Microsoft releases AI programs, including new Bing

Microsoft announced the expansion of public access to its generative AI programs, including the release of its new Bing search engine to the public. Since its launch, customers have engaged in more than half a billion chats and created over 200 million images with Bing Image Creator. The new Bing will combine large language models like OpenAI's GPT-4 with its search index, making it easier for users to try by simply signing into Bing with a Microsoft account. Microsoft is also shifting from text-only search to more visual answers, integrating and expanding Bing Image Creator and multimodal support. Users will also be able to upload images and search the web for related content. The tech giant is moving from single-use chat and search sessions to multi-session productivity experiences with chat history and persistent chats within Edge. Edge will have improved summarization capabilities for long documents, and Edge mobile will include page context. Microsoft is opening up platform capabilities for developers and third parties to build on top of Bing. Teams are continuing to address issues related to AI advancements such as misinformation and disinformation, content blocking, data safety, and preventing the promotion of harmful or discriminatory content.