Bloomberg — Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is eliminating the waiting list to try out its new OpenAI-based Bing search and chat, and adding features like the ability to request and post images in an effort to keep up with its renewed momentum in the market.
Users can, for example, search for an image of a crooked bear and ask Ping, “How do I do this?” You can ask that. The AI tool suggests exploring „how to crochet” websites and other types of craft projects. Microsoft vice president Yusuf Mehdi said in an interview that the visual search feature will be available in the coming weeks or months. It uses OpenAI’s GPT-4 framework, called multimodal functions that combine text and images. Although OpenAI announced the feature in March, it has provided few examples so far.
Other new Bing features are coming soon, Mehdi explained, such as the ability to use third-party services like OpenTable and Wolfram Alpha through Bing Chat, and the ability to receive answers that include video and graphics. At a demo in Manhattan, Bing representatives showed off some of their features in demos, showing how a user could type in, for example, „find a dinner reservation for two in New York tonight” and get a link to the service. Open Table Reservations.
Microsoft revolutionized the search market in February when it offered a complete makeover of Bing, incorporating OpenAI’s ChatGPT to give it the ability to refresh the competition. Alphabet Inc. In a market dominated by Google for years, the new software has hosted 500 million chat sessions in the past 90 days, according to Mehdi. The move prompted Google to introduce its own AI-powered tools, keeping efforts within its own labs until Microsoft threatened the company’s highly lucrative advertising business.
„Chat really resonates with people and really transforms search,” Mehdi said. About 70% of people who try chat features use it for search-related tasks, and Microsoft believes those customers are doing more searching.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said last month that installs of the Bing app had quadrupled since the launch of the AI-powered product. Bing increased its market share in the US during the quarter. These efforts are part of a broader shift by Microsoft to take advantage of the company’s increased investment in OpenAI and integrate AI into all major products.
As hundreds of millions of users try out the new product, the new visual search features will be a major challenge for Microsoft’s responsible AI team, which is trying to deal with biased, confusing or irrelevant content. Microsoft says it’s made progress, but it’s still working on issues involving misinformation and incorrect or incomplete responses. Mehdi explained that the reason visual features aren’t available yet is because the team is working to ensure security.
„There is a lot of work to be done to review the technology and plans,” Mehdi said. „Is it harmful? Is it transparent? Is it inclusive? Don’t you have biases? We’re going to do the same thing with images, and adding multimodal adds another level of complexity.”
Microsoft unveiled the new features at a press event in New York, where the chatbot demonstrated the latest Bing capabilities with a juice bar that created drink recipes and personalized souvenir cards for attendees.
Bing will improve your ability to summarize long documents. Company improves chat history feature: Microsoft plans to make it easier to access users’ search histories in a scrolling sidebar in its Edge browser. Users can go back to previous conversations and pick up where they left off.
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