Bing ChatGPT: How to Use Microsoft‘s Own Version of a Conversational AI Chatbot

The release of ChatGPT by OpenAI captured the world‘s attention with its impressive conversational abilities. Now, Microsoft has integrated similar AI chatbot capabilities directly into its Bing search engine, with the new "Bing Chat" feature. As an AI expert, I‘ll provide a comprehensive guide on how Bing Chat works along with an in-depth look at the technology powering it.

Introduction to Bing Chat

Bing Chat allows users to have natural language conversations directly with the Bing search engine. You can ask questions, request summaries, seek clarifications and even have Bing write content or code.

Under the hood, it uses a large language model called Claude, developed by Anthropic to intelligently scan the internet and deliver contextual answers in a conversational format.

In essence, Bing Chat aims to evolve search from a keyword-based lookup to an interactive, conversational information retrieval system aided by AI. Think of it like having an intelligent chatbot assistant that can discuss, summarize and help you search the web.

How to Access Bing Chat

Here are the simple steps to try Bing Chat:

• Use the latest Microsoft Edge browser and go to bing.com/new

• Click on "Join waitlist", provide your email and get approved for access

• Now you‘ll see a chat icon on the top right – click it to invoke Bing Chat

• Start having a conversation with Bing, asking follow-up questions and getting summaries

Bing Chat is also available on iOS and Android via the Microsoft Bing app, by tapping the Bing logo to bring up chat. No need to join a waitlist on mobile.

Claude – The AI Behind Bing Chat

Bing Chat is powered by Claude, an AI system developed specifically for natural language search by Anthropic. Claude was trained on a massive dataset of internet text and search interactions to learn conversational information retrieval.

Some key capabilities of Claude:

• 570 billion parameters – Comparable to GPT-3‘s 175 billion parameters, allowing very advanced language skills.

• Trillions of training examples – Claude was trained on an enormous dataset of anonymized web pages, search logs and more.

• Retrieval augmentation – Claude retrieves and summarizes web results rather than relying solely on its trained knowledge.

• Focused commonsense – Tailored specifically for web search chats vs. generic domains.

According to Anthropic, Claude can deliver over four times greater relevance than traditional search engines when tested on consumer queries.

Key Features of Bing Chat

Bing Chat provides a full-fledged conversational search experience:

• Natural language – No need to structured queries. Just chat naturally.

• Follow-up questions – Have a back and forth conversation to refine answers.

• Summarization – Get summaries of long-form content on the web.

• Content generation – Bing can generate short-form content like emails, poems, code and more.

• Creativity – Claude can provide more casual, witty, or funny responses rather than just dry facts.

• Fresh information – Bing Chat has access to the latest web results and trends.

• Citations – Bing will cite sources so you can verify the accuracy of information.

• Tables – Ask for tabulated, structured results for clarity.

• Voice commands – Use speech-to-text and text-to-speech rather than typing.

Comparing Bing Chat to ChatGPT

While both leverage natural language AI, there are some notable differences:

• Bing Chat is focused specifically on search, while ChatGPT targets more generic conversations.

• ChatGPT has access only to data until 2021, while Bing Chat can retrieve the latest real-time information.

• Bing Chat is more tightly coupled with knowledge sources like search indexes for accuracy.

• Microsoft has implemented more guardrails and filters to improve safety.

• Bing Chat is free but ad-supported, while ChatGPT lacks ads but may later offer paid tiers.

• Underlying architecture wise, Bing Chat uses Claude while ChatGPT uses GPT-3 and the Codex programming model.

• Bing Chat has implemented tighter usage limits of 15 questions per session.

Overall, Bing Chat is specialized for search while ChatGPT targets general purpose use. But they share many conversational AI capabilities as well.

Usage Tips for Bing Chat

Here are some tips to have more effective chats:

• Frame clear, concise questions with enough context.

• Start with simpler questions first before getting more complex.

• Ask one question at a time instead of combining multiple questions.

• Engage in back and forth by following up and clarifying.

• Specify if you need a summary, list, table, or other structured response.

• Adjust tone requests if responses don‘t match your desired style.

• Provide feedback to Bing on incorrect or unsatisfactory responses.

• Double check accuracy of facts shared by asking for citations.

• Review the usage terms and privacy policy regarding your data.

The Technology Powering Bing‘s AI

Bing Chat is built on Claude, but how does Claude work under the hood? Here are some key technical details:

• Transformer architecture – Claude uses stacked transformers, which are attention-based neural networks very effective for language tasks.

• Pretraining – Claude was first pretrained on Anthropic‘s own dataset of trillion-scale examples.

• Fine-tuning – The model was then fine-tuned specifically for conversational search using human QA data.

• Retrieval – Claude matches queries against an index of web pages and passages to extract relavant results.

• Safety techniques – Models are audited to minimize bias and filters block inappropriate content.

• Deployment – Massive scale infrastructure with thousands of GPUs is needed to run Claude.

Claude represents the state-of-the-art in natural language processing tailored for search, thanks to Anthropic‘s unique pretraining methodology.

The Business Strategy Behind Bing Chat

From a business perspective, why did Microsoft prioritize integrating conversational AI into Bing?

• Competitive edge – Differentiate Bing from Google by providing an interactive search experience.

• User engagement – Increase time spent on Bing by encouraging dialog rather than one-off queries.

• Monetization – Bing Chat allows integration of search ads seamlessly into conversational results.

• Data advantage – Interactions can improve Bing‘s search algorithms and provide user intent signals.

• Halo effect – Positive experience with Bing Chat could improve broader perception of Microsoft products.

• Strategic AI investment – Develop internal expertise in conversational systems ahead of competitors.

With Bing Chat, Microsoft aims to evolve search from lookup to an intelligent assistant paradigm powered by its AI capabilities.

The Future Trajectory of Conversational AI in Search

What might be next for Bing Chat and other competitor services? Some potential developments:

• Expansion to other Microsoft Office apps and services for seamless integration.

• Support for more robust content authoring like email and document drafting.

• Tighter integration with knowledge graphs and databases to improve fact checkability.

• The emergence of paid tiers with more features and less restrictions.

• Gradual improvements to capabilities as models scale up even further.

• More focus on safety, accuracy and eliminating bias during training.

• Integration of other modalities like image, voice and video understanding.

• Support for non-English languages and localizing capabilities.

While AI chatbots have risks like spreading misinformation, companies are incentivized to overcome these issues to provide an intelligent conversational interface for search and beyond.

Conclusion

Bing Chat represents a milestone in the evolution of search towards more natural conversational interactions powered by AI. The integration of Claude, Anthropic‘s conversational engine tailored for search, enables robust question answering and content creation abilities. While concerns remain around trust and safety, Microsoft‘s stewardship of Bing Chat could set high standards for responsible AI deployment at scale. With companies competing fiercely to offer the best conversational search, we can expect rapid improvements in the capabilities of systems like Bing Chat as this technology shift unfolds.