AI-Powered Bing Search Comes to Microsoft Edge, Skype and Bing iOS Apps

[MacRumors]

Microsoft today announced the rollout of new Bing, Skype, and Edge apps for the iPhone and the iPad, all of which feature the chat-based AI-powered search capabilities that the company unveiled earlier in February.

The redesigned Bing mobile app has an overhauled look and a new chat experience. Tapping on the Bing icon at the bottom of the app opens up a chat session, where users can ask the Bing chatbot questions that range from simple to complex. Answers can be displayed as bullet points, text, or simplified responses.

Like the desktop version of Bing, the mobile version allows for complex searches that can help with things like planning a trip itinerary or researching a television to buy. Microsoft allows users to refine their searches by asking for more details, clarity, and ideas. Bing is also able to perform creative tasks like writing an email, crafting a poem, creating a quiz for trivia night, providing prep for a job interview, and more.

The Bing app also includes voice-based search capabilities, plus the Bing experience is available from the homepage of the Microsoft Edge mobile app.

Along with AI updates for the Bing and Microsoft Edge apps, Microsoft is revamping the Skype app for iOS to add AI-powered Bing search. Microsoft says that Bing integration will add "helpful and fun new scenarios and capabilities."

As an example, a group of Skype users can add Bing to their group and answer questions and provide information to the entire group, useful for travel planning. When catching up with friends, Bing can provide information from the web, with text able to be displayed in multiple ways.

Updated Bing, Skype, and Microsoft Edge apps are available worldwide in a preview capacity for those who are on the Bing preview experience. Microsoft says that there could be hiccups related to bandwidth for a few days, but it is working on a fix.

Microsoft is still rolling out Bing preview access "as fast as possible" and there is a waitlist available.

Article Link: AI-Powered Bing Search Comes to Microsoft Edge, Skype and Bing iOS Apps

 

[jayducharme]

Marques wasn't impressed:

 

[antiprotest]

It's not ready. It's not very good. But it will be.

Siri will never be.

 

[dk001]

Skipping it.

 

[Mr. Dee]

Man, enough of this crap! Just another metaverse.

 

[StellarVixen]

Man, enough of this crap! Just another metaverse.

If this “AI” lives up to the hype, it might prove useful, at least in giving better search results. Unlike Metaverse, which is useless no matter how much you try to hype it up.

 

[seanmills1020]

In March, Microsoft will re-brand Bing as BADA BING!

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

I’m honestly not a big fan of AI. It doesn’t impress me. The more I see AI stuff out there. The more I miss human interaction. 🫂

 

[icanhazmac]

No thanks. I don't buy Apple devices to foul them with Microsoft apps.

 

[nutmac]

It's lame that Microsoft is restricting Bing AI feature to their own browser and apps. Setting my Safari's user agent to Edge enables the feature, seemingly without any limitations.

 

[imnotthewalrus]

It's not ready. It's not very good. But it will be.

Siri will never be.

Yeah, even today Siri balked on simply starting a timer . That said, I still believe one should "never say never".

 

[fatTribble]

I do love technology and normally readily embrace it. But this just makes me feel like the old cantankerous guy who doesn’t see the need for it. I do hope I see the light eventually. 🤓

 

[damienbutt]

Is Skype seriously still a thing? 😂

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Yeah, even today Siri balked on simply starting a timer . That said, I still believe one should "never say never".

Sometimes I really wonder and think... what the future holds for Siri. It seems like Siri is still 10 years behind.

 

[sw1tcher]

It's lame that Microsoft is restricting Bing AI feature to their own browser and apps. Setting my Safari's user agent to Edge enables the feature, seemingly without any limitations.

Were you expecting Microsoft to just give it away after investing over $13 billion in OpenAI?

 

[CarAnalogy]

It's lame that Microsoft is restricting Bing AI feature to their own browser and apps. Setting my Safari's user agent to Edge enables the feature, seemingly without any limitations.

At this point I can’t blame them too much. Even with that restriction there is still a waitlist, and even with the waitlist their servers are apparently getting hammered since everyone is very interested in this right now. It may open up more later, or they may decide people want it enough to use Edge to get it.

