Bing, Microsoft’s search engine, now offers more detailed, AI-generated responses to your search queries. You will still see the regular search results further down the page, but Bing now prioritizes its generative search so that you can learn lots about your query immediately.
In February 2023, Bing starteddisplaying answers from Bing Chat at the top of the resultsfor some regular web searches, but now, Microsoft has combined generative AI and large and small language models (LLMs and SLMs) with its regular search results page. This means that when you type a search query, the search engine often displays an AI-generated set of results that offers more than just an answer. For example, searching “What is veganism?” returns a series of sections containing details about the history, diet, and other aspects of veganism.
LLMs provide the frameworkfor Bing—and other chatbots, such as Google Gemini and ChatGPT—to process requests and provide complex responses trained on vast amounts of data and parameters. Other kinds of LLMs exist to generate images based on prompts, using a multimodal approach to provide a pixel-based image in response to a text-based query. SLMs, on the other hand, are a more specialized subdivision within a broader field. In Bing’s case, LLMs and SLMs enable the search engine to process the search query, scour millions of information sources, match its findings to the query, and produce detailed search results in a user-friendly layout that lets you view lots of information in an instant.
Microsoft says that it has also refined its methods to improve accuracy, as generative AI products are still prone to mistakes. Given that they still can’t “think” in the way a human can, this is an inevitable flaw, and we already saw that play out with Google’s generative AI searchtelling people to eat glue. The tech giant has also addressed issues concerning users not needing to click on website links, an essential tool for companies that generate revenue from visits to their sites. It says, “Early data indicates that this experience maintains the number of clicks to websites and supports a healthy web ecosystem,” as users can still click links within the AI-generated search results to read more information.
This is an “early view” of this new generative search, so it currently only works with “a small percentage of user queries.” Microsoft is gradually rolling out this new feature to Bing searchers, welcoming feedback and improving its functionality in the process. Then, when Microsoft is satisfied that Bing’s AI-generated results “create a great experience,” the company will make it more broadly available.
If you give this a go, you can click the “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” icons at the bottom of the AI results to help Microsoft learn from your experiences. Also, you can still scroll past this new feature to see the regular search results below—good to remember if you prefer the more traditional ways of using a search engine.
