The wait (list) is over. From today, Bing’s chatbot is open to all Edge users.
Although previously only available to those who requested access through a trial, the company reports since it launched in February, users have engaged in more than half a billion chats.
Bing’s chatbot is primarily based on ChatGPT-4, the latest generation of OpenAI’s Large Language Model that swept the globe in November.
Edge users can access the chatbot online and through a sidebar on their desktop browser, or on their phone via the Edge or Bing apps.
Writing on the company’s blog, Microsoft vice-president and consumer CMO Yusuf Mehdi said: ‘Today I’m thrilled to share we are moving to the next generation of AI-powered Bing and Edge to transform the largest category of software in the world – search – by greatly expanding the vision and capabilities we think of as Your Copilot for the Web.
‘In just 90 days, our customers have engaged in over a half a billion chats, using chat features to get summarised answers to help them with everything from finding the best place to travel for someone with pollen allergies, to organizing the last 10 years of worldwide volcanic activity into a table.
‘We have also seen people create over 200million images with Bing Image Creator.’
Bing Image Creator, powered by OpenAI’s Dall-E, allows users to create pictures using text prompts, such as typing ‘a cat in a hat’.
Search results will also now contain images similar to traditional search engines, with Bing’s chat offering ‘more visual answers including charts and graphs and updated formatting of answers’.
Mehdi adds: ‘Two of the most requested features we’ve heard are maintaining access to your chat history and being able to share and export. Starting shortly, you’ll be able to pick up where you left off and return to previous chats in Bing chat with chat history.
‘We’re also adding export and share functionalities into chat.
‘We’ll soon build third-party plug-ins into the Bing chat experience creating a platform for developers. For example, if you’re researching the latest restaurant for dinner in Bing chat, it will leverage OpenTable to help you find and book a reservation. ‘
The move makes AI a more widespread and permanent presence in users’ online journeys, in what has been a turbulent week for the technology.
The ‘godfather of AI’ left his job at Google, warning of dangers ahead, IBM announced it would pause hiring for up to 7,800 roles it expected would be replaced by AI, and the CMA announced it was launching a review of the AI market.
‘As we’ve said from the beginning, responsible AI is at the center of every new experience we build with the new Bing and Edge,’ said Mehdi. ‘And getting the new Bing into preview so we can learn from real-world testing and feedback has been critical to our success and ability to expand the experience to more users.
‘Our teams continue to work 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.’
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