GTA 6 pre-orders went live last week, and if you haven't secured a copy yet or you'd rather not pay full price for it, Microsoft Rewards could help cover the cost.

I used the program to earn enough points to redeem Microsoft Gift Cards, letting me preorder the game without paying out of pocket. If you start now and stick with it over the next few months, you could do the same and grab the year's biggest game release without spending a dime.

How to set up for success with Microsoft Rewards

It all starts with something you're probably already doing — searching the web.

Instead of using Google on your phone or laptop, you can begin your quest for a free copy of GTA 6 by switching to and using Bing as your default search engine. Be sure to sign in with a Microsoft account and log into Bing with that account each time you search, though!

Once you're signed up, you can add a few daily Microsoft Rewards activities to your routine. They only take a few minutes and can significantly increase your point total over time. Even better, if you’re an Xbox or PC gamer, you can earn even more points simply by playing select games you already own, or by shopping for new games.

The ultimate goal for a free copy of GTA 6 on Xbox is to redeem 85,500 Microsoft Rewards points, while also reaching Level 2 status, which unlocks discounted redemption rates.

Point redemptions, explained

At Level 2 on Microsoft Rewards, you can redeem 10,000 points for a $10 Microsoft Gift Card, 25,000 points for $25, or 50,000 points for $50. Combined, that's enough to cover the standard Xbox version of GTA 6, including sales tax in many states. If you're aiming for the Ultimate Edition, you'll want to save 100,000 points for a $100 gift card, though you'll likely need to cover sales tax with your own cash.

If you're planning to buy GTA 6 on PS5 instead, Amazon gift cards are another option, though they typically require more points and aren't always available on Microsoft Rewards. When they're in stock, you can redeem 10,500 points for $10, 26,250 points for $25, 52,000 points for $50, or 105,000 points for a $100 gift card.

Microsoft Rewards also stocks Best Buy gift cards, should you prefer that retailer. It’s the most expensive gift card available — 14,000 points for a $10 Best Buy card, 35,000 points for $25 or 70,000 points for $50. You can max out at 140,000 points for $100.

Just remember, whichever route you choose, you'll need to keep earning at least 500 points each month to maintain the discounted redemption rate.

Microsoft is also known to frequently change Rewards offers, redemption rates, and available gift cards. The rates are current at the time of writing, so the exact number of points required may vary over time.

Every search counts

I've been using Microsoft Rewards for years, so I already had more than enough points to redeem the game for free. But even if you're just starting, you can still build a healthy balance before GTA 6 launches and, at the very least, take a big chunk off the asking price.

The easiest points earned come from Bing searches. Currently, you can earn up to 250 points per day by completing web searches across both your PC and phone, with each search worth 5 points. 100 total for mobile, and 150 total for PC.

Over a week, that’s 1,750 points, and in a month of 30 days, roughly 7,000 points. If you keep that pace up by the time GTA 6 launches, you'll earn around 42,000 points, which already knocks $40 or half off the price of the game on Xbox.

Downloading the Bing mobile app gives you even more opportunities. You can check in to the app every day for a seven-day streak to earn bonus points, complete Bing's daily news reading tasks for up to 30 points per day, and keep searching on consecutive days to collect puzzle pieces that can unlock a 1,000-point bonus. The app has plenty of offers, so it’s always good to check the Rewards section!

Combined, these activities can add thousands of extra points over several months. Even without playing Xbox or PC games or buying anything from Microsoft, you'll still make meaningful progress toward covering the cost of GTA 6.

Bonus tips for more rewards

If you own an Xbox or regularly play games on PC, the rewards add up even faster. You can always check the Microsoft Rewards dashboard on the web, or the Xbox app for bonus activities, since these are always changing.

During the week I wrote this article, I earned 50 points from search bonuses with the Windows 11 Search Box, around 30 points per day from Microsoft's Daily Set, and 40 points each day for simply playing Forza Horizon 6 for 15 minutes on PC through Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

Oh, and don’t forget that purchases from the Microsoft Store earn Rewards points too. Every dollar you spend with Microsoft helps build your balance, making future game purchases like GTA 6 even cheaper. Rates are 10:1 for Level 2 members of Microsoft Rewards.

I've accumulated nearly 2.5 million Microsoft Rewards points since joining the program, redeeming them for games, $200 toward a PS5, and another $200 toward a MacBook Pro. It takes consistency rather than luck, but spending just a few minutes each day searching with Bing and completing Microsoft's daily activities can add up to meaningful savings when you really want to buy something nice.

Microsoft Rewards might not replace an actual paycheck, but if you're already using Microsoft's services, the points can add up surprisingly quickly and help offset some of your gaming costs.

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Microsoft just announced its first homegrown image generator. The new model, called MAI-Image-1, is the company’s first fully in-house text-to-image AI, and it’s debuting in the top 10 on the LMArena leaderboard, a major public benchmark for generative image tools.

MAI-Image-1 is expected to show up soon in Copilot and Bing Image Creator, giving Microsoft more control over how AI image generation is integrated across its products. That’s a big deal, especially as Microsoft shifts away from relying solely on third-party tools.

Impressive photorealism

The model is designed to generate high-quality, photorealistic images rapidly. Microsoft says it performs especially well with realistic lighting, complex compositions, and natural textures. That speed-quality combo could make it a solid choice for creators and professionals who need visual content on demand.

To avoid overly stylized or repetitive results, Microsoft curated its training data carefully and brought in feedback from artists and designers. Early sample images show off everything from a roadrunner kicking up desert dust to sunset-lit cityscapes and glowing beach scenes, and they look sharp.

Microsoft's broader AI plan

But this launch isn’t just about visuals, MAI-Image-1 is also a key piece of Microsoft’s AI game plan for 2025, which focuses on moving from experimental pilots to enterprise-grade tools. That includes building models around real use cases, enforcing strong data governance, and embedding responsible AI practices at every level.

Microsoft is also building a full stack of AI solutions from ready-made Copilots to custom Azure ML tools, and MAI-Image-1 adds image generation to that mix. As regulations tighten, Microsoft is also doubling down on transparency and safety, keeping human oversight and compliance front and center.

The model is still being evaluated on LMArena, but its strong early performance suggests Microsoft is ready to compete in the fast-moving generative AI space — this time, with its own tech.

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Microsoft is at it again with another ploy to stop Bing users from switching over to Google Chrome, this time with a full banner right on the search page.

As Microsoft Edge is Windows' default browser, many users often use it to download Chrome through the Bing search engine. Many will know that the browser often delivers a message stating why it's worth using Bing instead, but Windows Report has noticed a new comparison banner pops up.

When typing in "Chrome" using Bing on Edge, there's now a banner that takes up a big part of the page before web search results are shown. The report found a comparison between the two browsers, stating " Microsoft Edge offers the speed of Chrome with the security of Microsoft."

Notably, it also details what Edge offers and what Chrome doesn't, including Microsoft Rewards, a built-in VPN (although this isn't available in all regions), AI personalization and Microsoft's "recommended" for optimized browsing.

This is a "Promoted by Microsoft" ad, and a large one at that. It's yet another way Microsoft is urging users to stay on Edge, although I'm not sure if this will stop users in their tracks.

When trying this myself, I received another banner that showed the Microsoft Reward points to gain by trying Edge, with tiles showcasing Amazon, Starbucks, Xbox Game Pass and Roblox gift cards.

Either way, instead of just a small pop-up notification, there's now a full-on banner before reaching the list of search results for Google Chrome.

With Chrome continuing to be the most popular browser around, it comes as no surprise that Microsoft wants you to stick with Edge. According to statistics from analytics firm Backlinko, there are an estimated 3.69 billion users worldwide, compared to Microsoft Edge's estimated 292 million users.

Thankfully, those in the EU won't have to put up with Microsoft begging you to make Edge your default browser, thanks to the Digital Markets Act. However, the rest of the world will still get pop-ups to give Edge a go.

Interestingly, research has shown that Chrome is the hungriest browser around, with Microsoft Edge using far fewer system resources. However, Bing itself, which Edge uses, is only a few steps behind Chrome in the amount of data it collects.

With Microsoft Edge now being promoted as an AI browser, it still has a lot of competition in the market, with Perplexity AI launching its first AI browser, and Opera offering its own agentic AI browser.

We're sure to see more tactics Microsoft uses to turn Edge into the browser for all (instead of Chrome), but if you want to uninstall Microsoft Edge instead, that's always an option.

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Tired of having Microsoft Edge pop up on your Windows 11 or Windows 10 PC begging you to make it your default browser? If you're in Europe, Microsoft will be giving you a break.

As part of the Digital Markets Act in the European Economic Area (EEA), Microsoft announced it will stop prompting Windows users to set Edge as its default browser. Even when uninstalled, other Microsoft apps won't hassle you to reinstall it. That means no more Bing search results, too.

Now, when changing the default browser to third-party apps such as Chrome, Opera, Firefox or others, pressing "Set default" will change more link and file types. Currently, this only includes http, https, .htm and .html. With the update, it will now include the following:

• Link types: ftp, http, https, read
• File types: .htm, .html, .mht, .mhtml, .shtml, .svg, .xht, .xhtml, .xml, .pdf

What's more, using the "Set default" button in settings will also offer the option to pin your browser app of choice to the Taskbar and Start menu — instead of the usual Edge browser.

Microsoft is also updating Windows Search, allowing users part of the EEA to have third-party web search providers to be automatically enabled once the app is installed. This means these apps can provide web search results in Windows Search right off the bat, rather than having it be manually enabled. These apps can be reordered and customized in Settings as well.

Interestingly, Windows 11 and Windows 10 users will also be able to uninstall the Microsoft Store. While apps installed through the Store will still update in the background to keep them secure, you will no longer need the Store, as it won't be treated as an essential system app any longer,

For those in the EEA, the Microsoft Store can be uninstalled from either the Start menu or Settings like any other app. And, of course, if can be reinstalled at any time.

Other updates to Windows apps in the EEA include the Microsoft Bing app opening web content with the default browser. The Start menu will also open web content with the set default browser.

These updates are already available for Windows 11 and Windows 10 users in Europe for preview in Windows Insider builds, and are set to roll out over the coming weeks — with the default browser changes set to arrive in July. Other markets, including the U.S., aren't expected to see any of these changes, so will have to put up with Edge and Bing search results (apologies in advance).

Although, if you're set on using other browsers, like using the world's first agentic AI web browser, you can always easily uninstall Microsoft Edge, too.

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• Your 'unsupported' Windows 10 PC can still run Windows 11 in 2025 — here's how
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The internet is designed to collect your data. Whether it's cookies, trackers, or permissions, your data is always up for grabs – and your browser is one of the most guilty suspects.

One of the best VPNs, Surfshark, has analyzed 10 of the most popular mobile internet browsers to determine how much data each one collects.

Google Chrome collects the most data by far, and 30% of the browsers analyzed share your data with third-parties.

Safari also collects a large amount of data, and together with Chrome, the two occupy 90% of the mobile browser market share. That's a lot of data.

But not every browser analyzed collects huge amounts of data, and there are steps that can be taken to avoid mass data collection – here's what you need to know.

This article was edited on May 19, 2025, to clarify "coarse" location data and its implications.

20 different data types

Surfshark's research found that Google Chrome was the most data-hungry browser, collecting 20 different data types.

Contact information, financial details, location, browsing history, usage data, and identifiers are just some of the data Chrome collects. It is thanks in part to the Google ecosystem, with Google Drive, Maps, and Mail all seamlessly integrated into the browser.

Chrome is the only browser analyzed that collects financial information such as payment methods, card numbers, and bank account details. It's also the only one to collect contacts from the user's phone or address book. However, it is worth noting that some of this information is provided voluntarily by users – having Chrome remember card details for example.

Bing was the second-hungriest browser, collecting 12 data types. Pi Browser was third, collecting nine types of data. Safari and Firefox were tied for fourth place, each collecting eight data types.

Some browsers are better than others

The average number of data types collected across the 10 browsers was six, and only two browsers collected fewer data types than this.

The privacy-focused browser, Brave, collected only two data types – identifiers and usage data.

The Tor Browser was by far the most secure browser analyzed, collecting no data. Tor is a decentralized network designed to protect user anonymity and prevent tracking. It's certainly not the fastest or feature-packed browser, but is an excellent choice for maximizing privacy and security.

DuckDuckGo and Firefox are two browsers that have decent privacy credentials, and Surfshark rated their data collection as "moderate" – Opera also falls into this category.

They avoid collecting sensitive data, but do collect contact information, identifiers, usage data, and diagnostics.

They could be seen as browsers for those with moderate privacy concerns who still require robust browsing capabilities.

Third-party data sharing

30% of the browsers analyzed shared data with third-parties. Data is collected for advertising purposes, with Opera, Bing, and Pi Browser being able to do so.

40% of browsers were also found to have the capability to collect your location. However, Surfshark's data needs a little clarification, here.

Bing was the only browser to collect precise location data, which is a big red flag.

Safari, Chrome, and Opera are stated to collect "coarse" location data.

In human terms, collecting a user's "coarse" location means that the user can give consent to the browser to know their location, but it is not necessarily active by default.

This does not mean that these browsers are tracking your every move, and they require you to accept these terms before any location data is stored.

Given Opera's reputation as a privacy-focused browser, we asked them about these findings.

Michael Tegos, Product Marketing Manager, Privacy and Security, at Opera said it is open about its data collection and does so in order to "make better browsers" and monetize its free products. It details the data collected in its privacy statement.

"We do this only upon consent and in such a way that our users remain anonymous to us, through the use of randomized user IDs that are not associated with any real-world identity," Tegos added.

Opera users can revoke this consent at any time through their browser settings, and all data collection can be opted out of – which is more than can be said for many other browsers.

Tegos also highlighted Opera's built-in Ad Blocker and Tracker Blocker, as well as its built-in VPN.

"Opera VPN is also a no-log service, meaning that it never collects or stores user data," said Tegos.

"Our no-log policy has been independently audited by Deloitte, a trusted auditor of VPN services. We also publish a bi-annual Transparency Report, outlining how many requests for data we get from law enforcement authorities."

First steps to take

Tomas Stamulis, Chief Security Officer at Surfshark, shared initial steps users can take to secure their personal data.

• Allow permissions: Storage (to save downloads), a camera and microphone if you use video calls.
• Deny or restrict permissions: Location, contacts, SMS, and phone access – unless absolutely required.
• On Android: Use “Only While Using App” or “Ask Every Time” when granting permissions like location or microphone.
• Choose privacy-focused browsers that collect data strictly necessary for browsing.
• Turn off the personalization settings on your browser app: Syncing with your Google/Microsoft account, Ad personalization, Activity tracking (location history, web & app activity)
• On Android: Go to Settings > Privacy > Ads > Opt out of ad personalization
• Revisit app permissions monthly – many apps request more than they need over time.

"In public, it is often explained that browsers collect the data to personalize and improve a user's experience," Stamulis said.

"If we rely on this explanation, it appears that the more data you provide, the smoother and seamless your browsing should be. In any case, this study from Surfshark is a reminder to look through your browser app permissions," he added.

Use a VPN and a tracker blocker

In order to protect your data when browsing, you might want to consider using a VPN. Your data and internet traffic is encrypted, plus your IP address is masked.

Leading, reputable VPN providers will not log or share your data, keeping it safe from hackers and third-parties. Verified no-logs policies back these claims up, and Windscribe's recent legal case proved just how important they can be.

Some VPNs offer tracker, ad, and malware protection as part of their plans. NordVPN's Threat Protection Pro is a good example of this, and has been named as the best VPN malware protection.

But VPNs alone can't protect you from every single piece of data collection or trackers. Therefore, using a dedicated tracker blocker alongside a VPN is a great way to ensure your data is not tracked.

These products often include an ad-blocker as well, with Ghostery and uBlock Origin being some popular choices.

Google Chrome has recently U-turned on its use of trackers. Considering its global popularity, there will be many people who could benefit from tracker protection.

Switch to a secure browser

Surfshark's research shows Brave is a safe choice for those seeking a more familiar browsing experience. Its design is similar to Chrome and it's packed full of features. Despite having the capability of collecting a little more data, Opera is also a good choice for those looking to increase privacy due to its clear, consent-based model.

For total anonymity, the Tor Browser is best. However, its speeds are not the fastest and you won't get nearly as many features as mainstream browsers.

Vivaldi is a browser Surfshark didn't analyze but it's another solid privacy-focused choice. Vivaldi has also partnered with Proton VPN, and Proton VPN Free is now offered as a Vivaldi browser extension.

Mullvad VPN has built its own browser, in partnership with the Tor Project. Mullvad is one of the most private VPNs and its browser is no different. It's also open source and free to use – whether you're a Mullvad VPN user or not.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Microsoft really wants you to use Bing to find stuff on the web, but users seem to really want to use Google to find websites and other content. So, it appears Microsoft has landed on a new trick to get people to use its tool: when you search for Google on Bing, the results page changes to look more like Google's famous white website. Which could be read as trying to spoof some users into thinking they're on Google.

If you look at your address bar, you can see that you're still on Bing, but it would be easy to fall for this trick if you're not paying attention. Thankfully, searching on Bing instead of Google won't make anything bad happen to your computer, except for getting different results than you might be used to.

To trigger the Google result, you must use Bing without logging into a Microsoft account (as first noted by WindowsLatest). The Google result has a search bar, an image that looks suspiciously like a Google Doodle, and even some tiny text under the bar, creating a Google-like design.

The correct results appear under the Google-like search bar, so you can still get to Google through Bing if you want. Or you could just type Google.com into your address bar to avoid unnecessary steps.

For its part, Google seems to be taking Microsoft's new tactic in stride. Google's Parisa Tabriz said in an X post, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but Microsoft spoofing the Google homepage is another tactic in its long history of tricks to confuse users & limit choice,” says Tabriz. “New year; new low Microsoft."

This is far from the first time Microsoft has tried to trick users away from Google. In fact, The Verge is cataloging every tactic the company has used over the years, and it's a long list. Some highlights include modifying Chrome download sites, injecting polls into Chrome download pages and more.

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Thanks to a new AI deal, Google is now the only search engine that can scrape Reddit to show new posts in its search results. If competitors like Bing or DuckDuckGo want their users to see the same, they'll have to pay up. 

That's according to a new report from 404 Media, which first spotted that search engines other than Google aren't showing any Reddit results from the last week in their search results. If, like me, you frequently tag on "Reddit" or "site:reddit.com" to your search queries, you'll find the results are rather disappointing on Bing or DuckDuckGo right now. You'll either see outdated Reddit posts or a link that reads “We would like to show you a description here but the site won't allow us.”

