(Reuters) -Meta Platforms is working on an artificial intelligence-based search engine as it looks to reduce dependence on Alphabet's Google and Microsoft's Bing, the Information reported on Monday.

The AI search engine segment is heating up with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, Google and Microsoft all vying for dominance in the rapidly evolving market.

Meta's web crawler will provide conversational answers to users about current events on Meta AI, the company's chatbot on WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook, according to the report, which cited a person involved with the strategy.

The Facebook-owner currently relies on Google and Bing search engines to give users answers on news, stocks and sports.

Meta did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Google is aggressively integrating its latest and most powerful AI model, Gemini, into core products like Search, aiming to deliver more conversational and intuitive search experiences.

OpenAI relies on its largest investor, Microsoft, for web access to answer topical queries, using its Bing search engine.

Scraping web data to train AI models and search engines, however, has raised concerns about copyright infringement and fair compensation for content creators.

Meta said last week its AI chatbot will use Reuters content to answer user questions in real time about news and current events.

(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)