The scrutiny comes as the battle to build the most accurate and effective search engine is escalating. On Monday, Google introduced Bard, whose underlying technology will eventually be built into Google.com. The next day, Microsoft Corp. said it was integrating a cousin of ChatGPT into Bing. On Wednesday, Google hosted a news conference in Paris where it shared more details about the company’s progress integrating artificial intelligence into search.

“The general sentiment is that ChatGPT and the Microsoft Bing announcement have created a narrative that Google’s search business model is under threat,” said Mark Riedl, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Eoin Treacy's view

The market reaction to Bard’s inadequacies was both swift and severe. The downward dynamic experienced by Google shares demonstrates how fickle the mob can be during a momentum move driven by hope rather than earnings.

Alphabet had broken the sequence of lower rally highs but is now encountering resistance in the region of the 200-day MA. The 1000-day MA currently coincides with the psychological $100 level so there are likely to be several stops in the current area of trading. The best outcome would be a clear upward dynamic to confirm support between current levels and the November/December lows.Microsoft opened higher on enthusiasm that its investment in OpenAI will transfer into a usable product for its Bing internet browser. That is a significant logical leap but the share is at least holding the move above the 200-day MA. I remain of the view that we can anticipate more ranging than trending as long as rates continue to rise.