(Credit: T. Schneider/Shutterstock.com) Microsoft is releasing its own version of AI-powered summaries for its search engine, Bing, the company announced Wednesday.
Bing's generative search feature is only being enabled on a small, predetermined selection of specific web searches to start, like "what is a spaghetti western" and "how long do elephants live." When enabled, Bing produces a large block of AI-generated text along with its sources. Text that has been pulled from a specific site can be clicked on to direct the user to that source material webpage directly.
"This new experience combines the foundation of Bing’s search results with the power of large and small language models (LLMs and SLMs). It understands the search query, reviews millions of sources of information, dynamically matches content, and generates search results in a new AI-generated layout to fulfill the intent of the user’s query more effectively," Microsoft's post states.
Regular Bing web search results appear on the right site of the AI text as well as below it. Like Google Search's AI Overviews, Bing's AI search also give users the option to upvote or downvote an AI's work. But Microsoft Bing's feedback buttons are more visible and appear at the top of the AI section, while Google's AI Overviews have their upvote or downvote buttons hidden beneath an expandable section that has to be clicked on by the user to be seen.
A look at Bing's generative search. (Credit: PCMag via bing.com)
It's unlikely Bing's generative search will pull from Reddit, however. Last month, Reddit said it will block more crawlers that scrape from its chat forum site. Microsoft confirmed Thursday in a statement that Bing's crawlers are no longer perusing Reddit.
"Bing stopped crawling Reddit after they implemented their updated robots.txt file on July 1, which prohibits all crawling of their site," a Microsoft spokesperson said.
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AI models can be prone to hallucinations or provide bad results when they doesn't have much to pull from. It can also happen when AI models treat random Reddit posts as facts (Google paid $60 million to license Reddit's content for AI). Google's AI Overviews feature drew laughs and disappointment from users earlier this year when the AI told Google search users to put glue on pizza and eat rocks. It also hallucinated, claiming, for example, that a dog has played in the NBA.
Despite these concerns, Google has continued to push its AI Overviews, only pulling back slightly on more sensitive topics. It blamed bad results on "data voids" when its AI cited unreliable Reddit posts laced with irony and sarcasm the AI is unable to understand.
Microsoft says it aims to "optimize accuracy" in Bing as it continues to develop its competing version of AI-powered web search. But filling the bulk of a search result's screen with AI summaries has sparked concerns that this could result in less web traffic, and therefore less revenue, for the sources the AI is citing in the first place.
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"We are continuing to look closely at how generative search impacts traffic to publishers. Early data indicates that this experience maintains the number of clicks to websites and supports a healthy web ecosystem," Microsoft says.
Microsoft's generative search push means it's becoming even harder to avoid AI when surfing the web, regardless of which search engine you use. Neither Bing nor Google search allow users to easily disable or turn off the AI summaries, but it's possible to set up Google to default searches to the "Web" tab so you won't see its AI results.
For those who like playing with AI to see what it can (and can't) do, Bing's summaries could be a welcome addition alongside its other existing AI features, like its built-in Copilot tab and option for a GPT-powered "Deep Search."
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Kate Irwin
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I’m a reporter for PCMag covering tech news early in the morning. Prior to joining PCMag, I was a producer and reporter at Decrypt and launched its gaming vertical, GG. I have previously written for Input, Game Rant, Dot Esports, and other places, covering a range of gaming, tech, crypto, and entertainment news.
I’ve been a PC gamer since The Sims (yes, the original) in the CD-ROM days. I still think about my first-gen pink iPod mini, which, looking back, was not so mini. In 2020, I finally built my own custom Windows PC for gaming with a 3090 graphics card, but I also regularly use Mac and iOS devices. As a reporter, I’m passionate about documenting the wide world of tech and how it affects our daily lives.
Microsoft
Artificial intelligence
Cybersecurity
Video games are a big one. I specialize in shooters (Apex Legends, Fortnite, Overwatch) but I occasionally test out other genres as well, especially indie games or cozy games (The Sims series, Animal Crossing).
The business and tech that powers video games
Cryptocurrency and blockchain technology
Social media platforms, including Meta’s apps, X/Twitter, Telegram, TikTok, etc.
Tech regulation
MSI gaming laptops
Nvidia graphics cards
AMD CPUs
MacBook Pro and Air laptops
An iPhone from 2019 (though I’m thinking about getting a “dumb phone” like the Light Phone)
Nintendo Switch
PlayStation 5
Freewrite Traveler
At home: Sonos speakers (we have them all over the house), Philips Hue + Ring security products
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