Just few days ago Microsoft announced a multibillion investment in Open AI, the developper of Chat GPT (see Eastwind post on this point) and now the tech giant launches its restricted beta testing of a new unified search, browsing and chat experience thanks to the enhenced AI cappabilities of Bing search engine and Edge browser.
The new Bing is available today in a limited preview on desktop, and everyone can visit Bing.com today to try sample queries and sign up for the waitlist.
A mobile experience will also be in preview soon and Microsoft is going to scale the preview to millions in the coming weeks.
“AI will fundamentally change every software category, starting with the largest category of all – search,” said Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, Microsoft. “Today, we’re launching Bing and Edge powered by AI copilot and chat, to help people get more from search and the web.”
The new AI enhenced Bing and Edge are the answer to the following problem detected by Microsoft: There are 10 billion search queries a day, but we estimate half of them go unanswered. That’s because people are using search to do things it wasn’t originally designed to do. It’s great for finding a website, but for more complex questions or tasks too often it falls short.
Further than a search engine and a browser: A new copilot for the web
With the new Bing, exploring the web isn’t just easier, it’s also more fun explains the official communication of Microsoft. Any user can now ask it things like: “My anniversary is coming up in September, help me plan a trip somewhere fun in Europe, leaving from London;” or “Will the Ikea Klippan loveseat fit into my 2019 Honda Odyssey;? or “I like electronic music and want to go to my first festival this year. Do you have any recommendations or tips for me?”.
Microsoft has brought together search, browsing and chat into one unified experience any user can invoke from anywhere on the web. This new copilot is able to deliver:
1.- Better search: The new Bing gives you an improved version of the familiar search experience, providing more relevant results for simple things like sports scores, stock prices and weather, along with a new sidebar that shows more comprehensive answers if you want them.
2.- Complete answers: Bing reviews results from across the web to find and summarize the answer you’re looking for. For example, you can get detailed instructions for how to substitute eggs for another ingredient in a cake you are baking right in that moment, without scrolling through multiple results.
3.- A new chat experience: For more complex searches – such as for planning a detailed trip itinerary or researching what TV to buy – the new Bing offers new, interactive chat. The chat experience empowers you to refine your search until you get the complete answer you are looking for by asking for more details, clarity and ideas – with links available so you can immediately act on your decisions.
4.- A creative spark: There are times when you need more than an answer – you need inspiration. The new Bing can generate the content to help you. It can help you write an email, create a 5-day itinerary for a dream vacation to Hawaii, with links to book your travel and accommodations, prep for a job interview or create a quiz for trivia night. The new Bing also cites all its sources, so you’re able to see links to the web content it references.
5.- New Microsoft Edge experience: Microsoft has updated the Edge browser with new AI capabilities and a new look, and we’ve added two new functionalities: Chat and compose. With the Edge Sidebar, you can ask for a summary of a lengthy financial report to get the key takeaways – and then use the chat function to ask for a comparison to a competing company’s financials and automatically put it in a table.
6.- You can also ask Edge to help you compose content, such as a LinkedIn post, by giving it a few prompts to get you started: After that, you can ask it to help you update the tone, format and length of the post. Edge can understand the web page you’re on and adapts accordingly.
Building on several technical breakthroughs
Microsoft points that the new Bing experience is a culmination of several technical breakthroughs:
1.- Next-generation OpenAI model: The new Bing is running on a new, next-generation OpenAI large language model that is more powerful than ChatGPT and customized specifically for search. It takes key learnings and advancements from ChatGPT and GPT-3.5 – and it is even faster, more accurate and more capable.
2.- Microsoft Prometheus model: Microsoft has developed a proprietary way of working with the OpenAI model that allows us to best leverage its power. We call this collection of capabilities and techniques the Prometheus model. This combination gives you more relevant, timely and targeted results, with improved safety.
3.- Applying AI to core search algorithm: Microsoft has also applied the AI model to our core Bing search ranking engine, which led to the largest jump in relevance in two decades. With this AI model, even basic search queries are more accurate and more relevant.
4.- New user experience: Microsoft underscors that they are reimagining how people interact with search, browser and chat by pulling them into a unified experience. This will unlock a completely new way to interact with the web.
5.- Turning Azure into a superomputer open to the world: These groundbreaking new search experiences are possible, points Microsoft, because Microsoft has committed to building Azure into an AI supercomputer for the world, and OpenAI has used this infrastructure to train the breakthrough models that are now being optimized for Bing.
Responsible by design
“The work we are doing with OpenAI builds on our company’s yearslong effort to ensure that our AI systems are responsible by design. We will continue to apply the full strength of our responsible AI ecosystem – including researchers, engineers and policy experts – to develop new approaches to mitigate risk,” here the promise by Microsoft.
An how is Microsoft deliverin on this promise?. “Together with OpenAI, we’ve also been intentional in implementing safeguards to defend against harmful content,” adds the tech giant in its post on the launch of the AI enhanced Bing and Edge. ” Our teams are working to address issues such as misinformation and disinformation, content blocking, data safety and preventing the promotion of harmful or discriminatory content in line with our AI principles”.
Image over the headline.- The new Bing enhanced with AI features.© Microsoft.
Related Eastwind Marketing links (English edition):
Microsoft announces multibillion investment in Open AI, the developer of Chat GPT
Bard, Google’s alternative to Chat GPT, launched today for trusted testing
AI features will begin rolling out on Google Search soon, Pichai announced today
Satya Nadella announces 10,000 jobs cut at Microsoft this year
Related Eastwind Marketing links (Spanish edition):
ChatGPT, mucho revuelo, pero todavía lejos de sustituir a los humanos
