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5 Things You’ll Be Able to Do on Microsoft’s New AI-Powered Bing

Refine search results, summarize topics and generate writing with Bing as your «co-pilot.»

Microsoft on Tuesday announced an enhanced Bing, detailing how it’s using the AI tech behind ChatGPT to add in a slew of new capabilities to the longtime second-place search engine. There’s a waiting list for the service now, and Microsoft says it will be available broadly in the coming months. There’ll be no charge for the service.

CEO Satya Nadella said the juiced-up search service aims to take on queries that aren’t getting good results on today’s search engines. People increasingly use search engines to get advice and information on complex topics, not just a link to a website, and the AI boost to Bing aims to help it keep up.

«It’s a new day in search,» Nadella said.

ChatGPT, an AI-powered chatbot from a company called OpenAI, burst onto the scene in November with a breathtaking capacity for drawing information from the web and presenting it in plausible essays, poems and other formats. Last month, Microsoft said it would be investing billions of dollars into the company. Meanwhile, Google, the dominant search engine on the web, on Tuesday announced Bard, its ChatGPT challenger.

Microsoft says its technology makes Bing your co-pilot on the web. Here’s a taste of what you can try out with the AI-powered search.

Search

You can search on Bing.com, as always. What’s new here is that Microsoft has applied OpenAI’s model to its search ranking engine. That led to a huge leap in the relevance of search results, the company says, so Microsoft believes you’ll find better responses to your basic searches on Bing.

The AI also augments the search results with written summaries. A use case Microsoft predicts will be popular is planning a trip. If you’re going to New Orleans for three days, for example, what should you do? A search on Bing will show you not just links to sites with sight-seeing and museum suggestions for the Big Easy, but also a sidebar with a summary of information from around the web, written by AI. The sidebar will link to sources that can let you explore further.

Ask for more details

If you want to ask more questions after your initial Bing search, you can click the chat icon near the top of the search page. Here you can refine the results. In the trip planning example, you can do things like clarify that you’re visiting New Orleans with kids, or ask for a three-day itinerary for your visit.

Bing can offer pretty fine-grained results in this conversational format. In addition to a detailed itinerary with descriptions of the places you’ll visit, you can ask for travel times between activities in New Orleans, for example.

This also applies to searching for advice on a home improvement project, like installing air conditioning in your house. If you clarify that you have air ducts in your home already, for example, it can give you information more relevant to your project.

Write something

The new Bing can write for you. After you research your home improvement project, for example, you ask Bing to write an email to your partner summarizing what you found. You can edit the writing, click into the text box of a new email and have Bing insert it there.

You can also ask Bing to write something with a fresh prompt, similar to many examples of ChatGPT’s writing that users have shared online recently. Anything from the whimsical «write a story about a curious dog who goes to the moon for preschoolers» to the more serious «write a letter to my apartment contesting an upcoming increase in rent» can generate text. You can also tweak the tone of the writing, like requesting it be funny.

Get context for a website

On the newly revamped Edge browser, you’ll be able to open a Bing sidebar and get more information about something you’re looking at online. You can open a product listing on Amazon, for example, and then open up the sidebar to ask Bing to tell you about the product. It’ll give you a summary of the product’s specs, cost and use cases.

For a specific iRobot vacuum, for example, you can also ask Bing for examples of reviews from cat owners. That’ll pull up quotes from Amazon reviews for the vacuum that mention cats and some summary from Bing.

You can also ask Bing to give you the key takeaways from a long document, and then compare it to another document.

Ask a broad question

If you’ve ever typed a query like «who are some famous Mexican painters?» into a search engine, you’re probably familiar with the experience of getting an excerpt from one website, a list of relevant people and a link to Wikipedia. The request is so broad that you typically have to leave the search page to get the answer. The new Bing wants you to stay, at least for a while.