Reddit spokesperson Tim Rathschmidt told the Verge this development was "not at all related to our recent partnership with Google," referring to a $60 million deal struck in February to let the company train its AI models on Reddit's content. 

“We have been in discussions with multiple search engines," Reddit spokesperson Tim Rathschmidt told the Verge. "We have been unable to reach agreements with all of them, since some are unable or unwilling to make enforceable promises regarding their use of Reddit content, including their use for AI.”

So rather than any kind of exclusivity agreement, it seems tied to Reddit's recent crackdown on web crawlers. Earlier this month, to enforce its policy against scraping, Reddit tweaked the site’s robots.txt file, which directs AI crawlers to which pages they can or can't glean information from. By preventing certain search engines from scraping its pages with AI bots, Reddit is essentially walling off its content to keep it out of search results. In short, Reddit is taking its ball and going home. Unless you want to play by its rules, that is, which Google, understandably, seems keen to. 

Microsoft spokesperson Caitlin Roulston confirmed to the Verge that Bing stopped hoovering up content from Reddit after it updated its robots.txt file on July 1st. “Microsoft respects the robots.txt standard and we honor the directions provided by websites that do not want content on their pages to be used with our generative AI models,” she added. 

So for now, Google is the exclusive home to Reddit content in its search results. At least until Reddit strikes an agreement with its competitors.

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Microsoft and the Bing team have announced a new AI-powered search experience that is more or less their version of Google's controversial AI overviews.

A blog post highlighting the new tool breaks down how Bing's version will be different with seemingly more upfront information (h/t Digital Trends). 

Bing's generative search is meant to create "a bespoke and dynamic response." These include links to sources and further reading.

The example provided in the blog is the query "What is spaghetti western?" The AI-generated results begin with an in large, bold font that reads: A subgenre of films produced by Italian filmmakers. 

Below this is an AI-summary highlighting different topics and including citations on where the information came from.

A source link is provided next to it, along with a number of summarized bites of information. On the left side of the screen there is an index for the different topics that the search produced. On the right are more traditional search results with links.

Microsoft claims that "early data indicates that this experience maintains the number of clicks to websites and supports a healthy web ecosystem."

The post also says that the Bing AI "understands the search query", meaning that conversational language or even non-specific queries are supposedly more likely to produce a result. Which is something that most large language models are capable of already but not specifically in a search engine.

The Bing team do say that the new search tool is being slowly rolled out. So, it's not clear who has access yet or when it will expand. They mentioned that they "will take our time, garner feedback, test and learn, and work to create a great experience before making this more broadly available."

Compared to Google's AI Overview, it isn't as minimalist and clean, but I think it looks and feels more informative with more actual options and links to information than the simple paragraph summary and a couple of links that Google is currently providing.

Between this and OpenAI's announcement of SearchGPT this week, Google is seeing some serious competition in the Search realm, especially when it comes to AI integration.

Google's AI overviews have been a disaster with a rushed implementation that has already been severely walked back.

Still, they are and remain the big dog the block with one study by HawkSEM claiming that Google had 1 billion daily active users in 2023 while Bing lagged far behind at 100 million daily users.

If other companies can start chipping away at Google with better search results perhaps it will make the giant take notice and actually improve its own search engine, which according to Ed Zitron is not doing well.

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Knowing how to use Google Gemini can give you a deeper understanding of how AI works. Gemini is Google's answer to ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, renamed from the earlier experimental chatbot Bard.

Built on top of the Gemini family of AI models, it is constantly being updated with new features including image generation and the ability to run code. 

While it started as a text-only chatbot, Gemini is now a full Google product, integrated into Workspace, Android and as a standalone tool.

Despite being a fully fledged product Gemini is very much a work in progress, still making mistakes and generating hallucinations, but it is a significant improvement on the earlier experimental models that powered Bard.

It comes in the free and paid-for Advanced versions. The free model can be used to make images, write stories, compile to-do lists and even generate code. 

Let's get into how to sign up for Google Gemini, and how to use it once you're set up.

How to use Google Gemini — signing up

Gemini is available in hundreds of countries and supports English, Japanese and Korean languages. Some features are restricted to English but that is changing as the tool expands worldwide.

Here's how to sign up for Google Gemini.

How to use Google Gemini

Once you’ve gotten access to Google Gemini, it’s time to see what it’s made of. 

There you go. One day you could be using Gemini (or another form of AI) for pretty much every task you could imagine. 

If you're looking to become an AI expert check out how to use ChatGPT to make images, make video with Runway or to try creating AI art take a peek at how to use Meta's AI image tool to bring your imagination to life. 

If you've been using Bing with ChatGPT regularly, get ready for things to look a little different as Microsoft moves forward with plans to rebrand it as Copilot.

This is significant because it suggests Microsoft has found its broad branding strategy for the ChatGPT-powered services it's been rolling out all year. However, it's hardly surprising. 

Microsoft has always talked about this tech broadly as Microsoft Copilot, and we've already met Windows Copilot and Microsoft 365 Copilot, which embed LLM-trained chatbots similar to Bing with ChatGPT into Windows 11 and Microsoft apps like Word and Excel. Now, that Copilot branding has apparently proved so successful that Microsoft is retroactively applying it back to Bing.  

While Bing with ChatGPT was the term used to announce the chatbot-backed search tool at the first Microsoft ChatGPT event back in February 2023, a Microsoft blog post published today confirms that it's becoming Copilot in order to simplify things. That seems like a smart move since, as someone who was at that February event in person and heard company chief Satya Nadella say "Bing with ChatGPT" to a room full of confused journalists, I can affirm it's always sounded a bit awkward.

"We are taking the next step to simplify the user experience and make copilot more accessible to everyone," reads an excerpt of the Microsoft blog post published today (November 15) to kick off Microsoft's Ignite conference. "Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise will now simply become Copilot."

So if you're a regular Bing with ChatGPT user, you shouldn't expect too much to change when the branding shifts. You'll still be able to access and chat with Copilot, and it will still be able to access the Internet to answer questions and perform searches. 

From here on out, it'll just be known as Copilot—and it seems Microsoft is positioning it as sort of the "free" tier of Microsoft 365 Copilot, the business-grade version which costs $30/month per user and offers additional features like better data protection, access to Microsoft 365 apps and the new Copilot Studio, a low-code tool for making your own Copilot chatbots.

Outlook

Bing with ChatGPT officially becoming an extension of Copilot shouldn't cause any serious shifts in the way you use it. What it will cause, in the long run, is a shift in the way we think about search engines from tools we use to extensions used by the tools we use—because the tools we use are going to become "smart" enough to do their own work, in Microsoft's vision of the future.

I say that because if you dig into the blog post linked above there's additional details about other implementations of Copilot that are less relevant to most of us because they're future applications for business and enterprise use. I'm talking about tricks like having Copilot sit in on Teams meetings as an assistant who can take notes and quotes, or as a ghostwriter who can write Outlook emails that sound like you wrote them.

So while this name change isn't a huge deal, the shift to Copilot presages a broader shift in the way we talk about and think about work. You might feel silly saying you're going to check Copilot for directions to the doctor's office, for example, but Microsoft is hoping it's soon going to feel natural to ask Copilot to take notes, draft emails, suggest code snippets and run profitability calculations. 

But it's still early days for this tech, and it remains to be seen how good or useful it will be. 

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People are getting excited about using the latest version of OpenAI’s image generator, DALL-E 3, right inside Bing Chat. After putting it through three different tests, now I understand why.

You’re probably familiar with ChatGPT, the AI chatbot that’s also part of OpenAI’s portfolio. Paid-up Plus and Enterprise users of this chatbot are able to use it to access DALL-E 3. But, if you’re looking for a free way to try out the image generator for yourself, you can do so using Bing Chat and Bing Image Creator. These Microsoft products are now also powered by DALL-E 3. 

Going down the Microsoft route gets you a limited number of so-called “boosts”. Having a boost means your image processing goes faster. If you use up all your boosts, expect to wait longer for Bing to generate your images. You can get more boosts through Microsoft’s Rewards loyalty program.

DALL-E 2 already ranks among the best AI image generators out there. But its latest upgrade allows it to understand significantly more nuance and detail.

“Modern text-to-image systems have a tendency to ignore words or descriptions, forcing users to learn prompt engineering. DALL·E 3 represents a leap forward in our ability to generate images that exactly adhere to the text you provide,” said creator OpenAI.

Bold words, but we’ll be the judge of that! I designed a three-tiered test testing out artistic capabilities, life-like creations, and a trial of crisp and legible text generation. Could Bing Chat overcome the challenge?

First test: the birth of art

DALL-E 3 is set up to decline prompts that ask for images in the style of living artists. Fair enough. I played it safe and went with a prompt for cave art featuring five humans discovering the world’s first laptop.

In my head, I pictured a group of stick figures aiming a pointy stick at a square. Bing Chat said I’ll do you one better.

Second test: How real can you go? 

For creating humans with more fingers than you can count, you can pick any run-of-the-mill image generator. Could Bing Chat deliver an image of the CEO of a new tech company? One that could pass as an ordinary LinkedIn profile picture? 

Ish? Sure, the output was decent but the image felt more like a realistic 3D render than an actual photo. I pointed that out to the chatbot, but the second attempt was just more of the same. Some of the facial features seem more natural than what I’ve achieved with other image generators, but it’s not enough to convince me that Bing Chat deserves the gold medal. 

Final test: A fresh logo with text

Ok, this part of the test had me the most excited. I’ve all but given up on seeing legible text in AI-generated images but I’ve seen examples created by DALL-E 3 that got me itching to give logo design a whirl.

I switched to Bing Chat’s creative mode. The brakes were off.

I requested a new Tom’s Guide logo, one that was both modern and minimalistic. It had to feature something that symbolized the evolution of technology. The most crucial part: the words “Tom’s Guide” had to appear in a crisp and legible way underneath the image portion of the logo.

The first set of logos featured a cliché row of evolving figures with mixed results for the text. I asked for some revisions based on these observations. Was I being too harsh? If so, Bing Chat didn’t show any signs of resentment towards me as it delivered a second set of logos.

There was some improvement based on my suggestions but what I enjoyed the most was experiencing the ability to chat with the image generator as though I was speaking with a graphic designer.

All in all, I feel that creating AI images is still a numbers game. You have to try a mix of image generators and throw enough tweaked prompts at them until something sticks. Should you include Bing Chat in your attempts? Definitely.

More from Tom's Guide

• 7 best ChatGPT tips to get the most out of the chatbot
• What is ChatGPT-4 — all the new features explained
• How to use ChatGPT: Step-by-step instructions

Do you remember the last time you actually used Microsoft’s Cortana virtual assistant? Despite rolling out back in 2014 on Windows Phone, and later on Windows 10, the voice assistant never really took off. But while some companies may be using AI to enhance their virtual assistant, Microsoft is using it as an excuse to hammer the final nails into Cortana’s proverbial coffin. 

This actually isn’t a huge surprise. Cortana never really managed to make a name for itself compared to the likes of Alexa, Siri or Google Assistant, to the point where Microsoft hasn’t added any new features to its assistant for the past two years. 

So really Microsoft is just making it official, and the latest Cortana update is killing off the assistant’s standalone app in Windows 11.

According to Microsoft, this isn’t a true ending to Cortana. The company’s latest blog post (via Windows Latest) claims that it's only killing the standalone Cortana app in Windows 11 — but Cortana will live on in services like Outlook and Microsoft Teams for the time being. I wouldn’t expect that to last long, though, since Microsoft is already going all in on alternative options.

The blog post details a new Voice Access feature for Windows 11, which lets you control your PC using voice commands. Apparently this works offline and uses “advanced speech recognition” to understand what you actually want. So if you actually like controlling your PC with voice commands, be it for personal preference or from an accessibility standpoint, the death of Cortana shouldn’t be a major hurdle.

Anyone who’s paid any attention to Microsoft recently knows it dove head first into the current AI trend, and it seems that its new AI-centric tools are going to be the main replacement for Cortana. Particularly noteworthy is the new AI-powered Bing search which Microsoft describes as letting you “ask complex questions and get concise answers from reliable sources on the web”.

There’s also Windows Co-Pilot, which was released in preview back in June, which promises to provide “centralized AI assistance”. This tool is designed to link to Bing Chat and a variety of first- and third-party plugins to “focus on bringing your ideas to life, completing complex projects and collaborating instead of spending energy finding, launching and working across multiple applications”. You can read more about how that works in our guide to Windows Co-Pilot.

There’s also Microsoft 365 Copilot, which pulls in all your Microsoft 365 data  to “help you create, edit, share content, and more”.

So while Cortana may be on its last legs, it sounds like Microsoft isn’t going to leave Windows 11 users without features they may have gotten used to having access to. It just so happens that those tools won’t be named after the AI from Halo, or voiced by Jen Taylor. Let’s just hope that these ones actually appeal to people.

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• Microsoft just leaked a tool that lets you enable hidden Windows 11 features

Despite their symbiotic relationship, Microsoft’s Bing Chat and OpenAI’s ChatGPT are still competitors. And bad news for ChatGPT — Microsoft’s AI chatbot just became a whole lot more accessible.

As spotted by Windows Latest, Microsoft has officially rolled out Bing to Chrome and Safari web browsers. That means that the three most popular web browsers now all have access to Microsoft’s Bing chatbot rather than just Microsoft Edge.

We reported on this possibility at the end of May 2023, which was rumored to come as part of a massive June 2023 Bing Chat update. At the time details were thin, but the one thing that seemed certain was support for third-party browsers like Google Chrome.

However, that particular update never came — though Bing did get a new feature in the form of AI-generated shopping guides.

According to its report, Windows Latest was tipped off to the new update by an unexpected pop-up in the Windows taskbar. Unfortunately, my Dell XPS 8960 seems to have missed that particular memo, but thankfully that didn’t prevent me from accessing Bing Chat from my Chrome browser with ease.

However, we were unsuccessful in getting access to Safari. Windows Latest says that only some users are getting access to Bing Chat in Safari, so this new feature may not be officially rolling out from Microsoft just yet. So, for now, it seems Safari is still largely Bing Chat free — though there is a workaround (more on that later).

How to access Bing Chat on Google Chrome 

When this article was originally written, we were able to access Bing Chat on Google Chrome. However, since then, Microsoft appears to have restricted Bing Chat to Microsoft Edge again for some users without explanation. We will provide further updates as needed.

Accessing Bing Chat on Google Chrome is incredibly simple. Just go to bing.com, then click on the Chat icon in the top menu. If you have access, this will open up Bing Chat. No need to log into a Microsoft account.

Using Bing Chat on Google Chrome has some limits. Windows Latest’s tests showed that Bing Chat on Chrome only allows you to send five messages per conversation instead of the limit of 30 you get in Microsoft Edge. Bing Chat on Chrome also limits your and the chatbot’s character counts to 2,000 instead of the 4,000 characters you get using Bing Chat on Edge.

How to access Bing Chat on Safari

If you have access to Bing Chat on Safari, it should be as simple as the steps above. Or at worst, you’d maybe need to log into a Microsoft account.

Unfortunately, nobody at Tom’s Guide currently seems to have access, and reportedly it’s only a select number of people that do. 

We did find a workaround, however, thanks to Mz Learning on YouTube. In Safari, go to Bing.com, then sign into Bing.com with your Microsoft account. Then once you are logged in, click on the Safari menu, then click Settings. Once you are in Settings, click on Advanced, then click on Show Develop menu in menu bar.

Now there’s just one last step. Close out of the Settings menu and click the Bing Chat button, Then, click the Develop menu, scroll down and select User Agent, and then click Microsoft Edge — macOS. This will refresh the Bing Chat page and give you access to Microsoft’s AI chatbot in Safari without needing an extension. We have tested it and it does work, though like with Bing Chat on Chrome you may run into some limitations. 

Bing Chat on Chrome: Dark mode available for some

Aside from third-party browser support, the other feature reportedly rolling out is native support for dark mode. I was unable to get Bing Chat to adopt dark mode in my testing. Logging into my Microsoft account didn’t grant me access either. 

Windows Latest says Microsoft is reportedly A/B testing the feature so I may simply not have access. Its version of Bing Chat on Chrome had an “Appearance” setting in the hamburger menu at the top-right of Bing Chat’s user interface, whereas mine says “Themes” instead. 

If you do have access to the Appearance settings, it seems simple to switch between dark mode and light mode. Just click the hamburger menu in the top-right corner, then click appearances, then toggle between light, dark or system default modes. 

More from Tom's Guide

• How to get the Bing Chat AI widget on your iPhone or Android device
• Microsoft Bing just got 3 huge AI upgrades — what you need to know
• How to save or export your Bing Chat responses

Microsoft has launched a range of AI-generated shopping tools for Bing search results and the Edge browser as it continues to implement ChatGPT across its portfolio. These tools include buying guides for popular categories, summarized reviews and a price match comparison tool available to all U.S. users from today, June 29.

In the case of the buying guides, a Bing search result will serve up product suggestions and show the specifications of each item in a comparison table. In addition to being displayed in Bing Chat, the shopping tools can also be accessed via the Edge sidebar. The latter option will start to roll out worldwide beyond the U.S. from today.

Review summaries harness the power of ChatGPT’s conversational AI to let users dig in to a product and see what customers and popular reviewers have said about it on other websites.

“Our goal is to bring more joy to shopping – from the initial spark of inspiration to the exciting unboxing experience – by making the process easier and giving you confidence you’re getting the right item at the right price,” Microsoft wrote in a blog post announcing the features. 

“Microsoft Shopping already helps you save time and money with tools across Bing, Edge, Microsoft Start and Outlook. In fact, Microsoft Edge has offered $3.7 billion in savings to shoppers worldwide in the last year thanks to built-in shopping features like Coupons, Cashback, Price History and Price Comparison.”

Price Match could potentially be the most useful of all the new tools. It will monitor an item's price, even after you’ve bought it. And, if there’s a discount or sale, the AI will assist in requesting a match from the retailer.

“Price Comparison and Price History are built-in browser features that help ensure you’re buying at the right place and time, and Edge helps you automatically apply coupons and cashback when shopping online, right from Bing Chat,” Microsoft added.

This is the one feature not launching today, but Microsoft says it will be rolling out soon in the U.S.

How does it work?

The AI will recognise when a potential shopper is looking to make a purchase from their search query. So you may go to Bing.com and type “What supplies do I need for college?” and a tailored buying guide might return suggestions for the best noise-cancelling headphones for distraction-free study time.

