Microsoft’s new and improved Bing search engine is getting a lot of attention (for both good and bad reasons) thanks to the inclusion of ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot. And with AI-powered Bing now appearing on some users’ phones, it looks like it’s rolling out to Android and iPhone smartphones as well.
While after all the hype there will be plenty of smartphone users looking forward to trying out the ChatGPT powered Bing, I’m not sure it’s a good idea.
That’s because despite the exciting potential of ChatGPT, its inclusion in Bing has highlighted some serious shortcomings of the AI chatbot. Many users have found ways to get strange results. including the AI worrying about their memoryAnd easily become aggressive with users when their false statements are challenged.
The fact that it returns false statements is also a concern as it is meant to be an authority that users can trust. And then there’s the troubling news that it’s also been using offensive language – it’s clear ChatGPT isn’t ready for primetime yet, so bringing it into a key service like Bing is a huge risk.
However, Microsoft either doesn’t believe that or doesn’t care.
Continuation of the rollout
While some of ChatGPT’s more worrisome glitches and quirks have been hastily fixed in Bing by Microsoft, like limiting the chatbot to just five replies, rather than allowing conversations to go on (and get stranger and stranger), there’s still work to be done. In fact, even the mitigations implemented by Microsoft are criticized for being too cumbersome and now making the new Bing less interesting.
With such early hiccups, one would expect the company to pause the launch until they’re fixed. However, it seems that Microsoft is interested in pushing the new Bing further MSPoweruser (opens in new tab) According to reports, some users who signed up to try previous versions of the Bing mobile app (and the Edge web browser app) are seeing the new AI-powered Bing interface pop up.
Screenshots have surfaced showing us what the new Bing will look like for people with Android or iPhone smartphones – however, currently the ChatGPT functionality doesn’t seem to be working.
Still, these screenshots suggest that Microsoft is continuing its efforts to bring the new Bing to as many people as possible – and that’s a terrible idea.
It’s not too late to change your mind, with or without AI support
I can understand why Microsoft is interested in pushing the new Bing further. Since his announcement at an event At the beginning of February 2023 there was a hype about Microsoft’s unloved search engine that I had never seen before.
Instead of being constantly overshadowed by the much more popular Google, people were suddenly talking about trying Bing. It even resulted in the Bing app rarely appearing on the Apple App Store charts.
So it makes sense that Microsoft would want to keep that momentum going and bring the new Bing to mobile users, especially since that The majority of internet searches are now done on a mobile device (opens in new tab)rather than a desktop PC or laptop.
However, this could do more harm than good. If Microsoft rushes out the new Bing to mobile users and it doesn’t work properly, it may put people off trying the search engine again — especially for people who have never tried Bing before.
First impressions count, and if the new Bing makes a bad impression, Microsoft could alienate a potentially huge market. By waiting for Bing to work perfectly with ChatGPT, Microsoft may be missing out on some of the excitement, but it means people’s experiences with it will be much better.
With the mobile version not yet available to users, there is still time for Microsoft to hit the brakes and get it right. If not, it may regret it.
