OpenAI released ChatGPT in late November, and the easy-to-use chatbot quickly took the world by storm and set off a minor panic in education circles, where some worried that its ability to craft essay-length responses to some prompts would usher in a wave of AI-powered cheating. That fear has calmed considerably as higher education leaders have instead largely embraced the technology and contemplated its ability to enhance student learning.
Microsoft, meanwhile, sees the AI behind ChatGPT as an opportunity to supercharge its Bing search engine and Edge web browser, the company revealed in a major announcement this week, noting that both would now be powered by an “AI co-pilot.”
“AI will fundamentally change every software category, starting with the largest category of all — search,” Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella said in a press release.
The new version of Bing will offer “complete answers” to search queries, include an interactive chat feature for more complex searches and provide a “creative spark” to users based on their searches, according to Microsoft. As of Feb. 8, the new Bing is available for desktop users “to try sample queries and sign up for the waitlist” before the search engine is scaled out in the coming weeks.
The Edge browser will now include a chat function, where users can ask the browser to summarize webpages, for example. It will also include a compose feature, which will allow users to prompt an integrated AI to create blog posts, for example.