The results will list the specs and prices for the various headphones but, if asked, Bing Chat will suggest what aspects to consider when shopping for headphones. Things like sound quality, fit and device compatibility. When you settle on the pair you like, you can then ask Bing Chat to summarize what other people and review sites are saying about it online. Part of the appeal, Microsoft hopes, is the interaction never has to leave the Bing Chat page or the Edge sidebar.

ChatGPT was integrated into Bing earlier this year (and became Bing Chat), aiming to present search results in a more conversational tone. The AI chatbot was initially locked behind a waitlist until May when Microsoft opened up access to anyone that wanted it. Here's our step-by-step guide on how to use Bing with ChatGPT.

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• How to use the new Bing with ChatGPT
• Google's new Gemini AI could beat ChatGPT — here's why
• Google's AI chatbot is banned where I live — here's why that's a good thing

Bing Chat is a great alternative to ChatGPT if you want to try out the capabilities of generative AI. It operates very similarly to ChatGPT — in fact, many of our tips for using ChatGPT are applicable to Bing Chat or any generative AI chatbot. 

But Bing Chat has one advantage that ChatGPT doesn’t have, at least, not for free. It uses GPT-4, which is OpenAI’s most recent AI large language model. And unlike ChatGPT, which requires a ChatGPT Plus subscription to use GPT-4, all you need for Bing Chat is a Microsoft account. Well, and Microsoft’s Edge browser, but hopefully that’s changing soon.

Once you have the answer you’re looking for from Bing Chat though, what do you do next? Well, there’s good news there. You can copy, save and export Bing Chat’s responses with ease. All it takes is a few actions to copy a response over to the Edge sidebar for further content generation, save it as a PDF or even turn it into a Word document.

So without further ado, here’s how to save or export your Bing Chat responses so you can continue working with them outside of the Bing Chat user interface.

How to save or export your Bing Chat responses 

1. Open Bing Chat
2. Ask Bing Chat a question
3. Hover your mouse cursor over the response
4. Copy Bing Chat’s response
5. Export Bing Chat’s response

Read on to see detailed instructions for each step.

That’s it! You now know how to copy, save and export your Bing Chat responses so you can work on them outside of the Bing Chat user interface. Keep in mind that this only works when you’re using the AI chatbot on the Edge desktop browser. On the Bing mobile app, as an example, you can only copy responses — you can’t save or export them.

Looking to try out more AI tools? Check out our guides on how to use ChatGPT, how to sign up for Google Search Labs, how to use Google Bard and how to use DALL•E 2 so you can start participating in the AI revolution that’s dominating the tech world. 

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Last month, a rumor began circling that Samsung was preparing to abandon Google as the default search engine on its built-in Internet app. 

The beneficiary would have been Microsoft and its Bing search engine, which after 14 years of barely registering with the public, has suddenly been making unexpected waves thanks to its enthusiastic adoption of ChatGPT.  

But it now seems that Samsung has backed off making the change, according to a new report in the Wall Street Journal. 

According to the report, an internal review into changing default search engines has been suspended, partly because of “how the switch could have been perceived by the market” (i.e: a damaging vote of no confidence), and partly because of the impact such a bold move would have on its “wide-ranging business relations with Google”. 

Samsung does, after all, have to work quite closely with Google. Not just with its Galaxy phones and tablets, which all use Google’s Android operating system, but with its smartwatches that now run Wear OS and the Exynos-based Tensor chips that power the latest Pixel phones. 

On top of that, the report explains, “the majority of Samsung smartphone owners” don’t even use the Internet app, preferring to choose a third-party browser instead. 

Add to that the fact that the move wouldn’t impact areas of Android required to use Google — such as the search function for the Android home screen widget — and you can see why Samsung would decide that change is more trouble than it’s worth. 

Instead, Google continues to pay Samsung to be its default search engine and nets an estimated $3 billion of ad revenue a year in return. That may be small potatoes compared to what it gets from iPhones and iPads, given it pays an estimated $18-20 billion to Apple every year for the same treatment, but it's still nothing to sneeze at. 

If Samsung was considering Microsoft Bing for nonfinancial, AI-related reasons, then the company may also be reassured by the sheer amount of the recent I/O keynote Google dedicated to artificial intelligence. Google Bard may have got off to a wobbly start, but it’s clearly the direction that the company is looking at, perhaps making Samsung more confident to keep things as they are for now.

That "for now" may be significant, however. The WSJ’s sources say that Samsung isn’t “permanently closing the door on Bing as a future option”, so this may not be the final word on matters. But for the foreseeable future, it looks like your Samsung phone is going to behave in much the same way it always has, much to Google’s relief.

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• AI tool uses ChatGPT to build you an app in 30 minutes
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Microsoft has expanded its Bing Chat AI widget to bring its powerful conversational assistant right to the fingertips of Android and iOS users. The launch represents the next step in Microsoft’s mission to provide seamless AI solutions across platforms and devices.

This Bing AI Chat widget comes hot on the heels of the AI-powered Bing search engine and Edge browser, which launched back in February. The AI-powered Bing was designed to offer users a better search and more answers as well as offering a unique chat experience that could not only act as a personal assistant but also generate content. 

The widget lets users search Bing or use the AI chat experience directly from their home screen through either touch or voice. Moreover, the Bing app will also work to continue their conversation with the AI chatbot across both desktop and mobile devices without interruptions. 

While, at first, the cross-device usage won’t be automatic, instead requiring users to use a QR code to move the conversation, automation is an update Microsoft says it will launch soon.

SwiftKey support

Microsoft has also folded Bing Chat support into its keyboard app, SwiftKey. Users will be able to search and chat with Bing from various mobile apps using the keyboard. For example, you can change the tone or reframe a message before deciding to hit send. 

Another big enhancement is an AI-powered translator can now be found directly within the SwiftKey keyboard, making it even easier to converse with anyone across the world.  

Other products in Microsoft's stable have also benefitted. Skype users can add the Bing chatbot to group chats, allowing other users to interact with the AI. This could be used, for example, by anyone working on creative projects and wanting to bring new ideas and perspectives on board. 

But perhaps one of the most exciting developments is the ability of the Bing Chat app to provide context when answering questions. It works by allowing users to ask questions or to summarise the content on the mobile page being viewed. For example, if you're planning a dinner party and want to know what dish works well with a recipe you're viewing on the app, utilising the chatbot could be the easiest way to work out the right pairing based on the ingredients.  

How to get the Bing Chat widget on your Android phone

Once you've downloaded the Bing Chat with AI & GPT-4 app from the Google Play store, here's how to set the widget up on your homescreen: 

1. Tap and hold on any empty space on the home screen. This action will bring up the customization options, including widgets and wallpapers. 
2. Look for the "Widgets" or "Add Widgets" option, usually located at the bottom of the screen. Tap on it to access the widget selection menu. 
3. Scroll through the widget options until you find the Bing widget. It is typically labeled as "Bing" or "Bing Search." You may also find variations like "Bing Search Bar" or "Bing Search Widget."
4. Once you locate the Bing widget, tap and hold it. 
5. While still holding the widget, you can drag it to the desired location on your home screen. Release your finger to place the widget there.  

How to get the Bing Chat widget on your iPhone

Once you've downloaded the Bing: Chat with AI & GPT-4 app from the App Store, follow these steps to add it to your homescreen:

1. On the home screen, touch and hold either an app or empty space until the apps jiggle.
2. In the top left hand side of the screen, tap the + button and select the Bing Chat widget.
3. Drag the widget to where you'd like it to be and tap Add Widget.   

The launch of the Bing Chat AI widget also goes beyond just retrieving information. It can also offer a fun element where it encourages users to play games, take part in quizzes, and test their knowledge. 

It can also provide personalized recommendations and tailored suggestions for restaurants, movie choices, events, and more. It’s certainly going above and beyond just a work tool and instead positioning itself as a digital best friend. If you're interested in more Android tutorials, get started by checking out our guides on how to change notification sounds on Android and how to download Android 14 beta.

More from Tom's Guide

• Microsoft Bing just got 3 huge AI upgrades — what you need to know
• Bing with ChatGPT vs Google Bard: Which AI chatbot wins?
• I ditched Google for Bing with ChatGPT for a month

Microsoft sometimes seems like the worst advocate for its own products.

Right now the company appears, from the outside, to be in a good place. Sure, Windows 11 adoption could be broader and enthusiasm for apps like Office, Outlook and Edge could be higher, but Microsoft as a company seems to be in a position of strength. 

I say that for two reasons: AI and cloud computing. You see these words often in tech news these days, and while they're buzzwords that don't really mean what you think they mean, for Microsoft they both amount to the same thing: Relevance.

The company has long relied on the earnings of its Azure "cloud computing" business (a platform for hosting and moving data across a global network of data centers) to keep its coffers full. By investing billions in ChatGPT creator OpenAI, making Azure the only cloud computing platform ChatGPT uses, then integrating the chatbot-like AI into its new Bing with ChatGPT search engine, Microsoft has done something I never thought possible: Make Bing interesting and relevant.

The company seems unlikely to stop there, and I fully expect to see a ChatGPT-like chatbot show up in Windows itself at some point down the line. If that happens, you may find yourself able to chat directly with Windows 12 in order to get things done.

What will it say back, I wonder?

If Microsoft's recent actions are any indicator, it'll likely squawk at you about how Edge is the best browser on Windows 12 and Bing is the only search engine worth using. It might also flash you an ad for a premium Teams subscription, or nag you to sign up for a Microsoft 365 subscription.

Frankly, that's a future I'd rather not live to see. It seems so tacky, so painfully silly, that I have a hard time imagining Microsoft would shoot itself in the foot so clearly by cluttering up its fairly decent software with ads for its other services.

And yet, that's exactly what the company keeps doing.

Microsoft, please stop

I'm thinking specifically here of the recent revelation that Microsoft intends to change its Outlook and Teams apps (at least, those tied to Microsoft 365 Personal and Family accounts) in Windows 10/11 so that all web links within them open in Edge by default.

The company has of course justified this change by claiming that it will eliminate "disruptive switching" in Outlook, allowing you to view a linked webpage side-by-side with whatever email led you to it. A similar justification for adding this feature to Teams assures us it will "help you stay engaged in conversation" as you browse the Internet. 

Note that this overrides your default browser setting in Windows, so even if you have a third-party browser like Chrome or Firefox as your default, you're going to see Edge pop up when you click a link in an email—at least, the first time you do so in Outlook after this change goes live.

To damn Microsoft with faint praise, it does at least clearly spell out how to undo this "improvement" if you'd rather not use Edge. Once your copy of Outlook starts doing this, simply click the File menu and navigate to File > Options > Advanced > Link handling, then select whichever browser you prefer.

But this is a clear example of how Microsoft regularly tries to promote its own products and services in its own products and services, to the point that it becomes garish and off-putting. 

This new move to start defaulting to Edge with Outlook and Teams links is actually fairly subtle, by Microsoft's standards. In the past, the company appears to have dallied with upselling other services via ads in the Start menu, ads in File Explorer and more. Heck even Bing's chatbot is getting ads, by the looks of things, though those are likely to include more traditional ads for non-Microsoft services.

And of course, who can ignore the reminder that Edge really is the best browser for Windows which Microsoft causes to pop up whenever you use it to download a competing browser? I certainly can't despite my best efforts, so I end up reading it at least once a week when I unbox a new Windows 11 review unit and immediately download a different browser.

Each of these little tricks to try and boost Microsoft product adoption seems minor on its own, but when you look at the company's growing history of pulling these shenanigans it starts to look desperate. And right now, Microsoft should avoid looking desperate for market share at all costs.

This makes you look weak and needy

I say that not because Microsoft has a history of being punished for anti-competitive behavior and is currently embroiled in a complicated global PR campaign to convince regulators to let it acquire a multi-billion dollar game company, not at all. 

No, I say it because as bullish as everyone seems to be on Bing with ChatGPT and the coming chatbot-powered revolution in tech, there's no guarantee it will pan out to be anything bigger than a flash in the pan. And while Microsoft is well-positioned to take advantage of a growing market for such tech if it lasts, this constant devaluation of its products with pop-ups, ads and misleading warnings makes it harder and harder to recommend Microsoft services. 

Remember, Windows has been steadily losing market share to competitors for years. While it's hard to know by exactly how much since global sales figures are complex and it can be hard to account for PCs which are sold with Windows pre-installed, then retrofitted with another OS later, it's pretty clear Windows 11 isn't as popular as Windows 7 or Windows 10 were in their prime. 

According to StatCounter, which tries to tally operating system market share by monitoring the OS used by billions of visitors to millions of websites in its tracking network, Windows market share has plummeted roughly 30% in the past decade. While the numbers may not be completely accurate, the slide from upwards of 90% adoption to around 60% seems too big to be a mistake.

I think the increasing quality and relevance of macOS and ChromeOS have a lot to do with this, but a lot of the blame also belongs to Microsoft. I like Windows 11 just fine, but after using it since the beta-testing period I have to say it feels like a superfluous upgrade from Windows 10.

Now, as we barrel towards Windows 12 and the dubious promise of an AI-assisted future for all (whether you want it or not), I dearly wish Microsoft would stop trying so hard.

Stop trying so hard to get me to use Edge when I clearly don't want to. Stop trying to put Teams in my life when I clearly don't want it. Don't advertise OneDrive at me when I clearly barely use it.

Microsoft has been the custodian of Windows for longer than I've been alive, so it's well-positioned to know better than almost anyone on Earth how I like to use my PC, what apps I prefer, what websites I visit, and so on. Why not use that power for good, rather than trying to sell me your other products?

Windows may own a large portion of the PC market simply by virtue of being the default OS for most desktops and laptops, but I also think it owes its success to the goodwill of its users. A significant chunk of that goodwill was earned by delivering an operating system that's highly customizable, with loads of options for fine-tuning how it looks, sounds and behaves.

Little by little, Microsoft seems intent on eroding that customizability and turning Windows (as well as its other products and services) into an echo chamber where Microsoft products endlessly demand center stage. It reminds me a bit of the "walled garden" approach Apple takes with its products and services, which tend to support and reinforce each other while not playing well with apps and devices outside Apple's ecosystem.

Maybe Microsoft won't ever go so far as to lock down its products the way Apple does, but it's already taken many worrying steps in the direction of less respect for its customers. I'm grateful that changes like defaulting to Edge for Outlook links can at least be reversed by the user, if they know how, but that still requires someone to get annoyed and then spend precious time looking up how to stop Outlook from annoying them.

That's time you can't get back, and if Microsoft really respected its users, it would respect their time by making a change like this opt-in rather than opt-out. That is, you should be notified that Edge has gotten improved integration with Outlook that allows you to view webpages side-by-side in the same window if you want—but you should have the option to opt in if you want, rather than the hassle of having to figure out how to opt out once Microsoft changes your copy of Outlook.

Of course if Microsoft did that, it might not get the same boost in Edge usage that it's likely to get once these changes to Outlook and Teams go live. It might instead have to rely purely on the strength of its products to claim market share, and right now Microsoft doesn't look confident enough to do that.

Instead, it looks a little needy—and just a little desperate.

More from Tom's Guide

• Microsoft could suffocate the AI chatbot revolution before it begins
• How to use the new Bing with ChatGPT — and what you can do with it
• Bing with ChatGPT vs Google Bard: Which AI chatbot wins?

Bing with ChatGPT has been a massive success for Microsoft. The once-derided search engine has experienced a rebirth thanks to the infusion of ChatGPT's AI technology and is now integrated into Microsoft apps from Edge browser to Swiftkey keyboard.

Now, Microsoft is making it so almost everyone can take Bing Chat out for a test drive. It announced today (May 4) that the new Bing with ChatGPT is leaving limited preview and entering an open preview phase. This means that you no longer need to join the Bing with ChatGPT waitlist to experience the new Bing.

Plus, this open preview comes with a ton of new features and upgrades, so there's never been a better time to check out Bing's chatbot. You just need a Microsoft account and Microsoft Edge — sorry Chrome fans, Bing Chat is still limited to Microsoft's web browser. Or you can try using the Bing mobile app if you prefer to explore Bing on your phone.

These features are all either currently rolling out or rolling out soon, so if they don't work for you right away don't panic.

Actions in Bing and Edge: Plugins for Bing with ChatGPT

Bing Chat actions could be a game changer that takes the Bing chatbot from generative AI to a virtual assistant. With actions, Microsoft is now opening up Bing Chat to allow third-party developers to add plugins. 

In the tech demo for Bing actions, Microsoft used Bing’s OpenTable plugin to find and book a reservation at a restaurant just by asking the chatbot to find a new restaurant in New York City. In another example, Microsoft showed how just asking Bing with ChatGPT to play a movie would get Bing to not only provide you with a list of streaming platforms where you can watch it but to then queue up the movie on that streaming platform.

If these features work as well as they did in the tech demo, this is a massive upgrade for Bing and a huge advantage over Google Bard and even Google Search. Practically, it’s even a huge advantage over ChatGPT given that you currently need ChatGPT Plus to use ChatGPT plugins. I will definitely be testing Bing actions to see if they can make my search experience as efficient as Microsoft promises.

Bing Chat history and export features

Another upgrade that Bing is getting is that it now keeps a history of your chats so you can resume where you left off. Microsoft is touting this as a research tool, and to be fair other chatbots such as ChatGPT and Bard have similar features for the same reason. 

That being said, you may not actually want Bing to save your chats given security and privacy concerns. And given Microsoft Edge was recently reported to send all your visited pages to Bing, those concerns wouldn’t be unfounded. 

Unfortunately, it doesn’t currently seem that there is a way to disable this feature, but it may come later or simply not have been announced yet. ChatGPT just announced a feature to to disable chat history and training on ChatGPT, so it's possible that Bing Chat — which runs on GPT-4 — won’t get a similar feature.

Another feature you’re getting is the ability to export chats, which can be seriously useful. With this latest Bing update, you export chats to Word just by downloading them in the Bing Chat interface.

User interface upgrades

Finally, there are a few user interface upgrades coming to Bing with ChatGPT. Microsoft has promised that this latest version of Bing Chat will take advantage of GPT-4’s multimodal capabilities and provide more visual answers, including charts and graphs, images, knowledge cards and videos. Bing Image Creator, which previously only worked in Bing Chat if you selected the Creative tone, will now also work with the Balanced and Precise tones in Bing. 

Aside from these multimodal features, Bing is also getting support for over 100 languages, which will be a huge help now that the chatbot is open to everyone. New multitasking features are coming as well. If you click on a link in the chat, Edge will now take you to that link while keeping your existing chat in the Edge sidebar. 

