Microsoft is adding AI features to Bing’s search engine. This includes the GPT-powered chat functions it has been pushing. a feature roundup blogpost states that Bing now “crafts AI-generated stories” to some searches. This will give you a small multimedia presentation on the topic you searched for. It’s an easy way to “consume bite-sized information” when searching for certain topics.
Stories look like those you would find on Instagram and Snapchat. There is a progress bar that will show you when the slide will advance. Slides include text explaining what you searched and related images or videos. To have the story read aloud by a voice, you can unmute it.
These stories don’t appear in all searches — a colleague and I tried it. They appeared when we searched for “cubism,”” “impressionism”, and “tai Chi,” but not when we searched for “iPhone,” Apple, or “best Spokane restaurants.” I don’t think I would like a robot reading out the history of my local restaurant scene if I was just searching for dinner.
Microsoft claims that stories will be made available for people who search in English, French or Japanese, German and Spanish. A timeline example — although it appears to have a grammatical error. (A single loyalist left 1782? Who? )
The company also stated that it is upgrading “knowledge cards”, which appear to the right of search results. It said that the cards can contain stories (I searched for Seattle and it returned two stories), as well as elements such as timelines and information about a country, city or event’s past.
What are AI-powered Stories?
Microsoft Bing will create AI-generated stories that are image-based and can be used to generate polls. These new ways include audio, text, and video.
The company stated that stories are “perfect for visual and auditory learners.” All Bing users can access stories in English, French and Japanese as well as Spanish, German, Spanish or Russian.
Bing Chat fixes issues
Microsoft also revealed that it has fixed some issues with Bing chat. Users can now copy chat text from the Bing app on iOS. Another issue was fixed was voice detection in Bing mobile app. This means messages don’t get sent until users have finished speaking.
