Microsoft Bing has a significant issue: Google completely outranks it as a search engine. However, Bing has a potential to stand out more thanks to OpenAI’s language technology, the artificial intelligence platform that has helped the ChatGPT service become a tremendous success.
But Microsoft needs to get the specifics perfect for the smarter Bing to function. Although ChatGPT can be helpful, it can also be unreliable, and no one wants a search engine they can’t rely on.
Microsoft has given the problem a lot of attention and invested its own development resources. It has debated topics such as how AI-powered Bing displays adverts, discloses its data sources, and grounds the AI technology in reality so you receive reliable results rather than the digital hallucinations that can be difficult to discern in machine-generated information.
To learn more about the updated Bing search engine, I chatted with Jordi Ribas, the director of Bing search and AI. He is such a fan that he employed technology to assist him in writing a memo to his supervisor about it. He estimated that it had saved him two to three hours and had also helped the Spanish executive’s English.
Millions of people will be able to search for considerably more intricate information, such as whether an Ikea loveseat can fit in your car, as the technology develops beyond the extremely tiny test group of today. And everyone will be able to see whether it actually competes with Google. But for the time being, here are seven things I learnt about Bing AI.
Bing AI isn’t just a repackaged version of ChatGPT
The huge language model technology from OpenAI, the AI lab that created the ChatGPT tool that has sparked excitement about AI and that Microsoft invested in, is combined with the Bing search engine by Microsoft. Using Bing’s “chat” feature, you may find results similar to ChatGPT, such as “Write a brief essay about the significance of Taoism.” However, for some inquiries, Microsoft’s Prometheus orchestration system combines Bing and OpenAI technologies.
You may, for instance, Bing, “Led Zeppelin is a band that I enjoy. What additional artists should I check out?” That prompt is initially changed by OpenAI to “bands like Led Zeppelin,” after which the Bing search results are reorganised into a bulleted list. Each proposal has a two-sentence description, such as Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd, or the Rolling Stones.
Bing AI cites its sources — sometimes
When you ask ChatGPT a question, it will answer with text that it has generated without providing any source information. Although the AI system was trained on a sizable quantity of internet data, it is difficult to directly correlate that training data with ChatGPT’s results.
However, since Bing has access to the source thanks to its online crawling, factual information is frequently tagged on the search engine. As an illustration, in the Led Zeppelin challenge above, Bing adds a connection to a Musicaroo post titled 13 Bands That Sound Like Led Zeppelin at the top of its response, along with links to MusicalMum and Producer Hive.
Some source links are ads that make Microsoft money
It is easy to determine if an answer is true or just an AI hallucination because to that sourcing openness, which addresses a major critique of AI. However, it doesn’t always show up. For instance, there aren’t any references, footnotes, or links at all in the article on Taoism up top.
AI-powered Bing, for instance, proposes numerous locations in answer to the query “plan me a one-week trip to Iceland without a rental vehicle.” One of them has the following text underlined: “Join a multi-day trip or take a bus to explore locations like Vk, Skógafoss, Seljalandsfoss, and Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon.” A tour business advertisement and three sources for the information are displayed when you hover over the link. The top item of the three bears the designation “ad” and is the advertising.
You should be aware that some of those citations are advertisements, Ribas stated. “When you hover over a question that has a higher purchase intent, a list of references appears, and occasionally an advertisement. Then, occasionally, during the discussion itself, such as when you search for a hotel, you’ll see product advertisements.”
Ad money is important since each upgrade to OpenAI’s language model requires weeks of effort on a massive computer cluster, and according to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, processing each ChatGPT prompt costs only a few cents. Even while Bing behind Google in the market for search engines, it nevertheless answers millions of searches every day.
Google plans to open access to its Bard AI chatbot soon, but it won’t be including ads to begin with.
OpenAI-boosted results are more relevant than plain old Bing
That relevance boost is just for ordinary search results, Ribas added. OpenAI’s technology can further improve Bing with its chat interface that offers more elaborate answers and a follow-up exchange.
OpenAI makes Bing better with languages besides English
Searches conducted in languages other than English are one area where Bing has fallen short, according to Ribas, and OpenAI can assist. According to Ribas, the majority of Bing’s three-point increase in relevance scores “came from overseas markets.”
The large language model (LLM) of OpenAI is trained using text from 100 different languages. “My native tongue is Catalan. I am able to communicate in Catalan. It functions really well “RIBAS QUOTED
Bing brings OpenAI’s results up to date
Large language models, like OpenAI’s GPT-3.5, which served as ChatGPT’s core, take a while to develop and update, thus they don’t operate as quickly as traditional search engines or the web. For instance, GPT-3.5 was taught in 2021; as a result, it has no knowledge of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the consequences of recent inflation on consumers, or the fact that Xi Jinping has been elected to a third term as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party.
However, Bing frequently has access to this more current information. “You’ll receive new results on that whole response when you bring in the Bing results,” said Ribas.
Bing ‘grounds’ OpenAI’s flights of fancy
Microsoft utilises its Bing data to attempt to steer clear of scenarios in which OpenAI’s more inventive algorithms can mislead users. According to Ribas, the more Bing’s technology is employed in the response, the more factual the inquiry and answer are. This “grounding” greatly minimises AI’s issues with making things up, as Ribas noted: “It will lessen delusion, which is… a constant fight.”
Microsoft does not want the AI’s magic to be completely destroyed by its grounding method, though. There is a cause for ChatGPT’s popularity. Each query’s priority are determined by the Prometheus system.
We had to strike a balance between over-grounding the model and maintaining its attraction, according to Ribas. “We can gauge how fascinating and grounded the results are by measuring both of these factors. We give the grounded more weight when the inquiry calls for something really factual. We give the creative component of the question less weight than the grounded component. I insisted to my staff that I wanted to have my cake and eat it too.”
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