Microsoft Sends First Wave of Invites for AI-Powered Bing

If you signed up to try Microsoft’s AI-powered Bing, you may have access today.

The company is now inviting some users to test out the technology, which taps OpenAI’s ChatGPT to streamline the search experience on Bing. On Monday morning, several users reported receiving emails from Microsoft that granted them access, so it may be worth checking your inbox's spam folder.

According to the email, Microsoft wants invited users to test out the new Bing and send feedback. But for now, the experience is only available on desktop. “We don’t have a mobile experience ready yet—we are actively working on it and will have it ready soon,” the email says.

Microsoft is promoting the upgraded Bing as a tool designed to revolutionize online search. The ChatGPT integration can improve the experience by analyzing numerous results from a normal search engine and reproducing a single answer in an easy-to-understand format.

The approach can potentially save you lots of time compared to traditional search engines, which simply serve up a long list of websites related to your query. In addition, the new Bing can write essays, emails, and social media posts when accessed on Microsoft’s Edge browser. Simply tell Bing the article you want it to write, along with the tone, length, and format. The program will then churn out the content for you in seconds.

For now, Microsoft is limiting the preview, likely because running the new AI-powered Bing can consume lots of computing power when serving large numbers of users. OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman previously estimated each chat generated with ChatGPT costs the lab a few cents. Microsoft has said 1 million people signed up to try the new Bing last week.

Interested users can join an online waitlist for access to the new Bing. Microsoft also has several suggestions you can undertake that promise to move you up the waitlist.

:story: PC Magazine