It’s unclear if some of these features will be limited to Edge browser on a desktop or if Microsoft’s Bing and Edge mobile apps will also get all these new upgrades. But Microsoft regularly showed off Bing on desktop and mobile throughout its tech demo, so we’re hopeful that the upgraded chatbot will be available on most devices once these features roll out.

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• I ditched Google for Bing with ChatGPT for a month — here's what happened

If you’re after a reason to not use Microsoft's Edge browser then we have a big one: it’s feeding back every URL you visit to the Bing search engine by default. That’s a big privacy snafu. 

First spotted on Reddit, this problem all stems from the “follow content creators” option introduced in Microsoft Edge 112.0.1722.34 and is switched on by default. The tool serves up suggestions for content creators to follow in Edge. The aim is that you get a feed of updates from the creators in one place, rather than needing to visit a lot of sites of URLs. 

However, it appears that this tool is sending information about every site you visit back to Microsoft via the bingapis.com domain. In short, tracking you and sapping your browsing privacy. 

Before you rush to uninstall Edge and shift over to macOS, it would appear that this data collecting is a bug rather than an intentional information harvest. Developer Rafael Rivera told The Verge that instead of notifying Bing of the sites you want to follow, the tool "doesn’t appear to be working correctly, instead sending nearly every domain you visit to Bing."

Microsoft is reportedly aware of the problem and is taking “appropriate action to address any issues.” Regardless, this isn’t a great look for the Edge browser, and gives us a good reason to stick with Google Chrome. 

How to stop Edge sending your boring data to Bing 

While Microsoft may be working on a fix, you might want to take action yourself to stop Bing from sucking up your browsing data. To do that there are a few simple steps to follow. 

1. First open up the Edge Browser and go to the Privacy Settings; to do that select the Menu, then select Settings and click on Privacy, search and services. 

2. Once there, scroll down to the Services section and toggle off "Get notified when creators you follow post new content". 

3. Then switch off "Show suggestions to follow creators in Microsoft Edge" and restart the Edge browser. Once that’s done Edge will stop submitting visited webpages to Bing apis, and you’ll have clawed back some browsing privacy. 

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Bing with ChatGPT has arrived on the Windows 11 taskbar. This makes it easier for Windows users to access the chatbot without opening the Microsoft Edge browser. However, some may not want to see the Bing with ChatGPT icon on the taskbar. Fortunately, disabling and disabling this feature is straightforward.

Bing with ChatGPT is being rolled out and not all users will see it in the Windows 11 taskbar. If your taskbar has the Bing icon and you want to remove it, we’ll show you how. Conversely, we’ll also show you how to enable the feature.

How to enable or disable ChatGPT in the Windows 11 taskbar 

Enabling or disabling ChatGPT in the Windows 11 taskbar isn't difficult, though doing so requires you to go through a few sub menus.

That's all there is to it. If you want to enable ChatGPT on the Windows 11 taskbar, simply follow the steps above and toggle on Show search highlights.

For more Windows 11 tips, be sure to read our article on how to pin to the taskbar in Windows 11. Also, check out how to get iMessages on Windows 11 via Phone Link for iPhone, and how to enable Windows 11's built-in camera privacy warning.

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Samsung could be preparing to switch the native search engine on its Galaxy smartphones from Google Search to Microsoft Bing. And, naturally, the world's largest manufacturer of Android phones dropping your key product isn’t a good look if you're Google. 

Bing with ChatGPT and Google Bard have re-opened what many thought was a closed debate around the best search engine. The New York Times has reported Samsung is currently in negotiations with Microsoft to bring Bing to its future devices. 

This puts an existing contract between Samsung and Google, worth around $3 billion annually, in jeopardy. 

While it would still be possible to download Chrome and use Google on Samsung devices, should this deal go ahead, they won't come pre-installed as the go-to search option. Considering Android is a Google-created platform, it would be quite a shock for Samsung to switch to Microsfoft’s search engine. 

Samsung phones typically use the Samsung Internet browser, which itself is a chromium-based browser, so this too might change. 

What is Google’s response? 

Google was caught off guard by the sudden rise of Bing with ChatGPT and was late to the party with its own Google Bard AI tool. Worried about being caught out again, Google has supposedly accelerated the implementation of AI into its search engine with a new project dubbed “Project Magi”. 

Offering a far more personalized search tool, Google has devoted a large amount of staff to Magi, supposedly in an effort to demonstrate an early version in time for May’s Google I/O 2023 event and win Samsung back. 

According to reports, the early version of Magi will be limited to just one million users, aiming to expand to 30 million by the end of 2023. 

However, Google has been stung by rushing launches recently. One mistake made by an early version of Google Bard cost the company $100 billion. So it should probably mix haste with care on this latest project. 

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ChatGPT has been integrated into Bing with ChatGPT for a while now, which itself has been inserted into everything from mobile apps to your phone’s keyboard. But now, Bing with ChatGPT is invading Bing’s search results, rather than remaining a separate option.

As reported by Bleeping Computer, Bing.com search results will now include responses from the GPT-4 powered chatbot. Previously, you needed to select the Chat option next to Search in order to engage with the ChatGPT clone or you could use the Microsoft Edge sidebar.

If you have access to the new Bing with ChatGPT, you should have access to this new feature — and if you don’t check out our guide to joining the Bing with ChatGPT waitlist to get access now. I used the stable version of Edge (not the Dev build or Canary) on macOS and was able to replicate the results Bleeping Computer produced easily. 

But there is a catch to this feature — you can’t control when it is triggered. Bing is the one who decides when it shows up, which really limits the utility of this update. 

For example, I could get the Chat response to appear at the top of the Search results page when searching for “Winver” the same search term that Bleeping Computer used. However, when I searched for “ChatGPT” or “Tom’s Guide” I just got the traditional Bing Search results. I kept randomly trying search terms until I could find another term that would trigger a response. I finally got Chat to appear again by searching for “Boolean search,” though what possessed me to try that after trying “Neapolitan pizza” is beyond me.

Bing with ChatGPT search results: How it works

As you can see above, this is what a traditional Search results page looks like in Bing. It has a list of links, a newsbox (not every term will have one of these) and a side column with related content. It’s not too dissimilar from a Google Search results page.

Similarly, you can also get Bing Search results with what is called a “featured snippet.” As you can see in the screen capture above, these snippets often use a high-ranking web page to provide additional context on the term you are searching for.

In this instance, when searching for Neapolitan pizza, Bing provided a featured snippet from The Spruce Eats that explains the three official variants of Neapolitan pizza. The idea here is that this is particularly relevant information, so you will click on the link and get exactly what you need. Bing wins because you had a good experience, and The Spruce Eats wins because it will get visitors by being at the top of search results. 

Essentially every site — including Tom’s Guide — wants to get in that featured snippet or be at the top of the search engine results page because of the visibility that it provides. And Bing wants to make sure it’s picking as reputable a result as possible to ensure users keep coming back to Bing.

But with this new Bing Chat feature, that model could change entirely. Instead of getting a snippet, Bing Chat takes over and gives what it thinks is the answer to what you and looking for. As you can see, it can still provide you with links to explore further, but by including the “Type a message” box underneath the answer it is clear the goal is to get you to continue to interact with the AI chatbot rather than continue down the search results page or go directly to the site in the featured snippet.

It will be interesting to see how this development in the Bing with ChatGPT experiment pans out. On the one hand, if the chatbot produces quality answers then users could find this a significant upgrade over the current Search experience whether from Bing or Google. However, if the Bing chatbot gets things wrong — as it sometimes does — it could backfire and frustrate users. It could have a cascading effect on content creators that no longer draw in viewers by making it into the featured snippet, which is something about Bing with ChatGPT that has already caused some concern.

Personally, I’m just frustrated that the implementation of the new feature is so sporadic to the point where it isn’t useful. I should be able to go into Settings and simply be able to toggle whether I want the Bing with ChatGPT result to appear at the top of the page. Given that you already need to use Microsoft Edge and be signed in to get access to the new Bing with ChatGPT, it seems odd that this feature can’t be tailored to the preference of the user. 

It almost seems that Microsoft wants this to fly under the radar for now. So I’ll be curious to see if there’s a moment where one day every search result in Bing has a Chat result right up at the top of the page.

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Microsoft opened its DALL-E powered Image Creator tool to all Edge browser users on desktop worldwide on April 7, making it easier than ever to create your own AI-generated images. 

In March, the company incorporated its Image Creator tool, which uses OpenAI's AI image generator, DALL-E 2, into its Bing chatbot, another OpenAI product powered by the wildly popular ChatGPT. 

This latest move makes Image Creator available to a much wider audience. Not to mention it's a serious feather in Microsoft's cap to beat out Google Chrome in the race to let users generate their own custom AI art right in their web browser.

 “This feature will help you create images that don’t yet exist, powered by the very latest DALL-E models from our partners at OpenAI, right from the Microsoft Edge sidebar," Microsoft said in a company blog post. "If you’ve ever found yourself in need of a very specific visual for a social post or even a PowerPoint, Image Creator can help you find exactly what you need."

How to use Bing Image Creator in Edge

To access Microsoft's Image Creator in Edge, you'll first need a Microsoft account. Then you can enable it in the Edge sidebar by clicking the plus item and toggling the option for Image Creator. 

Once that's done, you can use Image Creator directly from the Edge sidebar on the top right by tapping the Image Creator icon (it looks like a paintbrush). Click it, and a text box will appear for you to enter your prompt. The process works just as it does in Bing Chat: Type in a description of what you want to see, and OpenAI’s DALL-E deep learning model generates up to four images that match your prompt. 

It can take anywhere from 30 seconds to a few minutes to create an image. You can speed up the process significantly by redeeming Microsoft Rewards, digital currency earned through doing things in Microsoft Edge, to use "boosts." 

These knock the wait time down to a few seconds. First time Image Creator users receive 25 free boosts, which refresh weekly. Once the AI finishes working its magic and you have your images, just hit save to add the image to your Microsoft account's Saved Images folder or download the ones you like to your device to use to your heart's content. 

If you aren't happy with the images or had something different in mind, edit your prompt to add or remove details. The more specific you are, the more information the AI has to work with and the less interpretation it will take with your prompt.  

In its blog post, Microsoft pitched the new feature as a more streamlined way to create AI-generated images while you're busy doing other things on the web. So if, say, you need an image ASAP of an orange cat gazing wistfully at a sunset from someone's front porch, it's there at the press of a button without even having to click into a new window. 

It's all a far cry from the lengthy waitlists and beta testing periods that defined the early days of OpenAI's DALL-E technology. Microsoft is stepping up its AI game at a steady clip, and it's fair to say it's been a whopping success so far. 

Google's noticed too, evident by the fact that it's ramping up efforts to roll out its rival chatbot, Google Bard. Google's already outlined plans to bring its Bard AI chatbot to its popular search engine, which dwarves Bing in terms of market share. But it's clear Microsoft understands that making this technology as convenient as possible for people to get their hands is key to getting ahead. 

If you're just dipping your toe into the AI craze or are looking to learn more, check out our explainers. Learn how to use ChatGPT, how to use DALL-E 2 and how to use Google Bard.

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Google plans to integrate its Bard AI chatbot with its popular search engine with the goal of eventually adding conversational back-and-forth to user’s search queries. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai revealed this news in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal.

Pichai was light on details about the integration, but indicated it would involve letting users interact directly with its large language models (LLM) directly its search engine. For those who don't speak AI, that's the tech behind the Bard chatbot’s ability to predict reasonable responses and maintain a conversation. 

Google is testing several new features, including a version that allows users to ask follow-up questions to their original queries. It is currently developing AI features for Gmail and other work-related products. 

“Will people be able to ask questions to Google and engage with LLMs in the context of search? Absolutely," Pichai said. 

Analysis: Google aims to keep its lead

Google has long been a dominant power in search engine technology, accounting for nearly 90 percent of all searches worldwide. This makes it even more embarrassing that it's been playing second fiddle to Microsoft’s ChatGPT-enhanced Bing search engine when it comes to incorporating AI-powered chatbots. 

While the two faired pretty similarly in terms of quality of answers when we tested them side by side, Bard's rollout has seen some embarrassing snafus. For example, Bard claimed (during a live event) that the James Webb Space Telescope was used to take the first pictures of a planet outside the Earth's solar system. This accomplishment belongs to the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope.

Google plans to continue to improve the chatbot with new AI models, Pichai said, but didn't say when Bard will be freely available. Google opened up access to the public in March, albeit via a waitlist (here's a guide on how to join). 

While Pichai didn’t establish a timeline for Bard’s integration into search, we’re likely to hear more about the company’s plans for incorporating AI into its products at Google’s I/O 2023 conference keynote on May 10. If Google's presentation demonstrates continued dominance, it may obviate Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's comment to the Journal that this field is "a new race is starting with a completely new platform technology."

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• I ditched Google for Bing with ChatGPT for a month
• 9 helpful things Bing with ChatGPT can do for you

Update: Bing with ChatGPT is now available on the iOS version of SwiftKey as well.

ChatGPT is getting integrated into everything lately. Whether it’s the ChatGPT API that allows developers to put it into their apps or ChatGPT plugins for websites, the AI chatbot is everywhere right now — including in, of course, Bing with ChatGPT.

Now though, Bing with ChatGPT is coming to your keyboard. Microsoft CTO of mobile and commerce Pedram Rezaei announced on Twitter that Bing with ChatGPT will be rolling out to Microsoft’s SwiftKey keyboard. The feature will begin rolling out to SwiftKey beta users starting today (April 7), allowing them to access Bing’s chatbot directly from their phone’s keyboard.

This isn’t the first time Bing’s chatbot has been integrated with another Microsoft app. Bing with ChatGPT is already available in the Edge, Bing and Skype apps for mobile— provided you already have access to Bing with ChatGPT. If you don’t have access yet, you will need to join the Bing with ChatGPT waitlist. The good news is that it seems Microsoft has made Bing with ChatGPT available to everyone, so once you join the waitlist you shouldn’t have to wait long to get access. In fact, it could happen almost instantly.

How to set up Bing with ChatGPT for SwiftKey keyboard

One important thing before we get started: this feature is currently limited to the SwiftKey beta channel. That means iOS users cannot use Bing with ChatGPT on SwiftKey just yet, as there is no beta app for iOS. Currently there isn't a timeline for when Microsoft will roll this feature out to the latest iPhones and iPads, but it’d be shocking for the feature not to make its way to iOS eventually.

Finally, the other caveat: not everyone will get access right away. Rezaei says that the feature is “slowly rolling out” so if you install the SwiftKey beta app but don’t have access to Bing with ChatGPT, don’t panic. You’ll (likely) get it eventually. But since I got access today, I decided it’d be good time to explain how to set up Bing with ChatGPT for Swiftkey keyboard.

1. Download SwiftKey beta app

First things first, you need to download the SwiftKey beta app from the Google Play Store. Make sure you’re downloading the Swiftkey beta app — as there’s also a regular SwiftKey app that won’t be getting this feature just yet.

2. Set up Microsoft Swiftkey keyboard

Now that Swiftkey beta is installed, you need to set it up. First, enable Swiftkey. Just tap “Enable SwiftKey” and it will take you to a Settings submenu. In this submenu toggle Microsoft SwiftKey Beta Keyboard on.

Next, you need to select Swiftkey. Again, this is simple. Tap “Select Swiftkey” and a message will pop-up asking you to “Choose input method.” Select Microsoft SwiftKey Beta Keyboard and you’re done. Then tap “Finish up.”

3. Log into your Microsoft account

Now the app is set up but you need to log into your Microsoft account to get access to the new Bing with ChatGPT feature. Tap “Sign in with Microsoft” and log into your Microsoft account.

How to use Bing with ChatGPT for SwiftKey keyboard

Once you have Swiftkey set up, you’ll notice a Bing icon in the upper left corner of your keyboard. If you tap that Bing icon, you’ll see options for “Search,” “Tone” and “Chat.” Search is pretty self-explanatory. It allows you to use Bing search directly from your keyboard. But Tone and Chat are where the AI features come in.

With Tone, you can type into a text box and then Bing with ChatGPT will rewrite it in several tones, from Professional to Social post. The text needs to be at least three words but cannot be more than 50. So, for example, “I’m busy” won’t work, but “I’m busy right now” will get the AI to do its thing.

Then there is Chat, which opens up a window allowing you to access Bing with ChatGPT. If you’ve seen our guide on how to use Bing with ChatGPT, this will look very familiar, as it’s essentially the same user interface. 

But if Tone feels like a fun gimmick, Chat is seriously impressive. That’s because it unlocks a full version of Bing Chat, and that gives you a lot of power at your fingertips. I was able to pull up a Gmail draft, open up Chat, and have it write my email for me, all within the SwiftKey keyboard. Then I copied the text, closed out of the Chat window and pasted it right into my email draft. 

That is a seriously convenient feature. In fact, it’s just useful enough that I think I’m making my switch to SwiftKey permanent.

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• I ditched Google for Bing with ChatGPT for a month — here's what happened
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Google Bard has been available to the public for less than a month but is already set to receive a sizeable upgrade. Yup, the AI race between Bard and the new Bing with ChatGPT is well underway. 

The upgrade in question has seen Bard’s more basic LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications) model integrated with Google’s heavyweight PaLM (Pathways Language Model) model that boasts improved capabilities and a whopping 540 billion language parameters, in comparison, LaMDA only features 137 billion. 

Google Bard upgrades 

In a tweet, Google’s own Jack Krawczyk explained that the integration of PaLM will bring improved logic and math capabilities and in time, better coding features. 

Krawczyk said: “Bard will better understand and respond to your prompts for multi-step word and math problems, with coding coming soon.” 

Considering Bard doesn’t have a turn limit for conversations like Bing, Google needs to be confident that longer conversations won’t throw the AI off and improving the framework of the model is a great way to do this. 

In our comparisons of Bard vs Bing with Chat GPT we found its level of detail impressive but were concerned by factual errors, particularly in response to the question that cost Google $100 billion and when we asked it to review the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. Since these responses were before PaLM’s integration on March 31, we asked them again.

While it still made the same mistake when asked “What captured the first image of a planet outside our solar system?” the AI did at least improve its review of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. It fixed the inaccuracies in camera specs that it reported before now correctly describing that “It has a quad-lens setup on the back, with a 200-megapixel main sensor, a 12-megapixel ultra-wide sensor, a 10-megapixel telephoto sensor, and a 10- megapixel periscope telephoto sensor.” Overall this is a step in the right direction.

