Microsoft announces new Bing and Edge browser powered by upgraded ChatGPT AI

Microsoft has announced a new version of its search engine Bing, powered by an upgraded version of the same AI technology that underpins chatbot ChatGPT. The company is launching the product alongside an upgraded version of its Edge browser, promising that the two will provide a new experience for browsing the web and finding information online.

“It’s a new day in search,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at an event announcing the products, arguing that the paradigm for web search hasn’t changed in decades, but that AI can deliver information more fluidly and quickly than traditional methods.

“The race starts today, and we’re going to move and move fast,” said Nadella. “Most importantly, we want to have a lot of fun innovating again in search, because it’s high time.”

In demos today the company showed what it’s calling “the new Bing” working in various configurations. One of these shows traditional search results side-by-side with AI annotations (above), while another mode lets users talk directly to the Bing chatbot, asking it questions in a regular chat interface like ChatGPT (below).

Microsoft showed number of example searches: querying Bing for recipes, travel tips, and shopping for furniture from Ikea. In one demo Bing was asked to “create an itinerary for each day of a 5-day trip to Mexico.” The question was answered entirely by the chatbot, which described a rough itinerary alongside links to sources for more information.

Microsoft says these features are powered by an updated version of GPT 3.5, the AI language model created by OpenAI that powers ChatGPT. Microsoft called this the “Prometheus Model,” and says it’s more powerful than GPT 3.5 and better able to answer search queries with more up-to-date information and annotated answers.

The company says the new Bing will be live today “for desktop limited preview,” with users able to try a limited number of queries and sign up for full access in the future.

In addition to the new Bing experience, Microsoft is launching two new AI-enhanced features for its Edge browser: “chat” and “compose.” These will be embedded within Edge’s sidebar.

“Chat” allow users to summarize the webpage or document they’re looking at and ask questions about its contents, while “compose” acts as a writing assistant; helping generate text — from emails to posts on social media — based on a few starting prompts.

The announcement of the new Bing comes amid a flurry of AI activity from Microsoft and rival Google. Since ChatGPT launched on the web last November, interest in AI text generation has exploded. Microsoft, which has closely partnered with ChatGPT creator OpenAI, is seeking to capitalize on this excitement and has already announced how this technology will be integrated across its suite of office software, tackling tasks like summarizing meetings and autocompleting lines of code.

Google, meanwhile, has been caught off guard by what some are claiming is a paradigm shift in how users find information on the web. The launch of ChatGPT reportedly triggered a “code red” within the search giant, with long-absent founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin drafted to help deal with what could be a threat to the firm’s biggest revenue driver.

In an attempt to preempt Microsoft’s announcement today, Google unveiled its own ChatGPT, named Bard, yesterday. CEO Sundar Pichai described the software as an “experimental conversational AI service” but noted that it was still being tested by a small group of users and will only receive a wider launch in the coming weeks.

The bigger question for both Microsoft and Google, though, is: are AI chatbots even a good replacement for search? How will this technology sit alongside existing methods of finding information online, and what happens when it makes mistakes?

The latter point is perhaps the most important, as AI language systems like ChatGPT have a well-documented propensity for presenting false information as fact. Although researchers have warned about this problem for years, there have been countless examples of AI-generated errors since ChatGPT launched on the web — from chatbots making up biographical details about real people to fabricating academic papers and offering dangerous medical advice.

This sort of AI stupidity is already a problem, though. The rise of chatbots has generated new attention for the issue, but Google has been increasingly using AI to summarize web pages for years. This has led to some high-profile errors, like Google responding to a search “had a seizure now what?” with the advice “hold the person down or try to stop their movements” — exactly the opposite of what should be done in this scenario.

As well as the problem of misinformation, AI-accelerated search could unbalance the ecosystem that sustains the wider search market. If AI collates information without directing users to its source and generating revenue for the creator, it will damage incentives for third parties to publish accurate information online.

These and other problems will face Microsoft, Google, and others navigating the new world of AI search, but in the meantime, the tech giants simply seem like they’re scrambling to launch products before their rivals get there first.

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