Microsoft Bing Enhances Search with Advanced AI Features, Sparking Debate

Microsoft Bing adds better version of Google's AI Overview -- how it works

Microsoft and the Bing team have announced a new AI-powered search experience that is more or less their version of Google's controversial AI overviews. A blog post highlighting the new tool breaks down how Bing's version will be different with seemingly more upfront information (h/t Digital Trends). Bing's generative search is meant to create "a bespoke and dynamic response." These include links to sources and further reading. The example provided in the blog is the query "What is spaghetti western?" The AI-generated results begin with an in large, bold font that reads: A subgenre of films produced by Italian filmmakers. Below this is an AI-summary highlighting different topics and including citations on where the information came from. A source link is provided next to it, along with a number of summarized bites of information. On the left side of the screen there is an index for the different topics that the search produced. On the right are more traditional search results with links. Microsoft claims that "early data indicates that this experience maintains the number of clicks to websites and supports a healthy web ecosystem." The post also says that the Bing AI "understands the search query", meaning that conversational language or even non-specific queries are supposedly more likely to produce a result. Which is something that most large language models are capable of already but not specifically in a search engine. The Bing team do say that the new search tool is being slowly rolled out. So, it's not clear who has access yet or when it will expand. They mentioned that they "will take our time, garner feedback, test and learn, and work to create a great experience before making this more broadly available." Compared to Google's AI Overview, it isn't as minimalist and clean, but I think it looks and feels more informative with more actual options and links to information than the simple paragraph summary and a couple of links that Google is currently providing. Still, they are and remain the big dog the block with one study by HawkSEM claiming that Google had 1 billion daily active users in 2023 while Bing lagged far behind at 100 million daily users. If other companies can start chipping away at Google with better search results perhaps it will make the giant take notice and actually improve its own search engine, which according to Ed Zitron is not doing well.

Bing is experimenting with search pages that boot traditional results off to the side in favour of AI summaries, and the results are a bit of a mess

Useful information, get out of the way: AI has something it wants to tell you. AI has been getting all up in our search results for a while now, with dubious results. While Google's AI Overviews feature had a rocky reception -- what with it recommending you drink urine and all -- it's not the only search engine that's been experimenting with a good dose of AI on its search pages. Microsoft introduced LLM-powered chat answers to Bing early last year, and now it's started experimenting with a "new generative search experience" for a small percentage of user queries (via The Verge). Some users searching for the query "What is a spaghetti western", for example, are now greeted with a page that not only puts an AI box front and center, but adds sourcing information for the AI result underneath, squeezing the more traditional search results list off to the side. Being based in the UK, I had to engage a US-based VPN to trigger the page, as it appears to be geo-dependent at the time of writing. This is a test page, after all, but it's more than a little disconcerting to see traditional search results relegated to a sliver of info on the side of the page to make room for a sizable AI boxout. The new design devotes a lot of page elements to citing its sources, with clickable boxes proving that it grabbed its info from reputable sites and entries underneath linking to them more directly. Still, the main list of results you were actually likely looking for is pushed off into a side frame -- with only two to three lines of text under each giving a brief description of the data it referenced from your search. Aside from the AI domination, the page itself is visually messy in a way that seems to distract the eye, rather than draw attention to the thing you were actually there to discover in the first place -- the relatively simple answer to what spaghetti westerns are, and perhaps some examples of highlights of the genre. Microsoft says the new page combines the foundation of Bing's traditional search results with "the power of large and small language models". While the attempts here to clarify the veracity of the information presented are admirable, there's still a lot of info getting in the way of traditional -- and potentially more useful -- results. That being said, Google's iffy AI Overviews rollout doesn't seem to have caused much long-term damage to the company's reputation beyond the initial backlash. And it's likely that Microsoft are keen to play catch up to whatever features Google Search integrates, even if they're not always received particularly well. MS says that it's "continuing to look closely at how generative search impacts traffic to publishers", which hopefully suggests it might have more consideration than Google appears to demonstrate towards sites that focus on producing, y'know, human-created content and stuff. If you do happen to stumble onto one of these AI-focussed Bing pages, Microsoft is encouraging users to let it know what they think by clicking the thumbs up and thumbs down buttons at the top of the page. For now, these are just test pages, but it's a troubling look into the way search might look across the web in future.

Watch: Microsoft brings more generative AI to Bing

Bing is the latest search engine to introduce generative AI into its results, with Microsoft announcing that it's making Bing generative search available to a small percentage of users. The goal is to give those users the answers they want right in their search results, potentially synthesizing information that they'd otherwise have to click through a bunch of different websites to find. For example, Microsoft says that if you type "what is a spaghetti western?" you'll get an AI-generated summary of the genre's history and some examples of spaghetti western films. You probably remember that Google announced its own generative AI answers back in May. At first, critics were focused on the danger this posed to the web -- if you never need to click through your search results, it could be devastating for any business that makes money from online advertising. Of course, what people actually talked about once the Google launched its AI Overviews was less the long-term implications, and more the fact that some of the answers were laughably bad, advising users to glue cheese to their pizza and eat one rock per day. Hit play to learn more, then let us know what you think in the comments!