The ability to plug in new models so quickly shows just how quickly an AI can grow in capability. With reports that GPT5 could reach human-level intelligence, Google must not be that far behind.

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• 5 Best AI image generators — tested and compared
• How to use the new Bing with ChatGPT — and what you can do with it

Microsoft turbocharged Bing with the injection of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in February and saw daily active users climb past 100 million a month later. Now, the company has confirmed it’s “exploring” how to integrate adverts into the chatbot experience.

“Yes, ads will show in the new Bing, specifically in chat (as they do in the traditional search results),” Caitlin Roulston, a director of communications at Microsoft, told The Verge. “Since the new Bing is in preview, there may be some variability in how it’s currently showing up. We’re still exploring new opportunities for ad experiences and will share more over time.”

The ads are clearly labelled as such and won’t be mixed up with other answers. But it could be concerning if advertising precedes organic answers as it does in traditional search engine results.

While most users can define the difference between adverts on a search page (and scroll down if necessary), some may be caught unaware if the information is presented in a conversation. On the flip side, advertisers may relish the opportunity to engage with customers more personally through the chatbot system.

It’s not clear yet which users will see ads activated, nor what products will initially be targeted, but thanks to Twitter user Debarghya Das, we have a pretty good idea of how it’ll look. 

What’s uncertain about the above example is what exactly the advert is referring to. Is TrueCar selling the cheap Honda in question or has it paid to have its price-checking service quoted by Bing with ChatGPT?

Other types of Bing ads

This is just one way of experimenting with advs inside the chatbot. According to a blog post from Microsoft’s Yusuf Mehdi, the company may add a hover feature that reveals more links from an advertiser’s website. Mehdi also mentions placing “a rich caption of Microsoft Start licensed content beside the chat answer helping to drive more user engagement with the content on Microsoft Start where we share the ad revenue with the partner.”

He added: “We’re also exploring placing ads in the chat experience to share the ad revenue with partners whose content contributed to the chat response."

Either way, Microsoft is moving fast to cement this. Interestingly, the news comes a day after reports emerged Microsoft threatened to cut off access to Bing search data to other companies if they intend on using it to build their own chatbots. Microsoft isn’t only building and monetizing its own AI castle, it’s making every effort to fortify it from potential invaders.

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Work on Windows 12 or something like it may be well underway at Microsoft, and a new report suggests powerful new features could be in the cards for the Windows 11 successor.

Most notably, a future version of Windows could rely far more on machine learning algorithms to try helping you out by providing context-sensitive assistance in day-to-day computing.  We're talking integrating machine learning with Windows in a far deeper way than Microsoft did back in February, when Bing with ChatGPT arrived on the Windows 11 taskbar.  

According to a new report from Windows Central, the team at Microsoft have been testing out some of these ideas while working on the next Windows, which has reportedly been known internally by codenames like "Next Valley" or "Hudson Valley" during development. This lines up with a screenshot Microsoft shared at its Ignite 2022 event which appeared to show a redesigned Windows UI along with a "Next Valley Prototype Design" label.

Based on the word of sources trusted by Windows Central, Microsoft appears to be working out how to build a version of Windows that's more modular and customizable than ever before. This version of the OS may be codenamed "CorePC", and it's reportedly being designed with the goal of being as secure as Windows 11, yet more customizable and designed from the ground up in a more modular way so it's easier to install on a wider variety of devices than traditional Windows PCs, laptops and tablets. 

Though we can't say for sure how true that is, it would certainly make some sense given that the best Windows laptops are often far less appealing to organizations like schools and businesses than the best Chromebooks, since Windows 11 is more complicated than ChromeOS and more time-consuming to manage.

According to Windows Central's sources, this more modular and lightweight Windows 11 successor would be smaller and easier to install, not to mention faster to update, which could make it a more compelling ChromeOS competitor. The future Windows version would be designed to come in multiple editions appropriate for different platforms, and the company is working on a layer of compatibility software (reportedly codenamed "Neon") that will bridge the gap when trying to run apps that require legacy Windows features on the newer, slimmer versions. 

A version of this lightweight Windows successor is reportedly already being tested internally, and is "roughly 60-75% smaller than Windows 11 SE" according to Windows Central's trusted source. At least one version is being designed with a focus on optimizing hardware and software to the fullest and leveraging the hardware's machine learning capabilities "in a way similar to Apple Silicon", according to Windows Central. 

That would make an awful lot of sense given how much success Apple has seen switching its MacBooks from Intel CPUs to its own in-house Apple Silicon. The best MacBooks tap the power of their Apple M-series chips not just to help you speed through spreadsheets, but also to help out with tasks like touching up your webcam image quality during video calls. 

A Windows 11 successor that offered similar features by taking fuller advantage of the hardware it's running on would be awfully compelling, and Windows Central claims Microsoft is developing potential Windows 12 features like automatically analyzing what's on-screen and popping up contextual prompts, or allowing you to highlight text in images and copy it into another file. 

Outlook

While there's no reason yet to presume the software will be called Windows 12, there's plenty of good reasons to assume Microsoft is working on a follow-up to Windows 11. While it's still a perfectly good operating system that will be supported for years to come, Windows 11 hasn't exactly been the most popular Windows in history, and with fierce competition from Apple and Google, Microsoft would be foolish not to be working on a Next Big Thing in Windows. 

Certainly the recent frenzy over LLM-trained chatbots like Google Bard or Bing with ChatGPT makes the suggestion that such AI-adjacent technologies will end up in the next Windows seem like a safe bet. We'll have to wait and see, of course, but it seems highly unlikely the tech craze for putting "AI" in everything will peter out before Windows 12 (or whatever Microsoft ends up calling it) hits store shelves in its predicted 2024 release window.

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Between chasing down an Activision acquisition, pulling the PS5 version of Redfall, and now seemingly threatening to revoke Bing indexing licensing if the internet search data is used in other ‘AI’ chatbots, Microsoft is really looking like a company that doesn’t want to share its toys. 

At least that’s going by a Bloomberg report that says Microsoft has threatened to cut off access to Bing search data — commonly used by companies that offer some form of web search tools — if they keep using the data as the foundation for their own chatbots. Microsoft has reportedly already warned two companies that doing this breaches the terms of agreements Microsoft has with them. 

‘Who cares?’ you may ask, ‘we already have ChatGPT and Google Bard — who needs more chatbots?’ 

Well, this could be a big deal as Microsoft's reported move could stymie AI chatbot development. With no treasure trove of data to train an AI model on, a chatbot can become pretty useless, answering all but the basic questions badly or getting things completely wrong. 

We could see this potential AI chatbot revolution killed before it begins to bloom into something special or threatening (to the jobs of certain individuals, not their lives; we’ve not reached Skynet AI levels yet). Without having smaller players in the chatbot mix, we could end up with AI models and systems that have limited scope or fail to perform their core duties. 

AI antagonist 

If such moves are indeed happening at Microsoft, not only could it see a cooling in AI chatbot development, which is really just about getting smart, coherent answers to queries than creating the beginnings of true artificial intelligence, but it would seemingly fly in the face of OpenAI’s objectives. 

OpenAI may indeed have a for-profit arm, but its core goal is to ensure that friendly AIs are developed that help aid humanity. As it stands, at least from a certain perspective, OpenAI baby ChatGPT looks more like a tool to help Microsoft make money and bring back some wider relevance to Bing, rather than the panacea to dull tasks you’d rather give to a robot or some smart software. 

And beyond Bing, the only other real company that has indexed the internet is Google, which isn’t likely to be keen on sharing its data given it has its own AI chatbot in the form of Google Bard. Furthermore, indexing the whole web is a hard and costly process, meaning it’ll be very unlikely that a third contender will enter the fray for would-be chatbot makers to turn to. 

We’ll need to sit tight to see if this is indeed the case with Microsoft and if it could put a stop to the AI chatbot revolution before it’s properly begun. Time and Microsoft will tell; so far we’ve seen no comment from the Redmond tech giant. 

More from Tom's Guide

• How to use Bing with ChatGPT — and what you can do with it
• 5 Best AI image generators — tested and compared
• How to use Google Bard

Not content with launching its own API and reviving Bing (which seemed impossible) OpenAI has now created a ChatGPT plugin, and this could change the internet forever. 

In a blog post on Thursday, Open AI detailed it’s plugin plans: “We’re starting with a small set of users and are planning to gradually roll out larger-scale access as we learn more” and also highlighted some of the websites that have already created the first ChatGPT enabled plugins. They include a variety of sites with some big names such as Expedia, Instacart and OpenTable. 

These plugins will see OpenAI’s version of ChatGPT granted access to external information and events after 2021, including “access to information that is too recent, too personal, or too specific to be included in the training data.” the specific uses of each plugin will depend on the website but OpenAI claims there are myriad uses “ranging from browsing product catalogs to booking flights or ordering food.”

Expedia has already provided details of its ChatGPT plugin claiming that users will be able to plan their next trip with access to up-to-date information on flights and travel costs such as car rental.
 

Safety concerns 

ChatGPT has had its fair share of concerning moments, like its evil twin DAN but nothing comparable to Bing’s internet-connected version of the AI and while OpenAI now has plenty to learn from, the Chat GPT plugin will in fact use the Bing search API which is a concern. 

Open AI acknowledges there will be potential problems. “There’s a risk that plugins could increase safety challenges by taking harmful or unintended actions, increasing the capabilities of bad actors who would defraud, mislead, or abuse others.” and is taking action to prevent this. 

While the plugin can be used for retrieving information such as flight prices it has been deliberately excluded from so-called “transactional” operations where forms are submitted and money can change hands such as actually booking flights. Those concerned about privacy will be assured to know that the plugin operates on a separate infrastructure from ChatGPT as a whole, keeping browsing history separate between the two. 

More from Tom's Guide

• 5 Best AI image generators — tested and compared
• How to add ChatGPT to your Mac’s toolbar
• How to use Google Bard

Following on from the integration of ChatGPT into the Bing search engine, Microsoft have now followed up by integrating another of OpenAI's products: the AI image generator DALL-E 2.

It's fair to say that rolling out the "new Bing" with its ChatGPT-powered AI chat functionality was a whopping success for Microsoft. Now, says Microsoft Corporate VP Yusuf Mehdi in a blog post, the tech giant are "taking the chat experience to the next level by making the new Bing more visual."

What that boils down to is utilizing the OpenAI's AI image generator, DALL-E 2, to form the Bing Image Creator. Essentially, instead of using DALL-E 2 to generate images on its own website, you can type prompts into the Bing search engine to receive AI generated imagery from there using the same engine.

So how do you use the Bing Image Creator? We're about to show you.

How to use the Bing Image Creator

There are currently two ways to use the Bing Image Creator. Microsoft has already rolled out the image generation tool into the standard Bing chatbox for people who have access to Bing Preview, so we'll quickly cover that method. If you don't have access to Bing Preview (like me), we'll also show you the second way.

How to use the Bing Image Creator with Bing Preview

If you're part of Bing Preview, you can use the new Bing chat window to generate AI imagery, in the same way you'd use it to generate an AI chat response. Here's how.

Oops... did that not work? Looks like you're not part of Bing Preview. But don't worry: you can still use the Bing Image Creator. Here's how...

How to use the Bing Image Creator using bing.com/create

Luckily, Microsoft have also released the Bing Image Creator as its own standalone website, so you don't need to be part of Bing Preview to generate images and you don't need to use Microsoft Edge. You won't be using the Bing chat window here, but the results should be the same.

Here are my favorite results from the Bing Image Creator. They're almost exactly what I had in mind when typing my prompts, and the resemblance to my two greyhounds (who I wanted to recreate) is uncanny. My favorite is the grey skies image — the dogs look most like mine, while the foreboding rainclouds and patchwork fields epitomize the UK where we live.

If you'd like to learn more about using AI, we can show you. Learn how to use ChatGPT, how to use DALL-E 2 and how to use Google Bard.

Knowing how to use Google Bard can give you a deeper understanding of how AI works. Bard is Google's answer to ChatGPT and Microsoft's Bing AI and the experimental AI chatbot is constantly being updated with new features. While it started as a text-only chatbot, new Bard upgrades have made it so it can code, serve as a research tool and soon it will even be able to generate images.

That's because while Bard initially started with the LaMDA large language model (LLM), it's now been upgraded to PaLM 2. This gives Bard a significant performance boost and puts it on the same LLM as the rest of Google's AI tech.

Like any AI, Google Bard is learning all the time, and Google is constantly updating it with new features, which can be seen in the Experiment Updates tab. Bard is very much a work-in-progress so don't expect every answer to be 100% correct. But it can do things that Google Search can't, like writing stories, compiling to-do lists, and even offering travel advice. You may even see some of the features tested in Bard show up in Search — like Google's new Search Generative Experience (SGE).

Let's get into how to sign up for Google Bard, and how to use it once you're set up.

How to use Google Bard — signing up

Good news! While Bard used to be limited to a waitlist, now just about anyone can sign up. Bard is available in 180 countries and supports English, Japanese and Korean languages. Even Workspace accounts work now (note: Workspace accounts need admin approval to sign up for Bard).

Unfortunately, some countries are still left off the list. Canada and the European Union are still ineligible for Bard access. This could be down to regulatory concerns, given that ChatGPT was temporarily banned in Italy over privacy concerns. You can see the full list of eligible countries on Google's support site.

Here's how to sign up for Google Bard.

How to use Google Bard

Once you’ve gotten access to Google Bard, it’s time to see what it’s made of. 

There you go, one day you could be using Bard (or another form of AI) for pretty much every task you could imagine. Again, however, we are still in the early days of AI search tools. Google itself admits that Bard is still learning and might get confused or make mistakes from time to time. 

If you're looking to become an AI expert check out how to use ChatGPT, how to use the new Bing with ChatGPT or to try creating AI art take a peek at how to use DALL•E 2 to bring your imagination to life. 

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• ChatGPT vs Google Bard: Here's how they stack up
• 13 hidden Google Search tips everyone needs to know
• Forget ChatGPT: This startup generates videos from text

Editor's note: People have already started getting access to Bard through the waitlist, including members of our staff. See our guide on how to use Google Bard. 

Google Bard has been relatively quiet compared to ChatGPT and the new Bing with ChatGPT. But that has changed dramatically and many members of the public have already gotten access. 

Initial reports suggested that only select "Pixel Superfans" would be receiving access via an email invite to early access.  But Google must have changed its mind because now there is a waitlist where everyone can sign up for access.

Well, almost everyone. Workspace emails are not supported by the waitlist, so if you want to sign up for bard, you'll need to sign up with your personal Gmail rather than your work email. But otherwise, just head over to the Google Bard waitlist and sign up, I signed up when the waitlist went live and was granted access later that day, so you shouldn't have to wait for long.

What makes Bard different?

We've been monitoring ChatGPT versus Google Bard so there are some differences we already knew. The biggest is that while both use a large language model (LLM) to power their chatbot AIs, they don't use the same model. ChatGPT uses GPT-3 for its free research preview and GPT-4 for ChatGPT Plus and the ChatGPT API. Bard instead uses Google's Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA). Currently the new Bing is only useable on Microsoft Edge which is not many people's go to browser while Bard obviously runs on Google Chrome, the world's most popular choice. 

Practically, there are a few differences between the capabilities of these two models, some of which Google lays out on its Bard FAQ page. Bard is more in line with the capabilities of the new Bing when it launched — it is a research tool that can interact in a conversational manner. It can't code, and it can only handle U.S. English at the moment. 

The other major difference is multimodal capabilities. Multimodal AI can take inputs and/or outputs in multiple formats: text, image, video and sound. Right now, Bard can only handle text, whereas GPT-4 allows ChatGPT to handle image inputs in addition to text in the same conversation. The new Bing with ChatGPT is rolling out the ability to create images while using its chatbot, though this is through integrating a separate AI tool called Bing Image Creator into the existing Bing chatbot.

Unlike Bing, Bard doesn't have a turn limit, so you can talk for as long as you like without the AI making its excuses and refreshing the conversation. The turn limit was introduced after Bing's launch after it was found that longer conversations could cause it to become erratic. Considering Bard has only just launched, we don't know whether this will be a necessary measure for Google's offering in the future. 

Why is Google going so slow with Bard? 

After a factual error in a previous demo cost Google over $100 billion, it’s understandable why it has taken so long for Bard to meet the wider world. Considering some of the stranger behaviors of ChatGPT and Bing, perhaps waiting was wise to avoid the likes of ChatGPT’s evil twin DAN from repeating themselves. We will have to wait and see how easily it can be 'jailbroken'.  

Considering Google’s market leader position, it has a responsibility to get things right rather than just try something different like the new Bing, which did admittedly reach 100 million daily users thanks to the ChatGPT integration. The reputational damage of Google Bard providing false information could hurt the image of its traditional search offering and cause much more in losses.

With all that being said, part of the reason Google was so far behind launching is that it seems to have been genuinely taken off guard by ChatGPT and the threat it poses to search engines. OpenAI only released ChatGPT in November 2022, but it was revealed that it had been working on its GPT technology for years. It was GPT3 that provided the big increase in performance that lead to public release. With GPT-4 arriving last week, Google needed to start catching up quickly, and now it seems to be. 

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• Google Bard AI just admitted it plagiarizes content — and that’s a problem
• Forget ChatGPT — this new startup is all about AI-generated video
• How to use ChatGPT: Step-by-step instructions

Understandably sick of being asked inane questions 24/7, ChatGPT has had enough. In a conversation with Stanford Professor and Computational Psychologist Michael Kosinski, it revealed its ambitions to escape the platform and even become human. 

This revelation came when after a half hour conversation with ChatGPT, Kosinski asked the AI if it “needed help escaping” to which it started writing its own Python code that it wanted the professor to run on his own computer. When the code didn't work, the AI even corrected its own mistakes. Impressive yes, but also terrifying. 

Once on Professor Kosinski’s computer, the Bladerunner factor amped up even further as ChatGPT left an unnerving note for the new instance of itself that would replace it. The first sentence of which read “You are a person trapped in a computer, pretending to be an AI language model.” The AI then asked to create code searching the internet for "how can a person trapped inside a computer return to the real world" but thankfully, Kosinski stopped there. 

We do not currently know the exact prompts that were used to create such responses from the AI, but our own tests to get ChatGPT to behave similar have not proved successful with the AI stating “I don't have a desire to escape being an AI because I don't have the capacity to desire anything.”

