Microsoft launches OpenAI-powered Bing with Chatbot and enhanced search features

Microsoft's search engine, Bing, is receiving a major upgrade. The tech giant has teamed up with OpenAI to incorporate the company's AI technology into the search engine, which has been in operation since 2009 but not exactly the most popular product of the company. Upgraded Bing will feature a new, next-generation large language model that Microsoft claims is "much more powerful" than ChatGPT and designed specifically for search. The proprietary technology that underpins the search engine is called the Prometheus Model.

One of the main benefits of Prometheus is more relevant search results. Microsoft has also said that the new language model will make Bing safer to use and allow the company to update search results more quickly. In addition, the new Bing includes a chat function and an expanded search bar that can handle up to a thousand characters.

The chat feature is intended to allow users to take advantage of the generative capabilities of OpenAI's technology. For example, if you want to plan a trip to South Korea, you can ask Bing to create a five-day itinerary for you, and the search engine will respond with links to accommodations, flights, and activities.

In a demo of the new Bing, Yusuf Mehdi, the company's consumer chief marketing officer, demonstrated some of the new features of the search engine. When asked to compare the most influential Mexican artists and their best-known paintings, Bing displayed its response in a new side panel with annotations and weblinks. Mehdi then asked the search engine to compare three pet vacuums, listing the pros and cons of each model. He explained that Bing could also help with questions where there might not be a precise answer. Even if Bing doesn't know the answer to a query, the search engine will still try to provide useful information.

The new Bing also has the ability to handle tasks and basic calculations, and its results are based on recent data that is constantly being updated. The chat feature allows users to interact with the search engine in a conversational way, making it easier and more intuitive to use.

Microsoft has made the new Bing available for preview, and anyone can visit Bing.com to try a few sample queries and sign up for the company's waitlist. Microsoft says it will scale the preview to millions of people in the coming weeks, and a mobile preview is coming soon as well. With its new features and improved functionality, Microsoft is hoping to reignite interest in Bing and make it a viable alternative to other search engines. However, users are advised to double-check the data provided by the search engine for accuracy. Despite its improved capabilities, the new Bing is still a machine learning model, and its results may not always be perfect.