The war on artificial intelligence has exploded: Google and its Bard bot announced yesterday, and Microsoft’s response today, as widely expected. In Redmond, CEO Satya Nadella launched a new version of the Bing search engine, which uses an updated version of the same technology underlying ChatGPT. It will be paired with a completely revamped version of its Edge browser, and together they will provide a new experience for browsing the web and searching for online information.
The “new Bing,” as Microsoft calls it, offers a chat feature where users can ask questions and receive answers in natural language. The feature uses an updated version of the OpenAI-built AI language model that underpins ChatGPT – known as the “Prometheus Model” – which offers more up-to-date information with annotated responses.
“It’s a new day for search,” Nadella said, noting that the search paradigm hasn’t actually changed in the last 20 years: so much so that about half of searches don’t really answer users’ questions. According to Microsoft, conversational AI can change that by delivering information more smoothly and faster.
In demos, Microsoft showcased the new Bing with traditional search results paired with annotations and an AI chat interface. The company showed off a variety of search examples: recipes, travel tips, furniture purchases from Ikea, and more. In one demonstration, Bing was asked to “create an itinerary for each day of a 5-day trip to Mexico.” The chatbot answered the question, describing the itinerary together with links to the sources of information.
(news being updated)