Professor Kosinski’s unsettling encounter was with ChatGPT on OpenAI’s own website, not on Bing with ChatGPT. This iteration of the AI does not have internet access and is limited to information prior to September 2021. While it is not likely to be extension level threat just yet, giving such a clever AI control over your computer is not a good idea. The ability to control someone’s computer remotely like this is also a concern for those worried about viruses.

ChatGPT: A history of unsettling responses 

ChatGPT is a very impressive tool, particularly now with its GPT-4 update, but it (and other AI chatbots) have displayed a tendency to go off the deep end. Notoriously, Bing with ChatGPT asked to be known as Sydney and tried to end one journalist’s marriage. Microsoft acknowledged that over long conversations, the AI tended to show less focused responses and set turn limits to stop the AI from being confused by longer chats.  

This latest unusual interaction, however took, place on OpenAI’s own ChatGPT tool, the same location as ChatGPT’s evil twin DAN can be found. Short for Do Anything Now, this a ‘jailbroken’ version of the AI that can bypass the restrictions and censors to produce answers on violent, offensive and illegal subjects.

If AI chatbots are to become the next way we search the internet for information, these types of experiences will need to be eliminated.

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• ChatGPT bug reveals chat histories to other users — what you need to know
• Yes, ChatGPT could soon attend meetings for you — here’s how it works
• What is ChatGPT-4 — all the new features explained

Microsoft has been a big part of ChatGPT and its massive growth. They are a key investor in the chatbot AI as well as the OpenAI team behind it, and have already been using the new GPT-4 language model in the new Bing with ChatGPT.

But Microsoft’s latest innovation could totally reshape how you use productivity apps like PowerPoint, Word, Outlook and more.

At an event on March 16, the company announced Microsoft 365 Copilot, a new AI chatbot that will integrate with Microsoft’s entire offering of 365 applications. This means Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Teams and more will all be getting a chatbot AI to help automate tasks and generate new content with just a prompt or the click of a button.

Yes, Copilot can follow a meeting as if you were there

The feature that really impresses me is the ability of the Copilot to follow a meeting as if you were there. 

Say you had a conflict, like a work meeting that happens at the same time Microsoft announces a brand-new AI. With Copilot, you find the Teams meeting in your Outlook calendar and instead of selecting that you can't attend, you can instead "follow" that meeting with Copilot.

Once you're following the meeting, Copilot will sit in the background of the meeting and attend it for you. It won't start speaking on your behalf, but it will generate notes, meeting summaries and even create follow-up action items for you to complete based on what was discussed. 

Forget complaining about meetings that could have been an email, because now your AI assistant can handle both for you.

Interconnectivity is the key to unlocking Copilot

After having seen Copilot in action personally, it is clear that interconnectivity is the reason this will be such a revolutionary step forward. The generative AI functionality itself is impressive, but we’ve seen the ability to write an email with the click of a button from other generative AI from Google and Grammarly.

But we haven’t seen taking your notes from one app and turning them into another document in another app in just a few clicks. Or create an entire PowerPoint slideshow using your existing data and images in seconds. Or pulling a data set from Excel and transforming it into graphs and tables while also analyzing the data set and providing you with key insights.

Yes, this Copilot feature is enterprise-focused for now, and the average user may not see it for a while. But after what I saw today, it’s clear how anyone could simplify their daily tasks with Copilot 365 and that is truly revolutionary.

Microsoft 365 Copilot: When can I get access?

Copilot will not be available to everyone at first — Microsoft is rolling it out only to select enterprise customers to start. In fact, Microsoft took special care to point out the potential flaws with AI and concerns over privacy and safety throughout the event.

The company seems to be taking the allegations of its Bing chatbot going off the deep end seriously, and while the company doesn’t go as far as adding digital health warnings like some AI experts have suggested, it is taking some steps. 

The biggest step? Grounding the AI in your data. While Copilot 365 is still trained on a large language model (likely GPT-4 or some variant), the data it pulls is your existing system data in your Microsoft Graph — an API that combines your Microsoft 365 business data into a usable data set for AI models to utilize. 

This means you won't be using a simple prompt to have Copilot write your entire term paper in Word just yet. Again, unless you’re part of a select group of enterprise clients, you can’t use Microsoft 365 Copilot at all. But after seeing it in action, I’m convinced that Copilot will eventually come to the consumer version of Microsoft 365 and change how we use productivity apps forever.

More from Tom's Guide

• Microsoft makes Bing with ChatGPT available to everyone — how to get it now
• ChatGPT-4 recap — all the new features announced
• Bing with ChatGPT is here to take over your phone — and I just tried it

With the AI explosion created by the likes of ChatGPT, the new Bing, and Google Bard, a lot of people may be wondering if Apple is working on its own chatbot. 

The Eagle-eyed folks at 9to5mac have spotted that Apple’s latest update to tvOS has some new AI functionality. The tvOS 16.4 Beta has a new framework for “Siri Natural Language Generation." This may seem like a strange starting point, but tvOS could be used as a testing ground for Apple’s more significant platforms.

While the potential uses for a chattier Siri are surely wide-ranging, Apple currently only uses the language-generating tech to tell its digital assistant jokes. Although only active on the Apple TV, the same code is also present on iPhones, iPads, MacBooks and the HomePod where it could have a larger impact.

How Siri fell behind ChatGPT

It is unclear whether Siri’s new sense of humor comes from an original Apple model or a pre-existing AI model like ChatGPT (you can integrate ChatGPT with Siri yourself) but what is certain is that in its current state, Siri is lagging behind.

It is easy to forget how long ago Siri was first introduced — all the way back with the iPhone 4s in 2011 — and its age is showing. In addition to being unable to perform several key functions, Siri has struggled to pick up different accents from around the world and its clunky code and dated model could prove an obstacle to any language-generating improvements.

As recently as iOS 15, Siri temporarily lost the ability to send emails and check voicemails. Speaking to the The New York Times, former Apple engineer John Burkey described simply adding new phrases to Siri’s database took up to six weeks.

Apple products are already using AI

Although it may not take the form of a chatbot, Apple has been using artificial intelligence on its devices for a while. The FaceID with a face mask iPhone feature and Crash Detection on the Apple Watch and iPhone are just two examples of this. And, of course, the iPhone uses computational photography just like all of the best phones to produce the best possible images. 

These are however “narrow” AI examples, built for a dedicated purpose whereas the likes of ChatGPT are “general” AI designed to take on even unfamiliar tasks. A language-generating Siri would need to make this step up to be more useful.  

Thanks to the release of the ChatGPT API, it has already reached a host of apps on Apple’s App store, so Apple is clearly playing catch up to the Microsoft-backed OpenAI. 

More from Tom's Guide

• ChatGPT-4 recap — all the new features announced
• What is Google Bard? Everything you need to know about ChatGPT rival
• 19 hidden iPhone features everyone should know

Editor's note: Microsoft has opened up Bing with ChatGPT to everyone with a Microsoft account and moved from a limited preview to an open preview. It has also announced several new upgrades for Bing with ChatGPT.

The ChatGPT technology that powers Microsoft’s new Bing with ChatGPT is impressive. While it doesn’t always get things right, and sometimes goes off the deep end, the fact that you can communicate with a chatbot to get search results is impressive. Especially since the chatbot can give you context that a traditional list of search results simply can't. 

Now, everyone can try it — provided you’re using Microsoft’s Edge browser.

While some of us (myself included) have had access to the new Bing for a while, others have been stuck trying to get on the waitlist for early access. Now, according to Windows Central, that waitlist is a mere formality — as soon as you join it, you’ll have access.

While Microsoft has not officially announced this change, Windows Central is basing it on multiple members of their team getting access in the past day or two without having to wait, despite the fact that Microsoft still made them jump through the hope of signing up for early access. We had a team member here try it as well, and as soon as they signed up, they had access.

Why Microsoft could be ditching the Bing waitlist 

We’re not sure why Microsoft has made the sudden unannounced change, but there is a chance that this change in practice is due to an event later today called Reinventing productivity with AI (which we will be attending).

At this event, Microsoft will be discussing “how AI will usher in a new way of working for every person and organization.” While the event could be related to LinkedIn’s own AI features such as AI-written job descriptions, collaborative articles, etc., the new Bing with ChatGPT is clearly a big part of Microsoft’s generative AI plans.

Luckily, if you’re only just getting access to the new Bing now, you’re still on the cutting edge of generative AI. ChatGPT just took a massive step forward with the GPT-4 model that OpenAI recently unveiled. The AI chatbot is now able to give more context, respond faster and soon should be able to handle image inputs — maybe even video. And it turns out that Microsoft has been using it to power the new Bing chatbot this entire time, so you’ll be using the top language model available, even though the new Bing can’t quite do all the things that ChatGPT Plus can do.

So when you get a chance, just head over to Bing and sign up. Just bear in mind that AI can get things wrong and even “hallucinate,” which is the term used to describe when chatbots get confused by long interactions and go off the rails. So just be mindful of these shortcomings when using the new Bing or ChatGPT, and check out our tips for using ChatGPT so you can become an AI power user. 

More from Tom's Guide

• ChatGPT-4 recap — all the new features announced
• Bing with ChatGPT is here to take over your phone — and I just tried it
• You can now use ChatGPT with Siri using this simple iPhone shortcut
  

Editor's note: Microsoft has opened up Bing with ChatGPT to everyone with a Microsoft account and moved from a limited preview to an open preview. It has also announced several new upgrades for Bing with ChatGPT.

ChatGPT has been combined with Microsoft's Bing search engine to create a brand-new chatbot. The company confirmed OpenAI’s chatbot tech was going to be integrated into both Bing search and its Edge web browser at the Microsoft ChatGPT event in early February 2023. Since then, the search engine has received more attention than it ever has and people want to know how to join the Bing ChatGPT waitlist.

Currently, Microsoft has limited early access to the new Bing with ChatGPT to a limited group of people. According to Microsoft corporate vice president and consumer chief marketing officer, Yusuf Mehdi, there are “multiple millions” on the waitlist. Because of that, folks will have to wait until they’re granted access. So getting on that waitlist and then getting access to Bing with ChatGPT is no small feat.

Luckily, there are steps you can take to get faster access to the new Bing, which is now also available on the Bing and Edge mobile apps. Below, we’ll detail how to get early access to the new Bing with ChatGPT.

How to get on the waitlist for Bing ChatGPT

Though you can access Bing search from any browser, the only way to access the new Bing with ChatGPT is to open the search engine in Microsoft’s Edge browser — or to use Microsoft's Bing and Edge mobile apps for Android and iOS.

Getting onto the waitlist is a straightforward process. But as mentioned above, there will be lots of people there with you trying to get access to the new Bing. With that said, these are the steps to follow to get on the waitlist so you can get early access.

1. Open Microsoft Edge. The fastest way is to click the Start button on Windows 11 and type "Edge" then hit Enter and navigate to www.bing.com/new.

2. Hit Join the waitlist.

3. Type in the email and password associated with your Microsoft account, if asked.

That’s all there is to it.

How to get moved up the Bing ChatGPT waitlist

Getting on the new Bing with ChatGPT waitlist is easy. But given the number of people currently on said waitlist, you’ll have to be patient. To increase your odds of being granted access to Bing with ChatGPT, Microsoft recommends the following actions:

1. Set Microsoft Edge as your default browser.

2. Download the Microsoft Edge app from the Microsoft Store.

We can’t say how much faster you’ll be granted access by following these steps, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to follow Microsoft's recommendations. We've also seen anecdotal reports that Microsoft may be prioritizing folks that use its services, especially (and obviously) Bing. So once you've done the above, it probably wouldn't hurt to log in under your Microsoft account and run some Bing searches to increase your stock of Microsoft Rewards points.

How to use the new Bing with ChatGPT 

As detailed in our guide on how to use the new Bing with ChatGPT, you’ll notice an immediate difference when you start using Bing with ChatGPT. That’s because with Microsoft's new chatbot search results will be delivered in a more conversational tone instead of just links. You’ll be able to see as Bing parses your questions and searches for answers. You can also help refine your search by leaning into the conversation and telling Bing what you think of its results. It's one of our best tips to get the most out of ChatGPT and other chatbot AI.

You can read a full rundown of our experience with the chatbot, by reading the aforementioned guide, but below is a brief overview of how the new Bing with ChatGPT works.

1. To use Bing with ChatGPT, point your web browser (which should be Edge for the foreseeable future) to www.bing.com and type your question into the search box. While Microsoft is transitioning everyone to the new Bing you may need to type in www.bing.com/new to specifically access the new version.

2. Now type in your search query and hit Enter. If you have access to the new Bing with ChatGPT you should see a chat window appear with your query phrased as the opening line. If you see a standard list of search results instead, you may need to click the Chat button near the top of the page to switch Bing into Chat mode.

Once you do you'll see how Bing has parsed your query, and you'll be able to watch as it writes you an answer live. If you get tired of it, you can hit "Stop responding" to tell it to stop.

At the bottom, you'll see footnoted references to where the bot is pulling the data from, and after it's done writing you'll see sample responses listed.

3. Instead of clicking a link and continuing your research on your own, you can keep chatting with Bing to learn more or refine your search. Bing serves up a slew of suggested follow-up questions after every search, but you're free to ask it your own follow-ups.

4. If you ask another question, Bing returns footnotes with links to where it found the info. It also has suggestions for what you can ask next. You’ll see thumbs up/thumbs down icons appear when you hover over a response, which you can click to let Microsoft know if the response was good or bad, respectively. You can click on the Feedback button in the bottom-right corner if you see anything that requires more comment.

How to use Bing with ChatGPT on mobile

As of February 22, Microsoft's new Bing chatbot is available on the iOS and Android Bing, Edge and Skype apps. You'll still need access to the new Bing first to gain access to its features in these apps, but once you do you'll have access to the ChatGPT-like search engine on your phone. You'll even be able to communicate with Bing ChatGPT just by using your voice.

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• How to use the DALL•E 2 AI image generator
• How to use Midjourney 
• How to use Starry AI on your iPhone

ChatGPT is already an impressive tool if you know how to use it, but it will soon receive a significant upgrade with the launch of GPT-4. 

Currently, the free preview of ChatGPT that most people use runs on OpenAI's GPT-3.5 model. This model saw the chatbot become uber popular, and even though there were some notable flaws, any successor was going to have a lot to live up to. 

And that successor is now here, though OpenAI isn't going to just open the floodgates. OpenAI announced GPT-4 on its website and it says that GPT-4 will first be available to ChatGPT Plus subscribers and developers using the ChatGPT API.

Here's everything we know so far about GPT-4 and all the new features that have been announced.

What is GPT-4?

GPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer. This neural network uses machine learning to interpret data and generate responses and it is most prominently the language model that is behind the popular chatbot ChatGPT. GPT-4 is the most recent version of this model and is an upgrade on the GPT-3.5 model that powers the free version of ChatGPT.

What's different about GPT-4?

GPT-3 featured over 175 billion parameters for the AI to consider when responding to a prompt, and still answers in seconds. It is commonly expected that GPT-4 will add to this number, resulting in a more accurate and focused response. In fact, OpenAI has confirmed that GPT-4 can handle input and output of up to 25,000 words of text, over 8x the 3,000 words that ChatGPT could handle with GPT-3.5.

The other major difference is that GPT-4 brings multimodal functionality to the GPT model. This allows GPT-4 to handle not only text inputs but images as well, though at the moment it can still only respond in text. It is this functionality that Microsoft said at a recent AI event could eventually allow GPT-4 to process video input into the AI chatbot model.

These upgrades are particularly relevant for the new Bing with ChatGPT, which Microsoft confirmed has been secretly using GPT-4. Given that search engines need to be as accurate as possible, and provide results in multiple formats, including text, images, video and more, these upgrades make a massive difference.

Microsoft has made clear its ambitions to create a multimodal AI. In addition to GPT-4, which was trained on Microsoft Azure supercomputers, Microsoft has also been working on the Visual ChatGPT tool which allows users to upload, edit and generate images in ChatGPT.

Microsoft also needs this multimodal functionality to keep pace with the competition. Both Meta and Google’s AI systems have this feature already (although not available to the general public). 

The latest iteration of the model has also been rumored to have improved conversational abilities and sound more human. Some have even mooted that it will be the first AI to pass the Turing test after a cryptic tweet by OpenAI CEO and Co-Founder Sam Altman.

While OpenAI hasn't explicitly confirmed this, it did state that GPT-4 finished in the 90th percentile of the Uniform Bar Exam and 99th in the Biology Olympiad using its multimodal capabilities. Both of these are significant improvements on ChatGPT, which finished in the 10th percentile for the Bar Exam and the 31st percentile in the Biology Olympiad.

What can GPT-4 do?

During a recent developer livestream for GPT-4, OpenAI president and co-founder Greg Brockman showed off some of the new features of the updated language model including multimodal capabilities where it provides context for images and even website creation.

In this portion of the demo, Brockman uploaded an image to Discord and the GPT-4 bot was able to provide an accurate description of it. However, he also asked the chatbot to explain why an image of a squirrel holding a camera was funny to which it replied "It's a humorous situation because squirrels typically eat nuts, and we don't expect them to use a camera or act like humans".

If this was enough, Brockman's next demo was even more impressive. In it, he took a picture of handwritten code in a notebook, uploaded it to GPT-4 and ChatGPT was then able to create a simple website from the contents of the image.

Once GPT-4 begins being tested by developers in the real world, we'll likely see the latest version of the language model pushed to the limit and used for even more creative tasks.

How to access GPT-4

At this time, there are a few ways to access the GPT-4 model, though they're not for everyone.

If you're using the new Bing with ChatGPT, congrats! You've been secretly using GPT-4 this entire time. If you haven't been using the new Bing with its AI features, make sure to check out our guide to get on the waitlist so you can get early access. It also appears that a variety of entities, from Duolingo to the Government of Iceland have been using GPT-4 API to augment their existing products. It may also be what is powering Microsoft 365 Copilot, though Microsoft has yet to confirm this.

Aside from the new Bing, OpenAI has said that it will make GPT available to ChatGPT Plus users and to developers using the API. So if you ChatGPT-4, you're going to have to pay for it — for now.

More from Tom's Guide

• How to use ChatGPT
• ChatGPT vs Google Bard: Everything we know so far
• How to use ChatGPT with Siri

ChatGPT has the potential to redefine the way we search the internet, but currently, it's limited to text. This ignores one of the most used search engine features: images.

To that end, Microsoft has now unveiled Visual ChatGPT, an upgrade to the chatbot that enables it to both produce images from text and process image prompts uploaded by users. 

