Hands-on with the new Bing: The next step for Microsoft after ChatGPT
Microsoft announced yesterday that it is making a new version of its Bing search engine that uses AI. This is made possible by an updated version of the AI technology that is used in ChatGPT. I've only used the new version of Bing and other AI-powered features in Microsoft's Edge browser for a few hours so far, but the technology already feels like a big step up from ChatGPT.
I've tried the same search in ChatGPT, but it's never given me something as funny and sassy as this. Now, Microsoft's AI features aren't that different from ChatGPT just because they have funny resignation letters, but there are some bigger differences in how Microsoft's AI model works.
First, Microsoft is adding real-time news to the chat version of Bing, so you can ask questions about things that just happened or are happening right now. I asked it what Microsoft had announced at its AI-powered Bing event, and it gave me a summary of the news based on what was written in multiple publications. That happened just minutes after Microsoft announced the news.
Microsoft's new AI-driven Bing has news about what's going on right now.
Microsoft's new Bing is powered by AI and can tell you about the latest news.
Even a day later, it quickly answers questions about who Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met today and gives a useful summary of President Joe Biden's State of the Union address. Having the most up-to-date information about events in the real world is a big step up from ChatGPT, which always says "my training data only goes up to 2021" when you ask about current news events.
But Bing isn't always right, just like ChatGPT. I asked for the most up-to-date information about the terrible earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria this week, but I got information about a date in the future. It wasn't a problem with the time zone, and the article from which Bing got the date was written on the right day, not in the future.
I also asked Bing to write a script for a video that would show the new AI-powered features of Bing. Instead of focusing on the cool new features that Microsoft announced, it chose to highlight the search features that were already there. It did suggest that I say "Thanks for watching and happy searching!" at the end of the video, so I did as it said.
When Bing gets something wrong, there is a "dislike" button that lets Microsoft know about the question and answer. I talked to a Bing engineer at Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, and he said that dislikes are being sent to engineers' inboxes so they can fix mistakes and improve Microsoft's model. That's not a feedback loop that can grow over time, but since only a few thousand people have access right now, it helps Microsoft fix mistakes as it opens its waitlist to more people.
On Bing, Microsoft also shows these chat answers along with regular search results. You can often find answers right next to the links you're used to seeing. This seems like a good way to ease people into this new AI-powered search.
The biggest difference between Bing and ChatGPT is how Microsoft has added chatbot features to its Edge browser. I think this is where Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI starts to get interesting. Edge now has a sidebar that can scan whole pages and let you pick out information or run chat queries against websites. If you were looking at a TV on Amazon, you could ask Bing to compare the best 4K TVs and find the best price. It would then put all of this information into a nice table that you could send to your partner.
The new AI model from Bing can be used on any page.
The new AI model from Bing can be used on any page.
This new sidebar even has a tab called "Compose" that makes it easier to type in parameters by giving users quick ways to choose tone, format, and length (rather than having to type these qualities out by hand, as you do in ChatGPT). You can ask Microsoft's AI model to write about anything here, and it will be neatly formatted and ready for a blog post, an email, or a simple list.
Microsoft didn't talk about this on stage today, but you can imagine a future where Word and Outlook could work together in a similar way to let you create documents or emails. Technically, you could do this right now if you loaded web-based versions of Word along with this new Edge sidebar. This is exactly what I did to make the funny resignation letter.
Microsoft says that Bing should be better at writing code than ChatGPT because it is powered by AI. Since I'm not a developer, I'll let the experts in prompt engineering test Microsoft's claims there. I think these experts in prompt engineering will really find out what Microsoft's Prometheus Model can do and test how much more powerful it is than GPT-3.5.
People will try to break this new Bing AI in the same way that they try to jailbreak ChatGPT and get it to say bad things. Microsoft says it has added protections against this, but we'll have to wait and see how long it takes the prompt engineers to get around them.
Either way, it's pretty brave of Microsoft to let people play around with this in its own search engine. But if you want to use any of the new AI-powered Bing features, you'll need to use Microsoft's Edge browser. If you try to use Google Chrome's chat feature, you'll be asked to open Microsoft Edge instead. http://sentrateknikaprima.com/
Microsoft is clearly trying to take some of Google's market share and make Bing more important, and everyone is waiting to see what Google does. Google already beat Microsoft to the punch by releasing Bard, which is a competitor to ChatGPT. It's still in limited testing, so we don't know how it responds to queries or how Google will try to use it in search, but it's clear that the AI search war has begun.
