Microsoft"s last minute press event is being held right now. The company, as expected, is launching a new version of its Bing search engine and its Edge web browser that will be powered by the AI technology developed by OpenAI. Microsoft said it will actually be more powerful than OpenAI"s current ChatGPT AI bot.
During his speech as part of the event, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated that the web browser was a big reason for the rise of the Internet, and search engines helped to organize the web. Microsoft VP Yusuf Mehdi then took the stage, saying that AI will be the next generation of surfing and searching on the web. The company showed off the new version of Bing with a larger search box that can hold up to 1,000 characters, which is consistent with the previous leaks about the new Bing.
New Bing homepage to search with more words. pic.twitter.com/4vc6wXxjYz
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 7, 2023
The company will also integrate a chatbot in Bing so people can ask it questions and get answers in natural language. For example, if you are planning a trip to Mexico, the chatbot can create a possible itinerary that you can use for each day of your trip. It can create a meal plan to your specifications or even create a trivia game for you. Users can also switch from the chatbot to normal Bing search results in a flash.
New chat button in search to go from search to chat pic.twitter.com/1Y90o461nw
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 7, 2023
As far as the improvements coming to the Edge web browser, Microsoft stated it will integrate the Bing chatbot in the browser. You can use the AI chatbot to look at a website and get a quick summary of it. For example, it can be used to make a summary of a complex financial results news release. You can even compare the highlights with another business earnings report.
Microsoft is also bringing this AI copilot to Edge browser by integrating Bing in a new cool way with chat and to summarize and compare based on what is in the Bing index pic.twitter.com/rPhw6X27Qt
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 7, 2023
Other functions of this new chatbot include writing out a post for you in Microsoft"s Linkedin social network, or even doing some code rewriting.
Bing can rewrite code from one language to another pic.twitter.com/OOel3Q1met
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 7, 2023
The company did not livestream the event, but media outlets like Engadget did have livebogs.
Update: You can try out the new Bing search right now in a limited form.