OpenAI And Microsoft Back MCP Standard For Web-Surfing AI Agents; Google's Sundar Pichai Asks A Shakespearean Question

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As industry giants like Microsoft Corporation MSFT and OpenAI throw their weight behind a rising AI protocol, Alphabet Inc.'s GOOG GOOGL CEO has offered a cryptic but telling response.

What Happened: Over the past week, momentum has surged around the Model Context Protocol, an open standard designed to help AI agents interact seamlessly with real-world tools, interfaces, and data sources.

On March 26, the developers behind MCP released an updated version of the protocol, introducing major upgrades in security, real-time communication, and interoperability.

See Also: Ex-OpenAI Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever’s AI Startup Valued At $30 Billion In Latest Funding Round: Report

The news quickly gained traction after ChatGPT-parent OpenAI announced it would support MCP across its platform. 

“People love MCP, and we are excited to add support across our products,” said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, adding, “Available today in the agents SDK and support for chatgpt desktop app + responses api coming soon!”

Earlier, Microsoft also confirmed its support, launching Playwright-MCP — a tool that wraps Microsoft's browser automation technology in the MCP format. This move allows AI agents like Anthropic's Claude to interact with the web using real browser actions like clicking, typing, and navigation, all powered by the Chrome accessibility tree.

On Sunday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai's subtle response further instigated curiosity across the developer community.

Taking to X, formerly Twitter, Pichai said, "To MCP or not to MCP, that's the question. [Let me know] in comments." The Shakespeare-inspired post offered no confirmation but hinted that Google is closely watching the space.

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Why It Matters: MCP, originally developed by Anthropic and supported by projects like LangChain, aims to create a common "language" that enables agents to reason about and use external tools efficiently.

Before OpenAI and Microsoft's endorsement, it was unclear whether the protocol would gain traction beyond niche developer circles. Now, with two of the largest players in generative AI aligning behind MCP, the ecosystem is beginning to coalesce around a shared standard — potentially reducing fragmentation and accelerating innovation.

The inclusion of OAuth 2.1, streamable HTTP transport, and JSON-RPC batching makes MCP 0.2 a robust, developer-friendly update, designed for real-world applications, according to Venture Beat.

Tool annotations and modular architecture give teams the flexibility to adopt what they need without being locked into a monolithic stack.

Image via Shutterstock

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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