft plans to integrate ChatGPT into Bing. 

• It would be the latest extension of their partnership and Microsoft’s $1 billion investment in OpenAI in 2019, which is turning out to be one of the signature deals by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (above).

Read more and listen here, and subscribe to GeekWire in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.

With its suit against TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and others over the impact of the youth mental health crisis, Seattle Public Schools will test the ability of public institutions to challenge big companies over alleged harms to society. 

• A potentially relevant precedent: SPS in 2019 was among thousands of organizations and institutions that filed lawsuits against JUUL Labs over its marketing of e-cigarettes to kids. The company announced a global settlement of those cases last month

• GeekWire’s scoop on the new lawsuit, published earlier today, is garnering a range of reactions – from suggesting that other school districts follow Seattle’s lead, to questioning the district’s motivations for filing the suit. 

Read the story and the full text of the lawsuit.

• “One of the things we thought we could bring to the Seattle ecosystem was a stage-agnostic large fund that can do everything from the first $2 million in a company, all the way up to a Series D,” Point72 partner Sri Chandrasekar said in an interview with GeekWire.

On Friday, U.S. regulators approved a new drug for Alzheimer’s that is being called a “landmark moment” for the disease.

• The drug, called lecanemab, targets a molecule that forms clumps in the brains of people with the condition. The news bodes well for biotech companies taking a similar approach, such as Seattle’s AltPep. GeekWire reporter Charlotte Schubert spoke with AltPep founder and CEO Valerie Daggett earlier this year about the implications.