Microsoft’s Bing takes on Google with new chatbot answers and DALL-E image generator

The news: Microsoft’s Bing is now integrating answers from its ChatGPT-powered chat feature, Bing Chat Answers, into its main search interface.

• Bing Chat Answers covers various topics, including entertainment, health, and local services.
• Users can ask questions and receive direct answers from chatbot AI across desktop and mobile. They can also provide feedback on the chatbot's responses.

But wait, there’s more: Bing can now facilitate image generation through its Chat interface, thanks to the addition of OpenAI's generative image generator, DALL-E.

• The newly introduced Bing Image Creator feature is currently available in a limited preview.
• After entering certain prompts, a square of four high-resolution DALL-E images will be produced, accompanied by a small Bing logo in the bottom-left corner.

Why it matters: The new features position Bing as a more interactive search engine while improving the user experience.

Our take: In just a short time period, Microsoft has gone from being a quiet investor in ChatGPT to a very significant one. It then released its chatbot based on the more advanced GPT4 model, spurring renewed interest in Bing and the Microsoft Edge Browser.

• Bing’s latest move puts more pressure on Google to keep up. The search incumbent just released its Bard chatbot to a limited number of users, but one has to wonder if Google has overestimated the amount of loyalty the average internet user has to its search engine.
• Over a million individuals signed up to test Microsoft's AI-powered Bing search engine when it launched February 10, and Microsoft reported on March 9 that there are now "millions of active users" trying out the preview (one-third of which are humans). Should Bing offer a better user experience than Bard, many of those search advertising dollars could be in play.