Microsoft’s new bing browser is now powered by a pimped-up ChatGPT AI

Microsoft has today announced a new version of its search engine Bing, powered by an pimped-up version of the same Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology that underpins chatbot ChatGPT. The new product will be unveiled alongside new AI-enhanced features for its Edge browser, promising that the two will provide a new experience for browsing the web and finding information online.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said at the launch that it’s a new day in search and argued 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,” Nadella said. “Most importantly, we want to have a lot of fun innovating again in search, because it’s high time.”

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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 chat interface like ChatGPT (below).

Microsoft showed a 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 City.” The question was answered entirely by the chatbot, which described a rough itinerary alongside links to sources for more information.

Unlike ChatGPT, the new Bing can also retrieve news about recent events. Microsoft says these features are all powered by an upgraded version of GPT 3.5, the AI OpenAI language model that powers ChatGPT. Microsoft calls this the “Prometheus Model,” and says it’s more powerful than GPT 3.5, and better able to answer search queries with up-to-date information and annotated answers.

The new Bing is live today “for desktop limited preview,” but it appears users are only able to “ask” one of a number of preset queries and receive the same results each time. There is also a waitlist to sign up for full access in the future.

In addition to the new Bing, 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 to generate text, from emails to social media posts, based on a few starting prompts.

Has ChatGPT AI caught Google off-side?

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.

Google, meanwhile, has been caught off guard by what some are claiming is a paradigm shift in how users find information online. 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.