In an interview with The Verge, Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, called Google a "800-pound gorilla" that Microsoft is trying to beat in search. Nadella says, "I hope that our new ideas will make them want to come out and show that they can dance." "And I want people to know that we made them dance, and I think that will be a great day." https://ejtandemonium.com/
Microsoft announced yesterday that it is making a new version of its Bing search engine that uses AI. This is made possible by an updated version of the AI technology that is used in ChatGPT. I've only used the new version of Bing and other AI-powered features in Microsoft's Edge browser for a few hours so far, but the technology already feels like a big step up from ChatGPT.
I've tried the same search in ChatGPT, but it's never given me something as funny and sassy as this. Now, Microsoft's AI features aren't that different from ChatGPT just because they have funny resignation letters, but there are some bigger differences in how Microsoft's AI model works.
First, Microsoft is adding real-time news to the chat version of Bing, so you can ask questions about things that just happened or are happening right now. I asked it what Microsoft had announced at its AI-powered Bing event, and it gave me a summary of the news based on what was written in multiple publications. That happened just minutes after Microsoft announced the news.
Microsoft's new AI-driven Bing has news about what's going on right now.
Microsoft's new Bing is powered by AI and can tell you about the latest news.
Even a day later, it quickly answers questions about who Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met today and gives a useful summary of President Joe Biden's State of the Union address. Having the most up-to-date information about events in the real world is a big step up from ChatGPT, which always says "my training data only goes up to 2021" when you ask about current news events.
But Bing isn't always right, just like ChatGPT. I asked for the most up-to-date information about the terrible earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria this week, but I got information about a date in the future. It wasn't a problem with the time zone, and the article from which Bing got the date was written on the right day, not in the future.
I also asked Bing to write a script for a video that would show the new AI-powered features of Bing. Instead of focusing on the cool new features that Microsoft announced, it chose to highlight the search features that were already there. It did suggest that I say "Thanks for watching and happy searching!" at the end of the video, so I did as it said.
When Bing gets something wrong, there is a "dislike" button that lets Microsoft know about the question and answer. I talked to a Bing engineer at Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, and he said that dislikes are being sent to engineers' inboxes so they can fix mistakes and improve Microsoft's model. That's not a feedback loop that can grow over time, but since only a few thousand people have access right now, it helps Microsoft fix mistakes as it opens its waitlist to more people.
On Bing, Microsoft also shows these chat answers along with regular search results. You can often find answers right next to the links you're used to seeing. This seems like a good way to ease people into this new AI-powered search.
The biggest difference between Bing and ChatGPT is how Microsoft has added chatbot features to its Edge browser. I think this is where Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI starts to get interesting. Edge now has a sidebar that can scan whole pages and let you pick out information or run chat queries against websites. If you were looking at a TV on Amazon, you could ask Bing to compare the best 4K TVs and find the best price. It would then put all of this information into a nice table that you could send to your partner.
The new AI model from Bing can be used on any page.
The new AI model from Bing can be used on any page.
This new sidebar even has a tab called "Compose" that makes it easier to type in parameters by giving users quick ways to choose tone, format, and length (rather than having to type these qualities out by hand, as you do in ChatGPT). You can ask Microsoft's AI model to write about anything here, and it will be neatly formatted and ready for a blog post, an email, or a simple list.
Microsoft didn't talk about this on stage today, but you can imagine a future where Word and Outlook could work together in a similar way to let you create documents or emails. Technically, you could do this right now if you loaded web-based versions of Word along with this new Edge sidebar. This is exactly what I did to make the funny resignation letter.
Microsoft says that Bing should be better at writing code than ChatGPT because it is powered by AI. Since I'm not a developer, I'll let the experts in prompt engineering test Microsoft's claims there. I think these experts in prompt engineering will really find out what Microsoft's Prometheus Model can do and test how much more powerful it is than GPT-3.5.
People will try to break this new Bing AI in the same way that they try to jailbreak ChatGPT and get it to say bad things. Microsoft says it has added protections against this, but we'll have to wait and see how long it takes the prompt engineers to get around them.
Either way, it's pretty brave of Microsoft to let people play around with this in its own search engine. But if you want to use any of the new AI-powered Bing features, you'll need to use Microsoft's Edge browser. If you try to use Google Chrome's chat feature, you'll be asked to open Microsoft Edge instead. http://sentrateknikaprima.com/
Microsoft is clearly trying to take some of Google's market share and make Bing more important, and everyone is waiting to see what Google does. Google already beat Microsoft to the punch by releasing Bard, which is a competitor to ChatGPT. It's still in limited testing, so we don't know how it responds to queries or how Google will try to use it in search, but it's clear that the AI search war has begun.
In an interview with The Verge, Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, called Google a "800-pound gorilla" that Microsoft is trying to beat in search. Nadella says, "I hope that our new ideas will make them want to come out and show that they can dance." "And I want people to know that we made them dance, and I think that will be a great day." https://ejtandemonium.com/
