The new Windows 11 update from Microsoft adds a button that promotes the Bing A.I. chatbot.
Microsoft said on Tuesday that it will start promoting its new Bing chatbot, which uses artificial intelligence from the startup OpenAI. It will do this in a Windows 11 update.
Windows brings in 9% of Microsoft’s income, but Bing is not very popular. As of 2021, it had about 82% of the world’s operating system market. Putting a link to the updated Bing next to the familiar Start button is a big step forward for technology that has sometimes been wrong or offensive.
The move could help Microsoft compete with Google, which earlier this month let “trusted testers” try out its Bard chatbot, which could answer questions with web information like Bing’s new feature.
“It’s a new day in search,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at the event where the new Bing was unveiled three weeks ago. “It’s a new way to look for things.” “Change is going to happen quickly.”
A user will see search results and a new chat button after typing a question into the search section of the taskbar at the bottom of the screen. A Microsoft representative told CNBC in an email that clicking that button will open a new Edge browser window and tell the Bing chatbot to answer the person’s question.
The new Bing option won’t be used all the time until Microsoft releases Windows 11 in 2021. Windows 10 will no longer be supported after 2025, but many people haven’t upgraded yet. StatCounter says that in January, about 69% of Windows PCs were still running Windows 10, and 18% were on Windows 11.
In Windows 11, not everyone will be able to see the chat button right away. Microsoft has given more than 1 million people access to the new Bing. This is a small number compared to the estimated 100 million people who used OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot in January.
Over time, the change to the taskbar might encourage more people to use the new Bing. In a blog post, Microsoft’s product chief, Panos Panay, said that more than 500 million people use the Windows search box every month.
Bing has been available from the Windows taskbar for years, and Microsoft makes money when ads show up in search results after people type in certain queries. If people use the updated Bing more, it could help their finances. Amy Hood, the head of finance at Microsoft, said on Feb. 7 that the company would make an extra $2 billion for every percentage point of revenue it gained in the search advertising market.
Jefferies asked 900 people what they thought about the new Bing. Of the 127 people who had tried it, 86% said they were impressed or very impressed, but only 17% said they would use Bing as their default search engine.
People with Windows 11 PCs on version 22H2 can get the new version with a smarter Bing and other features by going to the Windows Update section of the Settings app and clicking the “Check for updates” button, Panay wrote in a blog post.