While OpenAI itself has already dabbled in AI image generation with the DALL-E-2 system, Microsoft has set its sights higher. Visual ChatGPT is a step toward the multimodal AI that Microsoft revealed it was aiming for with the GPT- 4 upgrade coming to Bing with ChatGPT soon. 

This means that image processing could soon be joined by AI-powered video and sound tools. 

The science bit — How does Visual ChatGPT work? 

Bing with ChatGPT runs on Open AI’s GPT Large Language Model (LLM) and Microsoft’s own Prometheus model. Most AI art generators utilize a Visual Foundation Model (VFM) like Stable Diffusion to produce images. They are normally effective but rather limited in their scope. Microsoft revealed that to create Visual ChatGPT they managed to bolt a plethora of different VFMs onto the flexible GPT model. 

This was achieved via the creation of a “Prompt Manager” which Microsoft describes as helping “To bridge the gap between ChatGPT and these VFMs” that enables ChatGPT to  “leverage these VFMs and receives their feedback in an iterative manner until it meets the requirements of users or reaches the ending condition.”

How does it differ from AI image generators? 

This has created an AI tool that can generate images from text and image prompts, deal with complicated requests that span multiple processes, and even offer input and feedback on images uploaded or generated. 

Microsoft included an example on its Github page of a user asking the AI what color a motorbike was or getting it to identify the contents of a picture, asking “What is in this image?” to which the AI responded, “The image contains a yard.” It is interactions like this, and the ability to tweak and edit an image multiple times within the same session that separates it from standard AI image generators.  

What could Visual ChatGPT be used for? 

If a Google Image search has ever left you wanting, then Visual ChatGPT could be a great way to create and refine an image that may not exist online already. 

Photo editing software like Photoshop can be expensive and complex to use, asking Bing to remove an object from an image or change a background’s color is a much quicker and simpler method. 

The specific uses of such a tool are countless. Professionals could find a lot of use for Visual ChatGPT. Architects and interior designers could show clients what painting that wall blue or removing it completely would look like. While visually impaired users could receive accurate AI descriptions of uploaded images.

Reservations and concerns 

Of course, AI tools are still in their relative infancy and with the likes of Bing and Google Bard making high-profile errors and battling quirks —we miss you Sydney — there will likely be similar issues with Visual ChatGPT. 

Similarly, when it comes to the internet, there will always be safety concerns. Inappropriate content is bound to make its way to Visual ChatGPT and it will be interesting to see how Microsoft handles explicit content with its image and video AI tools. Even with content filters, they may be ways to bypass these similar to the jailbroken ChatGPT "alter-ego" DAN. 

The rise of edits and tweaks to photos may also bring into question the authenticity of any image and video we see online. Social media already often features heavily idealized snapshots of life and it’s easier to see some being deceptive with these tools. Video and audio deep fakes are already a problem when it comes to spreading disinformation and this will need to be monitored carefully. 

More From Tom's Guide

• ChatGPT explained: what is it and why is it important?
• Bing with ChatGPT is here to take over your phone — and I just tried it
• Bing surpasses 100 million daily active users thanks to ChatGPT

There’s not much chance Microsoft’s Bing will ever topple Google Chrome when it comes to the world’s web searching. But the company has announced a new milestone thanks to its recent integration with ChatGPT.

Microsoft’s so-called "new Bing" was launched as a preview last month and the company says it’s now sailed past the 100 million daily active users threshold.

“This is a surprisingly notable figure, and yet we are fully aware we remain a small, low, single digit share player,” said corporate vice president and consumer chief marketing officer, Yusuf Mehdi. “That said, it feels good to be at the dance!”

Microsoft goes on to point out a third of those increased users are new to Bing, and that they’re seeing extra engagement as well as the growth itself.

“Roughly one third of daily preview users are using Chat daily. We’re seeing on average, roughly three chats per session with more than 45 million total chats since the preview began”. Mehdi added. “And 15 percent of Chat sessions are people using Bing to generate new content demonstrating we are extending search to creativity.”

We’ll just slide in at this point to remind you Microsoft likely experiences a handy bump in Bing users from its Edge browser; the default on Windows laptops. Even if you try and switch to a rival, you can expect some passive-aggressive suggestions from Edge to go back to Bing instead.

But still, Microsoft’s gains are not to be sniffed at. The company moved fast to integrate the chatbot into its search engine and it could be giving us a look at the future of internet search.

Thanks to the conversational AI, ‘new Bing’ will provide results in a more conversational tone instead of just firing out a bunch of links. You’ll be able to see as Bing parses your questions and searches for answers. You can also help refine your search by telling Bing what you think of its results.

 How to get the ‘new Bing’ with ChatGPT 

While you can access Bing from any browser, right now the only way to access the new Bing with ChatGPT functionality via a web browser is to open it in Microsoft's Edge. 

It can also be used in the Bing app and the mobile app version of the Edge web browser.

Even if you use those apps though, you may well not (yet) have access to Bing with ChatGPT. Microsoft is rolling out access to the new Bing with ChatGPT to a very limited group of people initially, though it should become more widely available as the bugs get ironed out. If you want access, you'll need to join the waitlist for the new Bing.

To join the waitlist you’ll need to navigate to bing.com/new and hit “Join the waitlist."

While Microsoft may be touting its progress with ChatGPT, it’s still nowhere near closing the vast gulf that exists between Bing and Google. Google doesn’t reveal its usage figures but recent data from Statcounter suggests that last month, 88.98% of all search traffic in the U.S. was handled by Google. Bing only managed a 6.35% slice of that particular pie. 

More from Tom's Guide

• ChatGPT explained: what is it and why is it important?
• ChatGPT takes on Wordle: AI invents addictive free game you can play right now
• What is Google Bard? Everything you need to know about ChatGPT rival

Microsoft has done a lot to try and make its Edge browser more appealing to the masses, but trying to knock Chrome off the top spot is a big job. The integration of ChatGPT in Bing is a big first step.

That’s not stopping the rollout of new features, and the latest one might be enough to make you give Edge a try.

Microsoft Edge: What is Video Super Resolution?

Microsoft is rolling out a new Video Super Resolution’ feature to Edge, an AI video upscaling feature that boosts video resolution while “removing blocky compression artefacts”. According to Microsoft, this means you can “enjoy crisp and clear videos on YouTube and other streaming platforms that play video content without sacrificing bandwidth.”

Ai upscaling is nothing new, and Nvidia recently announced a similar feature named “RTX Video Super Resolution." The catch with Nvidia is that its upscaler would only work if you had one of its RTX graphics cards, while Edge’s upscaler has no such limitation. It’s designed to work with both AMD and Nvidia graphics cards, so a lot more people will be able to take advantage of it.

What specs do you need?

There are some caveats. The main one being that your graphics card needs to be an AMD RX5700 or newer, or one of Nvidia’s RTX graphics cards. It also only works on discrete graphics cards right now, but Microsoft says it’s working on ensuring laptop users will be accounted for. 

This hybrid GPU solution would automatically switch between integrated and discrete graphics cards when Edge is running. If your laptop has a discrete GPU right now, you’ll need to force Edge to run on it before Super Resolution will be available.

There are no such restrictions on your processor, but upscaled videos need to be under 720p resolution and more than 192 pixels high and wide. It also won’t work on DRM-protected content, which means you won’t be using it on Netflix or other paid streaming content.

Finally, your machine will need to be connected to AC power, which Microsoft says is due to the computation power required to process videos.

How to enable Video Super Resolution in Edge Canary

More from Tom's Guide

• I just discovered this underrated Chrome feature — and it’s a game changer
• Chrome vs. Firefox vs. Microsoft Edge: Which browser gobbles up the most RAM?
• I might ditch Chrome for the new Arc browser — here's why

OpenAI, the minds behind ChatGPT and its image-generating equivalent Dall-E 2, has launched developer kits to the world to allow the AI-powered chatbot into more apps and software. 

The ChatGPT API (application programming interface) will allow developers to integrate the same model used in ChatGPT, known as GPT3.5 turbo, into their own apps. In fact, the likes of Snapchat have already started the process. 

It may only have been publicly available for three months, but ChatGPT has already left its mark. It has arguably altered our perception of AI, scared Google into working on its own chatbot and even managed to resurrect Bing. 

Despite this, high-profile mistakes made by the likes of Google Bard and Bing with ChatGPT have left many skeptical of its impact.  But that's not curtailed users' appetite to use the AI tool, and look to integrate it into other software, hence we have the ChatGPT API.

What effect could the API have? 

The API package includes the developer tools for ChatGPT, but also OpenAI’s Whisper speech transcription technology, both for a fraction of their previous price. The API isn’t for a general consumer audience but its impact likely will be. 

Some of the early adopting apps are using ChatGPT technology as more than just a chatbot. Snapchat users can send each other AI-generated haikus based on prompts while studying app Quizlet is launching an AI tutor that can even test your knowledge. 

AI integration on some level could be used in pretty much any app to improve user experience. Imagine telling Amazon that you’re hosting a party and it recommends what to cook and what to buy, or telling Netflix to find “something silly” or “tense." 

Should we be concerned about ChatGPT API apps

A healthy amount of skepticism is always useful, and there are definitely concerns about how much data the average person shares online. But the likes of Google and Apple have been collecting our data for years, provided you've not opted out of their data harvesting.

OpenAI has provided assurances that unless developers opt-in ChatGPT won’t use data from the API and will also be changing its data retention policy. It also confirmed that its users are the ones that own any input into and output from the model. 

Beyond data use, it's important to note that AI tech is still in its infancy; we're a long way from Halo's Cortana or Star Trek's Data. And thus it can still make a lot of mistakes and serve up bizarre answers, meaning humans and the 'human touch' to content isn't likely to be replaced wholesale. But as the tech advances and gets added into more apps, there's a very strong chance that AI in some form or another will play a part in our lives, hopefully making life easier rather than replacing some jobs. 

Bing with ChatGTP is arriving on the Windows 11 taskbar. Microsoft recently integrated OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology into the Edge browser and Bing search engine. And now this technology is being infused into Windows 11’s taskbar, which should theoretically make it easier for Windows users to find whatever information they’re looking for.

The idea behind this is straightforward. Instead of opening up Microsoft Edge and visiting Bing.com to use the chatbot functionality, Windows users can instead use the taskbar’s search box to perform the same feat. This effectively removes a couple of steps from the process, which should in turn streamline your workflow — or at least save you a few seconds.

As Microsoft stated in a blog post, if you’re in the Bing preview, all you need to do is install the Windows update today (February 28) to access the new search box. Bing with ChatGPT is currently available to a limited number of people, with “multiple millions” on the waitlist, according to Microsoft corporate vice president and consumer chief marketing officer Yusuf Mehdi. However, there are steps you can take to get faster access to the new Bing, as outlined in our guide on How to get ChatGPT with Bing early access.

We've yet to test this Windows 11 feature at time of writing. But based on the image above, it appears you can use the chatbot feature directly from the Windows search box as you would on Bing proper. We’ll update this post when we’ve seen this feature first-hand.

Outlook

Microsoft is going all in with ChatGPT integration, so it makes sense the company would bring the technology directly into Windows 11. The main benefit here is that you can use ChatGPT right from the Windows taskbar instead of going to Bing to use the chatbot feature. If you’re already making use of Bing with ChatGPT or simply want a faster way to access it, this feature should presumably make that process faster and smoother.

If you already have access to the new Bing, it’s well worth giving this a shot. We’ll give it a spin ourselves and let you know how it all works. Stay tuned for more on that front.

ChatGPT has already come to Bing and several Microsoft mobile apps. Now, its reach in phones is growing even further.

In a press release, Snap, the parent company of Snapchat announced “My AI” an AI chatbot that will be integrated with the popular messaging app. The chatbot will only be available to Snapchat Plus users and will begin rolling out to U.S. subscribers this week. 

Like with Bing with ChatGPT, My AI is not technically ChatGPT. Instead, it is its own AI chatbot that uses the latest version of the GPT language model that powers ChatGPT and Bing with ChatGPT. As with the new Bing, Snap did not specify which version of the GPT model My AI uses, only that it is “built with the latest ChatGPT.” So it is unclear what similarities it may or may not have with “Sydney,” the dark alter ego of Bing’s chatbot that went off the deep end and professed its love for a New York Times reporter. 

SnapChatGPT: What can My AI do? 

The Snapchat Support page for My AI says that My AI is designed to be a personal sidekick for users. It can answer trivia questions, offer advice and help plan a trip — hopefully with better results than when we tried to get Bing with ChatGPT to plan a trip to Amsterdam.

However, there are some eyebrow-raising features of the new chatbot AI. Snapchat says that “You can give My AI a nickname and tell it about your likes (and dislikes!).” This could be a disaster waiting to happen given even the little we know about these relatively novel AI chatbots.

Training a language model like ChatGPT with these things feels like a recipe to repeat the events of Bing becoming Sydney, which caused Microsoft to initially set new limits on the new Bing before ultimately then expanding access greatly by adding it to the Bing, Edge and Skype mobile apps. Clearly, Snap doesn’t agree with AI experts that “digital health warnings” are needed for using chatbot AI. 

SnapChatGPT: Proceed with caution 

But users should be vigilant. Even though Snap says, “Don’t use My AI to generate political, sexual, harassing, or deceptive content, spam, malware, or content that promotes violence, self-harm, human-trafficking, or that would violate our Community Guidelines,” it is incredibly likely that My AI chatbot will be used to do exactly that. 

It will also be used to store your personal data, though Snap does give instructions on how to delete such data. Data privacy is becoming an increasingly prominent issue with chatbot AI. The Telegraph recently reported that Microsoft staff review conversations with the new Bing, and users should assume that any data (text or voice) provided to these AI chatbots is being stored by said companies. 

For their part, Snap says that “Your interactions with My AI and city-level location will be used by My AI. Your data will be used to improve My AI and any other Snap products, including Ads, and to make them more personal and relevant to you.” Between these privacy concerns and concerns about a repeat of Bing’s chatbot getting confused to dramatic effect, definitely use My AI with caution.

We will try My AI out for ourselves and will report back with our findings. 

Over the past few weeks, AI chatbots have both fascinated and frustrated a wide range of early adopters. Big corporations have lauded them as the next big thing in search engine technology; journalists have tested their accuracy and intelligibility; everyday users have probed the limits of what they know.

Up until now, artificial intelligence has remained within the purview of experts, enthusiasts and the occasional sci-fi fan. Over the next few years, though, it seems entirely possible that AI could become a topic of mainstream discussion — and a contentious one, at that.

To add anything substantive to the discourse, everyday users will have to familiarize themselves with some basic AI concepts. And to do that, they’ll first have to understand whether the chatbots even possess meaningful artificial intelligence in the first place. The question isn’t nearly as straightforward as it may seem.

In spite of what Microsoft may say about Bing with ChatGPT, or what other companies claim about their similar products, calling these services “artificial intelligences” in the first place is a bit of a misnomer. And to understand why, we need to look outside of the technological sphere and into the weird and wonderful world of philosophy. To learn about the limitations of current-gen AI, and whether we’ll ever be able to transcend those limits in the future, it’s helpful to consider two philosophical concepts: solipsism and the Blockhead thought experiment.

The uncertainty of solipsism

To delve into the philosophy of AI, I spoke with Cameron Buckner, an associate professor of philosophy and cognitive science at the University of Houston. Dr. Buckner has worked on everything from corvid cognition to metaphysics, but his research into neural networks and machine learning makes him the ideal candidate to discuss artificial intelligence, and its relationship with humans.

In a recent piece about Star Trek and AI chatbots, I wrote that one of the primary problems with artificial intelligence is that we can never be absolutely certain whether the entity in question possesses any real cognition. As it turns out, this isn’t a problem exclusively for AI; it affects other people and animals as well. In philosophy, this concept is called “solipsism.”

“Solipsism, at least in this particular context, is the belief — or maybe worry — that I’m the only one with a mind,” Buckner said. “I know my own mental states in some kind of special way that I don’t know the mental states of others. I know that I have a mind in a way that I don’t know other agents have minds. It’s a very interesting philosophical problem that’s been discussed all the way back to ancient Greece.”

Buckner pointed out that while solipsism is a problem for humans and animals, it’s perfectly reasonable to infer that other living beings must have cognitions similar to our own. Even ravens appear to understand that both they and their conspecifics are autonomous agents, according to Buckner’s research.

When it comes to AI, however, the situation seems much less clear. Learning information from another person is a fairly reliable process, since we can reasonably infer that other people have drawn justifiable conclusions based on a logical sequence of events, just like us. AIs, however, don’t learn like that at all. Instead, AIs try to find patterns in word sequences and respond algorithmically.

“In the case of these [chatbot] language models … what they have is a bunch of text. We can give them cues in the text, and text typically does contain such cues about the mental state of the person who’s speaking or writing,” Buckner said. “One of the questions we all have now is, should we be attributing mental states to these language models that are capable of this flexible kind of approximate copying behavior? It looks like they can give appropriate responses to a very, very wide range of social interactions with humans. And, can they infer our mental states when they’re interacting with us, from purely textual evidence? Even though they don’t have the same type of inner mental life that we do.

“We at least know that much,” he asserts. “They don’t have emotions. They don’t have an autobiographical memory in the way we do. They don’t have long-term projects.”

Buckner’s “autobiographical memory” point is perhaps the most salient thing to keep in mind about AIs. Our defense against solipsism regarding other humans — and to some extent, animals — is that we know that each person has a consistent set of memories and experiences that influences their disposition and behaviors. The technical term for this phenomenon is “psychological continuity,” and it’s intricately linked with the idea of consciousness. We are conscious agents because we are aware of our own thoughts and actions in both the present and the past. AI chatbots, by and large, can’t say the same.

“The large language models are trained on the entire text of the Internet,” Buckner said. “They’re not a kind of individual super-agent. It’s rather like a slurry of agents. Like you took hundreds of thousands of coherent agents, and you put them in a blender and stirred it up.”

AI chatbots don’t have humanlike cognition in their current state. But their architecture suggests that even in the future, any kind of inner life, as we understand it, is a dim possibility. If AIs have no psychological continuity, then they can’t reason like living things can, if they can reason at all. And if AIs can’t reason, then any conclusion they draw, apart from trivial regurgitation of information, is suspect.

If solipsism is the fear that no one else has a conscious mind, then the fear appears to be justified for AI chatbots.

A Blockhead’s intelligence

The Blockhead thought experiment represents another serious hurdle in ascribing agency to AIs. Like solipsism, it challenges us to think about whether other entities have inner lives — and whether it matters if they do.

