During a special event at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington, CEO Satya Nadella announced that the race to improve search has begun. Microsoft will move quickly, launching a reimagined Edge web browser, Bing search engine, and chat powered by generative AI and OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
A limited preview of the new Bing for desktop is available now, with a mobile version launching in a few weeks. However, while the desktop version is free, ads will be present from the onset. This update came from Microsoft’s consumer chief marketing officer and corporate vice president, Yusuf Mehdi.
At the event, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, appeared on stage and expressed his belief that a new era had begun. He also mentioned his desire to make AI more accessible to the masses, which is why OpenAI teamed up with Microsoft, beginning with Azure and currently Bing.
Microsoft Unveiled an Innovative “AI-powered copilot” Experience
According to Mehdi, the “AI-powered copilot” experience centers around the new Edge web browser and Bing search engine. The search engine runs on Prometheus, a next-generation language model that is more robust than ChatGPT and customizable for search. Microsoft and OpenAI have yet to call it GPT-4.
Mehdi stated that the Prometheus model provides numerous enhancements, such as better answer relevance, annotated answers with specific web links, and improved geolocation and query safety. Consequently, the Bing algorithm has already demonstrated consistent improvements. Recently, Microsoft implemented AI in its core search index and achieved the most significant relevance increase in the last 20 years.
Microsoft Acknowledges The Unintended Consequences of Technology
During the introduction, Nadella emphasized that Microsoft is “clear-eyed” about the potential unintended consequences of technology. He mentioned the company’s 2016 release of responsible AI principles. According to Nadella, human beings are responsible for AI prompting. Therefore, Microsoft seeks to prioritize the AI products’ design and embed it into their products. However, he believes it is inadequate. The priority is to create AI that aligns with social preferences and human values.
Microsoft’s responsible AI lead, Sarah Bird, emphasized on stage the importance of adequately developing such powerful technology. She stated that Microsoft has been working on it for years and have experience with generative AI. Therefore, she believes they have a responsibility to ensure its proper development.
The featured image was gotten from Yahoo.com