A few months ago, Microsoft announced that it would no longer refer to its AI chatbot as Bing Chat. Instead, it would simply be named Copilot. Now, Microsoft has quietly rebranded another AI-based service,ditching the Bing name once again.
Buried in Microsoft"s blog announcements about the new Copilot Pro, the company mentions that the $20 a month subscription service includes faster and more detailed "AI image creation with Image Creator from Designer (formerly Bing Image Creator)."
This is now the second time Microsoft has decided to move away from using the Bing branding for its AI services. The new Image Creator from Designer refers to Microsoft Designer, which was first announced in 2022 and went into public preview in April 2023.
Microsoft Designer, like Bing Image Creator, uses OpenAI"s DALL-E AI model to help people create graphics like websites, invitations, and more with just a few text prompts.
In November, Microsoft added support for the most recent DALL-E 3 model to Designer. It is still in its public preview state and is completely free to use at the moment. Microsoft has not announced when Designer will become generally available. However, it has been mentioned that when it happens, there may be some Designer features that will require a fee to use.
When the company announced it decided to change the Bing Chat name to Copilot, we reached out to the company to find out why. At the time, a spokesperson sent us this brief statement:
Bing remains a prominent brand and technology powering many Copilot experiences while continuing to be a leader in the search industry.
It would appear that Microsoft will simply use the Bing name for its internet search services and features from now on rather than use that name to identify its AI-based services.