Microsoft has infused its Bing search engine with the ChatGPT text generation AI taking the world by storm and a lot of users want to give it a shot. After a brief media preview last week, the company opened a sign-up system, but access to the full-power search was restricted in favor of a few canned responses. According to emails sent out early this week, a few Microsoft users now have access to the whole kit and kaboodle.
The ChatGPT system allows Bing to return complex textual responses to natural language questions in English. For the moment the interface is desktop-only, though mobile versions should be coming to phones and tablets eventually. The Bing version of the ChatGPT system has a few limitations on both content and work-related queries, as explained last week—though it seems like there are ways around them, some of which may be worth the attention of teachers and parents.
Microsoft is betting big on the ChatGPT integration to revitalize Bing versus its competitors. It’s also using the buzz around the new version of the search engine to boost engagement with its other brands like the Edge browser and Windows 11 by “encouraging” users to reset some default programs. At the moment, there’s no way to try it without signing up with a Microsoft account and waiting for a bit, but the new version of Bing should be available to the web at large sometime later this year.