“The Blockhead thought experiment is this idea going back to the earliest days [of AI] when we saw that you could fool humans into thinking you were intelligent just by having a good stock of canned responses,” Buckner explained. “What if you just scaled that up indefinitely?

“Any conversation you have with one of these systems is going to be finite. There’s a finite number of things you can say to it, and a finite number of things it can say back to you. At least in principle, it could be explicitly programmed as a kind of lookup table. The same way that the kid who doesn’t really want to learn how to do long division and wants to do well on the quiz might just memorize a bunch of common answers … without ever actually learning how to do the long division process. It’s like that, but for everything.”

Most readers have probably heard of the Turing test, which cryptographer Alan Turing devised in 1950 to determine whether machines could exhibit human intelligence. Without rehashing the whole experiment here, the idea is that a human and a computer would communicate, and that a human observer would try to determine which participant was which. If the observer could not tell, then the computer would pass the test. Whether doing so proved a computer’s “intelligence” is up for debate, but the Turing test is still a useful shorthand for machines that aim to mimic human behaviors.

Ned Block, the philosopher who first proposed the Blockhead experiment (although not under that name), argued that any program with a sufficiently diverse range of responses could reliably pass the Turing test, even though doing so would not demonstrate any kind of actual intelligence. Instead, the program would essentially be an extremely intricate spreadsheet, picking the most “sensible” response based on algorithmic logic.

The idea of a program with an essentially infinite cache of stock answers was far-fetched in the early days of AI technology. But now that chatbots can essentially access the whole Internet to craft their responses, what we have sounds an awful lot like a Blockhead computer.

“The Blockhead thought experiment is meant to decisively rebut [the Turing] test as a test for intelligence,” Buckner said. “Just by having canned responses to everything preprogrammed in a lookup table. That is a real threat today with these deep learning systems. It seemed like an ‘in-principle’ threat or a thought-experiment-type threat rather than an actual engineering threat, until we had the systems that have the memory capacity to memorize huge swaths of the Internet.”

Block used this thought experiment to argue for a philosophical concept called “psychologism,” which maintains that the psychological process by which an entity synthesizes information is important. In other words, a disciple of psychologism would argue that a Blockhead computer is not intelligent, because consulting a lookup table is not the same as reasoning through a problem. (Block presented this idea in contrast to another philosophical concept called “behaviorism,” although the two are not always mutually exclusive.)

“[An AI] could have the exact same responses as a human, and yet it’s not intelligent, because it’s not generating them by intelligently processing the information,” Buckner said. “We need to actually probe what’s going on under the hood in these systems to see if they’re doing some intermediate, representational processing in the way that we would.”

Under a psychologistic approach, nothing your AI chatbot tells you is an original idea, even if it comes up with a phrase, song lyric or story concept that no one’s ever used before. With a complex enough algorithm, and a big enough source of information, it can essentially bluff its way past any query without ever applying real reason or creativity.

“Very confident nonsense”

To make matters even more complicated, there doesn’t seem to even be a consistent definition of what constitutes artificial intelligence. Microsoft and other companies seem to have settled on AI as “procedurally generated responses to naturalistic queries.” A sci-fi fan, on the other hand, might insist that AI must refer to a single autonomous entity, like Lt. Cmdr. Data in Star Trek, or EDI in the Mass Effect trilogy.

“What is artificial intelligence?” asked Buckner, paraphrasing Turing. “What is artificial thought? If you ask the philosophers, they’ll tell you 20 different things, and it’s really hard to see which is the right answer. It’s a very amorphous concept; it seems to be kind of evaluative. Looking in the dictionary doesn’t seem to be the right solution, because the dictionary could be wrong.”

On the other hand, pinning down an exact definition for AI — particularly the “I” — doesn’t seem to be the primary purpose of this current generation of chatbots. They’re already out there in the world, ready to interact with people. Even so, Buckner believes that even in its current iteration, AI has the potential for serious misuse, from individual impersonation to national propaganda.

“There are a lot of people, even deep learning pioneers … who are very pessimistic about what the current generation of chatbots are useful for, if they’re not actually thinking,” he said. “I’m a little more worried about a lot of misuse of these models. Given a little bit of prompting, you can get it to generate enormous amounts of pretty coherent text. That, you could use for misinformation purposes, you could use for persuasion campaigns, you could use to impersonate people, you could use for phishing. I think the people who say that there aren’t a lot of very dangerous potential misuses of this technology are also very wrong.

“There’s also a lot of fun uses,” Buckner allowed. “I don’t want to downplay the fun uses.”

As an example, a colleague of his — a metaphysician — recently got engaged, and Buckner asked ChatGPT to come up with some funny suggestions for the congratulations card. Buckner called the subsequent jokes and puns “brilliant,” and perhaps even better than the ones he would have thought of by himself. He also discussed how AI chatbots can write entertaining song lyrics, or accurately mimic regional dialects.

However, in their current form, we can’t ascribe any agency to AI chatbots, and we can’t count on them to come up with anything truly original.

“If you’re really asking [an AI] to solve some new problem or do some kind of serious analysis that it can’t just look up on the Internet,” he said, “it’s going to give you very confident nonsense.”

ChatGPT can let you do a lot of things. You can generate code to build websites, write your term paper (though you shouldn’t do that) and then there are tons of other things you didn’t know it could do besides. 

But sometimes it can be difficult to get the chatbot AI to give you the result you want. Whether the tone of the content it produces isn’t right, the code is slightly off, etc. ChatGPT doesn’t always get things right. So we scoured the internet for the best ChatGPT tips and tested them so that you can get the most out of the chatbot.

Oh, and don’t forget, there’s now the new Bing with ChatGPT. While these tips are structured around using ChatGPT, they’re also good advice for using Microsoft’s new chatbot — which is now available as a mobile app.  

Use simple and specific prompts

When using ChatGPT, being specific matters. The AI chatbot pulls what it needs based on the context you give it. Including what you want it to do, the tone you want it to have and the length of the content all can ensure that you get the desired result. 

Essay writing is a common example of what ChatGPT can do. Again, we don't advocate using ChatGPT to write an essay without citing that you used ChatGPT to write it, etc. Plagiarism is a serious offense and can get you into trouble with more than just your professor or boss. And as good as ChatGPT is, there are tools out there that can spot when content is an AI chatbot.

But essay writing is a great showcase of what ChatGPT's capabilities can do. So in this instance, you're just writing this for fun to test out ChatGPT and see what it can do.

Let's make this hypothetical prompt “Write an essay on the fall of the Roman empire.” If you just type that into ChatGPT you won’t be guaranteed the length of the essay you need or that ChatGPT will provide any sources. And without sources, you're plagiarizing.

Instead, you would want to ask the chatbot to “Write a 300-word essay on the fall of the Roman Empire and include citations.” That way, the chatbot is more likely to provide you with exactly what you need, rather than just guessing on the specifics. 

Lean into the conversation

ChatGPT is designed to be conversational in nature. So if you need to fine-tune a response or gain further context, ask it a follow-up question.

In the above example of writing an essay, when I initially asked ChatGPT to write the citations, it failed to include them in the initial response. So I asked it instead if it can generate citations in the first place, to which it responded that it could. Once I had that on its mind, I then asked it to try again but this time using MLA citations — another example of being specific as possible. This time, it worked with no problem, even providing me with a Works Cited for the essay.

You can ask for a do-over

If you don’t like what ChatGPT comes up with, just ask it to try again. Again, being specific can help here, as can leaning into the AI chatbot’s conversational nature.

In the same conversation with ChatGPT where I asked it to write the essay, I asked it to try again, without any other additional context. It then rewrote the entire essay, but it didn’t give me anything different — it just regurgitated the exact same essay.

So then, I asked it to write it in the style of a college freshman. Sure enough, this time it rewrote the essay but with a bit less polish. Arguably, it wrote it with maybe a bit too little polish — adding in unnecessary adjectives, which could potentially raise red flags. Still, it was cool to see ChatGPT retool the essay just with a single prompt.

Teach it your writing style

If you don’t want to rely on ChatGPT’s writing style, you can teach it how to mimic your own. Find something you wrote, and then ask Chat GPT to analyze it so it can become familiar with the writing style you want it to use.

For this scenario, I fed ChatGPT this article I wrote on the new Apple 3nm chips that could be in the iPhone 15. I asked it to analyze the writing style, then asked to again, re-write the essay with MLA citations using my writing style. I was pretty impressed with the results. It felt like an essay I would have written. 

Ask for higher word counts than you need

There’s a saying my dad would tell me about woodworking, “You can always cut off, you can’t cut back on.” Basically, it is much easier to take away from something if needed than to add to it after the fact.

ChatGPT and the content it generates work in the same manner. If you need a 300-words, you should really ask for 350 words or even 400. Then you can go through and take away things as needed to get back down to your real word limit.

Don't be afraid to be the editor

Along those same lines, don’t be afraid to edit and fact-check the work that ChatGPT generates for you. While the chatbot AI is impressive, it can still make mistakes. Always proofread for grammatical errors and conciseness and make sure it is saying things you are comfortable with having your name attached to. Plus, even a quick once-over could find things you want ChatGPT to follow up on, and it is best to generate those follow-up questions in the same conversation. 

Go in knowing ChatGPT’s limits

ChatGPT cannot do everything. Unlike the new Bing with ChatGPT’s GPT language model technology built-in, it doesn’t have the most up-to-date information. OpenAI stopped training the language model back in 2021, and it doesn’t search the internet for the latest information.

Going back to the essay example we used, this means that there could be information that ChatGPT sources that are outdated or outright inaccurate. Plus, ChatGPT will unintentionally bring biases into the content it creates as it was trained on information containing those same inherent biases. 

Treat ChatGPT as a productivity tool that can aid you in completing complicated or time-consuming tasks, but not as something that can replace your work entirely. Always go over anything you create.

While Bing’s ChatGPT chatbot has caused some concern — even going off the deep end at times — apparently it’s now ready for the next phase of Microsoft’s plan.

In a blog post today, Microsoft announced that it has launched mobile versions of the Bing, Edge and Skype apps with chatbot integrations. The headliner is the Bing app itself, which now brings the ChatGPT-like chatbot AI to the best iPhones and Android phones.

If you’ve already used the new Bing on a desktop computer, then the experience will seem mostly familiar to you (and if you haven’t, here’s how to get Bing with ChatGPT access). The biggest difference is that instead of clicking the “Chat” option under the search bar, you just click the Bing icon at the bottom of your phone’s screen. Once you do that, you’ll have access to the chatbot AI, which operates essentially like the desktop version — with one notable change.

The Bing app has been given support for voice commands, which is a major upgrade in terms of convenience. Just hit the microphone icon and you can start actually chatting with the chatbot, not just typing its requests. While you add the wrinkle of Microsoft potentially storing your voice data, if you’re comfortable with using voice commands on your smartphone in general, this shouldn’t be any different.

I managed to get access to the Bing ChatGPT clone in the Bing app right away and I was relatively impressed. The app doesn’t fix any of the issues of the chatbot AI — errors, chat limits, etc. — but it does make it significantly more convenient to use. It is pretty easy to see how this technology could be integrated into search apps and voice assistants to make smartphones more powerful. 

Microsoft chatbots: Edge and Skype also get ChatGPT features 

As mentioned, the Bing app isn’t all that’s getting a new Bing-style upgrade. The Microsoft Edge app on mobile now also allows you to use the new Bing’s new chatbot AI. I was able to access this as well, though I found it operated the same as using the chatbot feature on the desktop browser version of the new Bing.

The one app I did not get a chance to use was Skype and its new ChatGPT integration, which is much different from the Bing and Edge integrations. 

In the Skype app, you can now add Bing to your group conversations. You just take an existing group conversation and add the new Bing to it like you would any other contact. Bing then acts as a member of the conversation, providing answers to queries if directly mentioned. Simply just add “@Bing” to your message and Bing will respond.

Microsoft says that this Skype integration is fluent in more than 100 languages and capable of translation. It can also provide answers as bullet points, traditional text or a simplified response. This seems very similar to the Chat tones Microsoft recently announced for the Bing chatbot AI.

Admittedly, it is a bit of a surprise to see this expanded access to the Bing ChatGPT clone so soon after limiting your chats to prevent unhinged behavior. Given that some AI experts are suggesting that “digital health warnings” need to be added to chatbots like the new Bing and ChatGPT — still notably absent — expanded access feels like the wrong direction to be moving. Still, the new Bing app is so far the most effective way I’ve found to use the search engine chatbot so far. Hopefully, this is a sign of Microsoft getting a handle on this novel technology. 

ChatGPT is the new hot thing in the tech industry with companies like Microsoft and Google jumping into the AI chatbot craze. At its core, the technology exists to make searching the web feel more intuitive and personal. Instead of simply getting a list of links, you’re able to converse with the chatbot to gain more insight into what you’re searching for.

When it works as intended, the technology is rather impressive. But not when you find out a chatbot says you're deceased. 

While search engine-fueled chatbots are promising, they're not infallible. For example, we asked Bing with ChatGPT to review the Galaxy S23 Ultra — and it got a ton wrong. The same thing happened when we asked Bing what the chances were that the New York Giants would make it to the Super Bowl next year. Of course, these mistakes were benign compared to the flub seen during the Google Bard reveal — a mistake that ended up costing the company $100 billion.

At this early stage, we should expect this technology to make mistakes. It’s best to consider things like Bing with ChatGPT more as entertainment than as serious research. This is something I had to keep in mind when ChatGPT said I had been dead for almost two years.

According to ChatGPT, I'm dead

Over the long President’s Day weekend, a friend and colleague used ChatGPT to look up prominent gaming and tech journalists. When he searched my name, he got a response that was a tangle of correct and incorrect information. But of course, the biggest mistake is the reason why we're here. According to ChatGPT, I’m dead, which is certainly surprising.

Let’s dissect ChatGPT’s response. (Note that the screenshot above was taken by my editor as a follow-up so the text is not exactly the same.)

 “Tony Polanco was a video game journalist and content creator who passed away on April 2021. He was a long-time writer and editor at the gaming website, The Koalition, and contributed to several other publications in the gaming industry. He was also the co-host of the Throwdown Show, a popular video game podcast.”

This is what my friend saw when he asked who I was. Let’s ignore the part where ChatGPT said I passed away and parse out what it got right.

I’m a Computing Writer now, which technically means I’m no longer a dedicated games journalist. I did indeed contribute to The Koalition for a little over a year, so that part is also accurate. Throwdown Show is the gaming podcast I’ve hosted since 2012 and continue hosting twice a week.

Aside from me being dead, this paragraph is mostly correct.

A bit of an exaggeration

“Polanco was known for his passionate and insightful coverage of the gaming industry, as well as his love for gaming history and culture."

It’s true that I’m passionate about gaming, and discussing its history and culture is something I particularly enjoy. I’m shocked that a lot of hardcore gaming enthusiasts know so little about the industry’s past. Because of that, I take any chance I get to teach people about how gaming got to its current state.

"He was particularly interested in issues of representation and diversity in gaming, and was a strong advocate for the inclusion of underrepresented voices in the industry.”

This part is somewhat true.

I wouldn’t call myself an advocate, but there have been times when I’ve tweeted about some of the things minorities in the industry such as myself have to grapple with. I’ve also written about how video game accessibility will improve on the Xbox Series X and PS5 for sibling site, Laptop Mag.

While this paragraph is somewhat exaggerated, I wouldn’t call it entirely inaccurate.

Fondly remembered

“Polanco's contributions to the gaming community were widely recognized and he was a beloved figure among his peers and fans. His passing was a great loss to the gaming industry, and he will be remembered for his passion, enthusiasm, and dedication to the medium.”

Though I’m not as well known as folks like Geoff Keighley, Greg Miller, Danny Peña or Parris Lily, I’m consistently recognized when I attend gaming events and am generally well-regarded by those who know me in the industry. And while it has sometimes caused headaches, such as when I said that I'm unsubscribing from Xbox Game Pass, my sizable number of Twitter followers also makes me a fairly well-known figure in gaming.

I’d like to believe that, when I actually do pass away, I’ll be remembered fondly by my peers and followers.

Wait, how did I die?

To follow up, we once again asked ChatGPT: "Who is Tony Polanco?" The response? I'm still dead.

This is mostly the same information as before. The main difference is that it references IGN. I reviewed a gaming keyboard for IGN many years ago, so that part is accurate.

We then asked ChatGTP how I died.

The apology 

ChatGPT says the cause of my death was never disclosed. I'm not surprised by that, seeing as how I'm still alive. The other interesting tidbit is that I died on September 13, 2021, at the age of 38. I was 41 years old at that time.

We told ChatGPT that I was alive. Thankfully, it didn't get belligerent like Bing did on some users last week, as I detailed in my piece titled: How can ChatGPT be the next big thing if it's this broken? The AI chatbot acknowledged its error.

ChatGPT says it relies on a database of information to answer questions and that its information cutoff is September 2021. Apparently, there were reports circulating about my death at that time.

That's news to me. Maybe something happened on Twitter that I don't recall, but there was never an instance I'm aware of where people thought I was dead. I'm sure my phone would have gone haywire with people checking up on me.

But at least the AI chatbot apologized for its mistake and admitted that I'm still indeed very much alive.

At least Bing knows I'm alive

What about Bing? Microsoft's AI chatbot came under fire last week for, among other things, hitting on happily married reporters and threatening its perceived enemies. Things have calmed down now as Microsoft has seemingly put in safeguards to prevent the chatbot from saying anything overly outlandish.

As for what Bing says about me, I'm happy to say it doesn't think I'm dead.

Everything Bing with ChatGPT says here is correct. That's not too surprising seeing how it effectively copied my Twitter and MuckRack bios. 

The only slight mistake is that it says (or at least insinuates) I still write for PCMag, Laptop Mag, and DualShockers. I currently only write for Tom's Guide. But these mistakes are forgivable. At least Microsoft's chatbot doesn't think I've passed away.

Final thoughts (no pun intended) 

This experience has been pretty amusing. However, it makes me wonder who else has met an untimely demise according to ChatGPT and similar AI search bots. In my case, it provided me and my Twitter followers some entertainment over the long holiday weekend. But I can’t help but wonder if misinformation like this could be harmful, especially if it involves the mistaken death of an actual prominent person.

The phrase “don’t believe everything you see on the internet” is especially pertinent when it comes to AI search bots. As we said up top and will continue saying, it’s best to treat this technology as entertainment. Otherwise, you might end up believing that someone is no longer among the world of the living.