Microsoft is now testing a much-requested feature for its Bing Chat chatbot AI service. It is allowing a small subset of users to use Bing Chat without the chatbot searching the web for answers.
Mikhail Parakhin, Microsoft"s head of Advertising and Web Services, posted a screenshot of the "No Search" mode on X (formerly Twitter) today, with the message, "Some people see this now :-)".
Michael Schechter, the Vice President of Microsoft"s Bing group, reposted Parakhin"s message, adding, "Excited to get this out to the power users who’ve been requesting it."
It’s like rain on your wedding day!
— Michael Schechter (@mikeschechter) August 23, 2023
Excited to get this out to the power users who’ve been requesting it. https://t.co/UECBa1FQvj
The ability to disable web searching in Bing Chat has advantages for many people who would like to use the chatbot to solve complex math problems or do some coding. The new feature means that those users can get straight-up answers and get the code they need without the chatbot having to go to the web, where it would not normally be able to help with those questions.
There are also some users who might want to disable web searching in Bing Chat to just have informal conversations with the chatbot, again without it generating "answers" from the internet.
Right now, the "No Search" feature is only available for a small percentage of Bing Chat users. It"s unknown when it will roll out to all users of the chatbot.
Microsoft a number of upcoming features it plans to add to Bing Chat in the coming months. Like the No Search feature, it has been testing support for Bing Chat on third-party PC and mobile browsers like Google"s Chrome and Apple"s Safari for a couple of months now. Microsoft is also planning on putting in support for third-party plug-ins at some point.