Microsoft reveals new search engine and browser, escalating battle with Google

Microsoft unveiled new versions of its Bing search engine and Edge web browser that take advantage of next-generation OpenAI artificial intelligence models in a move that promises to increase competition with longtime rival Google.

• "It’s a new day for search,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said at an event Tuesday hosted at the company’s headquarters in Redmond, Wash. “A race starts today in terms of what you can expect.”

• Microsoft has been trying to make its mark in the search business since the late 1990s.

• The rise of AI may give Microsoft a new chance to challenge Google’s search dominance. Read the story. 

When Google backed out of a deal to buy 10 acres of land in Kirkland, Wash., for a sprawling new campus, it upended a massive redevelopment plan and highlighted the fleeting relationship between big tech companies and the communities they’ve reshaped.

• As recently as last summer, Google was moving ahead with a plan to buy land from the Lee Johnson Auto Family and construct five office buildings with room for 6,000 employees — practically doubling the tech giant’s headcount in the Seattle area, its largest engineering hub outside Silicon Valley.

• Experts say the rapid shift in the industry, with widespread layoffs and reduced real estate needs, goes beyond tech and is a bigger economic story affecting communities. Read the story.

A biotech startup spun out of the University of Washington landed $4.4 million to fund a potentially powerful approach to create vaccines to treat cancer.

• Abacus Bioscience is led by two veterans of Seattle-area biotech giant Seagen who say their experimental agents target molecules on the surface of cancer cells. Read more.  

The former CEO of business technology company Acumatica hopped aboard X Shore in a bid to help the Swedish electric boat company lead a wave of change in the boating industry.

• Seattle tech veteran and water sports enthusiast Jon Roskill (above) joined the board of the company after being impressed by its sustainability practices and readiness to scale. We spoke with Roskill at the 2023 Seattle Boat Show. Read more.  

Seattle startup Glowforge released a new tool that lets users create artwork based on a written prompt that is optimized for 3D printing.

• Glowforge is part of a rush of startups, entrepreneurs, and corporate giants adopting generative AI tech that has attracted intense attention for its ability to instantly create content based on prompts. The rollout of “Magic Canvas” also comes at a time when the legality of selling artwork produced by such AI tools is in question. Read more.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day. — GeekWire managing editor Taylor Soper, taylor@geekwire.com, and GeekWire reporter Kurt Schlosser, kurt@geekwire.com.