Microsoft is expanding the capabilities of its AI-powered Bing search engine and Edge browser by opening up the new Bing preview to more users, adding image and video answers to chat and search, adding support for multi-session chat and search, and opening up the platform to developers.
The added capabilities come three months after Microsoft first introduced the new Bing and Edge, powered by AI technologies from ChatGPT creators OpenAI, including a new conversational chat function in Bing similar to ChatGPT.
Microsoft is moving the new Bing features to Open Preview and eliminating a waitlist, meaning that users simply need to log into Bing with their Microsoft Account.
In addition, Microsoft is introducing more visual answers such as charts and graphs, along with updating formatting of answers to help users find information more easily.
This comes after Microsoft launched the integration of Bing Image Creator into the new Bing chat experience, which Microsoft is also improving by expanding Image Creator to all languages in Bing.
The Redmond, Wash. tech giant is also expanding Bing’s multi-modal capabilities and is beginning to incorporate visual search in chat so users can upload images and search the web for related content.
To help users access these new capabilities, Microsoft is also rolling out a new user interface, including a more streamlined look, better organization and semi-transparent visual elements.
The company is also taking user feedback to heart by introducing two of the most requested features: chat history and sharing and exporting.
According to Microsoft, users will soon be able to pick up where they left off and return to previous chats in Bing chat and can move the chat to a sidebar when they want to open a Bing chat result. The company is also working on improving chats by bringing context from a previous chat into new conversations.
Users will also be able to share Bing conversations on social media and export conversations directly in tools like Microsoft Word.
In addition, the company is improving Bing’s summarization capabilities for long documents to make it easier to consume dense online content.
Other new features rolling out in Bing include Edge actions designed to make finding content easier and more streamlined, and a new page context feature for Edge mobile.
For developers, Microsoft is building third-party plug-ins into the Bing chat experience to create a developer platform that allows them to leverage large language models.
“For example, if you’re researching the latest restaurant for dinner in Bing chat, it will leverage OpenTable to help you find and book a reservation. Or, with Wolfram|Alpha, you can create powerful visualizations and get answers to complex science, math and human-curated data-based questions directly from Bing chat,” Microsoft says in a blog.
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