We’ve heard multiple rumors that the innovative AI tool ChatGPT will be packaged into Microsoft’s Bing search engine in the near future, and now we have a leaked preview of how this integration will actually work and appear in your browser.
Student and designer Owen Yin (via The Verge) somehow got access to the upcoming upgrade and managed to test it out for a while before it was discontinued. If you’ve already used ChatGPT, the interface will be familiar: you’ll get an onscreen prompt to ask for information or help with almost anything you need.
You have 1,000 characters to work with, it seems. One example shown in Yin’s screenshots is searching for toddler arts and crafts ideas using specific materials—this is the kind of query that ChatGPT excels at, and for which you might not necessarily get very useful results through Google.
Bing with ChatGPT added will also tell you where it got its information from: you’ll see a list of sources, just as you would on Wikipedia, below the responses. This means that you can check what ChatGPT says for accuracy, at least to some extent.
ChatGPT integration in Bing popped up for me. Search bar replaces with composer for natural language questions pic.twitter.com/NxZ0k9O92CFebruary 3, 2023
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According to this leak, traditional search results won’t go away completely. They’ll be available on a separate screen, and you can switch between an old list of blue links and the future of search using the toolbar at the top.
And it really does seem as if the standard way to search is a little old-fashioned now – which is no doubt part of the reason why Google is about to unveil its own version of this technology in the coming days. If you’ve done a traditional web search lately, you’ll know that the results you get aren’t always helpful.
A more conversational approach, such as that provided by ChatGPT, provides more granularity and customization. You can, for example, use an AI engine to write a wedding letter or plan a road trip yourself, and improve results using natural language, rather than just searching for speech ideas or travel itineraries online.
Microsoft is said to be keen to add ChatGPT capabilities to its Office suite as well, giving you help crafting messages, building PowerPoint slides, and writing emails. In the near future, we will all depend on artificial intelligence a lot.
- 5 ways ChatGPT can transform Microsoft Office
