What you need to know
- Microsoft released the new Bing powered by ChatGPT six months ago.
- The company celebrated the milestone with a blog post highlighting the new features that have made their way to the chatbot in that time.
- Bing has gained support for creating images, keeping a history of chats, and has expanded onto more platforms and devices since launching.
One year ago, anyone would have laughed at the idea of Bing being one of the most integral parts of Microsoft's plans. But that's exactly what's happened. Microsoft announced the revamped Bing that's powered by ChatGPT earlier this year. Since the chatbot rolled out in preview, Microsoft has been hard at work expanding the tool's capabilities and integrating it with other services.
Bing is already available on desktop, iOS, and Android. It will soon be at your fingertips on the Windows 11 desktop through Windows Copilot as well. SwiftKey, Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft 365 also have Bing functionality baked in or on the way.
Microsoft highlighted the expansion of Bing in a blog post celebrating the AI chatbot's half-year anniversary. The company also focused on the successes of Bing over the last six months.
Since the launch of the new Bing, there have been over 1 billion chats and 750 million images shared with Bing. Microsoft's Edge browser has seen solid growth as well, though it's worth noting the browser trended upward in usage before the launch of the new Bing as well.
Here's a quick rundown of what Microsoft highlighted in its post, with each item linked to our respective coverage:
- Bing Image Creator
- Chat History
- Bing Mobile app
- Windows Copilot
- Bing in SwiftKey
- Third-party browser support
- Multimodal Visual Search in Chat
- Dark Mode
- Bing Chat Enterprise
At the end of the post, Microsoft shifted toward the future of Bing. Plug-in support is on the way, and it should greatly expand the capabilities of the tool.
I can't believe Bing is this big
It's still hard to wrap my head around the fact that Bing is such a major topic at Microsoft. The search engine has been the butt of jokes and memes for years. I suppose that's still true to some extent, but Microsoft is clearly investing heavily into Bing Chat.
The Bing branding is here to stay, even if some tools have names like Windows Copilot. Microsoft plans to integrate AI into all of its apps and services, so we can expect to see more of Bing going forward.
Bing has come a long way since being featured in the Amazing Spider-Man and then dropped by the hero in Amazing Spider-Man 2.