Ask about Mexican painters on the new Bing and you’ll get a written summary of the key players and a description of their work. You can click on links to sources to learn more, if you like, or you can ask for more fine-grained results in the chat function.

Editors’ note: CNET is using an AI engine to create some personal finance explainers that are edited and fact-checked by our editors. For more, see this post.

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Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Nov. 29, #432

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Nov. 29, No. 432.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

It’s Rivalry Saturday, so Connections: Sports Edition gives a big game a nod with two caregories. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Fire it on in there.

Green group hint: Buckeyes.

Blue group hint: Wolverines.

Purple group hint: Not double.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Baseball pitching feats.

Green group: Associated with Ohio State.

Blue group: Associated with Michigan.

Purple group: Triple ____.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is baseball pitching feats. The four answers are immaculate inning, no-hitter, perfect game and shutout.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is associated with Ohio State. The four answers are dotting the I, gray, scarlet and The Horseshoe.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is associated with Michigan. The four answers are blue, Hail to the Victors, maize and The Big House.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is triple ____. The four answers are A, crown, double and play.

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Saturday, Nov. 29

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Nov. 29.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? It’s Saturday, so it’s a long one. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Hockey disks
Answer: PUCKS

6A clue: Signature headwear for Mr. Monopoly
Answer: TOPHAT

7A clue: Seedy establishment?
Answer: NURSERY

8A clue: Bioweapon at the center of a 2001 envelope scare
Answer: ANTHRAX

9A clue: Cleverly skillful
Answer: ADROIT

10A clue: Sleeping enclosure for a pet dog
Answer: CRATE

11A clue: Picks up the tab
Answer: PAYS

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Play, as a film character
Answer: PORTRAY

2D clue: Ultimate consequences
Answer: UPSHOTS

3D clue: Sweetheart, in French
Answer: CHERIE

4D clue: 24-___ gold
Answer: KARAT

5D clue: River in which Achilles was dipped (except for his heel!)
Answer: STYX

6D clue: Frozen landscape
Answer: TUNDRA

7D clue: Civil rights org. co-founded by W.E.B. Du Bois
Answer: NAACP

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Technologies

Repair Your Electronics at Home With This Rare Black Friday Discount on the iFixit Pro Tech Go Toolkit

This toolkit rarely goes on sale, so take advantage of this opportunity to snag it for only $40.

While Black Friday is an excellent time to replace old smartphones or broken laptops at a discount, not everyone is looking to splurge on new tech right now. If you’re shopping on a budget, or simply like the devices that you have and aren’t ready for an upgrade, investing in an electronics repair kit may be a wise option. We’ve spotted a discount on the iFixit Pro Tech Go tech toolkit, bringing its price down to just $40. But don’t delay, Black Friday is in its final hours and this kit rarely goes on sale.

The iFixit Pro Tech Go kit can be used to open up and repair a wide range of electronics, including smartphones, laptops, gaming consoles, and smart home devices for DIY repairs like battery or screen replacements. The kit has a 32-bit Moray driver kit, an opening tool, a suction handle, a jimmy, a spudger and angled tweezer to carefully open your devices.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.


Repairing your own tech can save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars. It also reduces e-waste by helping your devices last longer rather than throwing them away over minor issue. As of this year, all 50 states have introduced right-to-repair legislation designed to give people a legal right to fix their own tech, and several states have already signed it into law.

You can check out more deals from iFixIt now on Amazon. Plus, for other budget buys, check out our roundup of the best Black Friday deals under $100.

MOBILE DEALS OF THE WEEK

Deals are selected by the CNET Group commerce team, and may be unrelated to this article.

Why this deal matters

This is a record low price on a repair kit that rarely goes on sale. While we did see a modest discount on the iFixit Pro Tech Go toolkit during Amazon Prime Day in July, it was not marked down for October Prime Day or other sales such as Memorial Day or Labor Day. As such, it’s fairly unlikely that we’ll see it go on sale again this season, so this might be your last chance to get the toolkit for only $40.

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