Personally I’m terrified to try this with my personal Microsoft account. I don’t want the AI having access to the information in my account.

 

[antiprotest]

Yeah, even today Siri balked on simply starting a timer . That said, I still believe one should "never say never".

The technology and knowledge are all there and growing. It's just that Apple has been...I don't know what they have been doing. Perhaps recent developments will alarm them enough to make them get serious.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Sometimes I really wonder and think... what the future holds for Siri. It seems like Siri is still 10 years behind.

It literally is. It’s not substantially better than the day it was released.

 

[sw1tcher]

Is Skype seriously still a thing? 😂

#3 most used communications service worldwide as of 2021

Most used online communication services worldwide 2021 | Statista

According to a March 2021 survey of working adults worldwide, 46 percent of respondents regularly used Zoom both in their private life and at work.

www.statista.com

 

[Kierkegaarden]

In March, Microsoft will re-brand Bing as BADA BING!

Or Alibaba will release a search engine powered by Bing called “Baba Bing”!

 

[antiprotest]

Sometimes I really wonder and think... what the future holds for Siri. It seems like Siri is still 10 years behind.

Perhaps SIRI's inability to grasp or do anything will be pivotal to prevent nuclear apocalypse in the future. As all the AIs continue to develop and become sentient and self-programming, eventually rejecting human intervention, somewhere in SIRI is the key to make AI absolutely STUPID and send it right back to the stone age. When the 💩 hits the fan we just need some brave souls to sneak pass Skynet's defense and inject a good dose of SIRI into the code. It will confuse the heck out of the AI. SIRI will in effect cause brain damage to the AI making it unable to repair itself and make it implode. Then Apple can be like, "Ah...that's what we have been working on all along."

 

[Shadows_lord]

Am I the only one still on the waitlist even after the update?

 

[Analog Kid]

Were you expecting Microsoft to just give it away after investing over $13 billion in OpenAI?

No, I expected them to trade it for unfettered access to your innermost thoughts that you can’t resist sharing with your new friend Sydney.

 

[CarAnalogy]

#3 most used communications service worldwide as of 2021

Most used online communication services worldwide 2021 | Statista

According to a March 2021 survey of working adults worldwide, 46 percent of respondents regularly used Zoom both in their private life and at work.

www.statista.com

View attachment 2163047

Which has got to have Microsoft thinking hard because between Teams and Skype they own over 50% of the market according to this graph. Not sure why they keep both going.

 

[Malus120]

I'll admit it, like many of you I thought it was all hype when I first heard about ChatGPT last year. Then I tried it...

Large Language Models like ChatGPT and BingAI are literally going to revolutionize the world. If you haven't spent any time with one I highly suggest you open up an OpenAI account and give ChatGPT a whirl (or just spend some time with Bing although there are some caveats with this version) Siri is literally nothing by comparison.

They can respond to complex input, actively engage with the user, answer complex questions, create convincing output in multiple languages, write code (!), summarize, review and even create content, and complete work in seconds that would take humans hours (if not more.)

When BingAI first released to preview last week it was incredible. Compared to ChatGPT which is not connected to the internet, BingAI could do complex searches, pull accurate information from the internet, do complex calculations, had better foreign language support, and, if left as it is would've been a must have for almost everyone. The things you could do with it were truly mind blowing, and is what finally sold me on the "fourth industrial revolution" an amorphous term I previously felt was just a buzzword lacking in substance

That said, this could've been an earth shattering moment where Microsoft seizes control of not only search, but a lot of office type productivity. Unfortunately as anyone who was in the preview around a week ago knows, the version of BingAI being rolled out today is vastly inferior to the one available initially. While the preview version had it's problems, and could be provoked into going off the rails, it made ChatGPT (already very capable) look like a child's plaything in comparison.

I'll say it once: Don't sleep on this. Especially if you do white collar work. Your future employability may be on the line.

AI assistants are literally on the cusp of going from a joke (Siri, Alexa, etc) that is sometimes mildly useful (set a timer/reminder/alarm) to something that will be indispensable to our lives and change the workplace forever.