Meta Develops AI Search Engine to Lessen Reliance on Google, Microsoft

As Meta Platforms tries to keep up with OpenAI in developing artificial intelligence, the Facebook owner is working on a search engine that crawls the web to provide conversational answers about current events to people using its Meta AI chatbot.

In doing so, Meta hopes to lower its reliance on Google Search and Microsoft’s Bing, which currently provide information about news, sports and stocks to people using Meta AI, according to a person who has spoken with the search engine team. It could also give Meta a backup option if Google or Microsoft withdrew from these arrangements, according to a person who has been involved with the strategy.