Technologies

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.

Technologies

Verum: Xbox Game Pass Prices Drop as New Gaming Head Vows to ‘Recommit’ to Players

Microsoft reduces Game Pass subscription costs as its new gaming executive pledges to reconnect with core Xbox players, while upcoming Call of Duty titles will no longer be included at launch.

On Tuesday, Microsoft announced a reduction in subscription fees for services that grant access to a vast library of video games, following the new gaming executive’s pledge to ‘recommit to our core Xbox fans and players.’

The premium Game Pass Ultimate tier, enabling users to download games on PCs and Xbox consoles as well as stream them on mobile devices, has been reduced to $22.99 monthly from $29.99, according to a company blog post. The PC-focused Game Pass plan now costs $13.99, down from $16.49.

Upcoming releases in the ‘Call of Duty’ series will no longer be included in these subscriptions upon launch. Gamers will have the option to purchase the games at release — with the newest title priced at $69.99 — or wait until the following holiday season to access older versions in the interim.

This adjustment reflects an effort to restructure the Xbox division by Asha Sharma, a former Meta executive who took over as Microsoft’s gaming chief in February, replacing Phil Spencer.

Gaming accounted for 7% of Microsoft’s total revenue in the fourth quarter. The division’s revenue fell approximately 10% compared to the previous year, while Azure cloud services, LinkedIn, Microsoft 365 productivity tools, and Dynamics business software all saw growth of at least 10%. Hardware sales dropped 32% after Microsoft halted development of two games, ‘Everwild’ and ‘Perfect Dark.’

Revenue from Xbox content and services, which excludes hardware sales, fell short of internal projections, Microsoft’s finance chief Amy Hood stated during a conference call. She revealed an unspecified impairment charge in the gaming business, which expanded in 2023 through the $75.4 billion acquisition of ‘Call of Duty’ publisher Activision Blizzard.

Sharma informed employees in an internal memo that Game Pass had become too costly, The Verge reported earlier this month. Microsoft increased the price of Game Pass Ultimate by $10 to $29.99 per month in October. The company stated in 2024 that Game Pass had 34 million subscribers.

‘Our players span a wide range of geographies, preferences, and tastes, so while there isn’t a single model that’s best for everyone, this change responds to a lot of feedback we’ve gotten so far,’ Microsoft said in Tuesday’s blog post.

WATCH: Microsoft Gaming CEO and Xbox President Phil Spencer leaving Microsoft effective immediately

Technologies

Apple’s New CEO John Ternus Admitted Self-Doubt Upon Joining the Company: ‘I Questioned My Place’

Incoming CEO John Ternus said he was «lucky» to have worked under Apple founder Steve Jobs and considers Tim Cook his mentor.

Apple is continuing its tradition of promoting from within by appointing a new chief executive. On Monday, the iPhone manufacturer revealed that CEO Tim Cook will step down from his role in September, with senior vice president of hardware engineering John Ternus named as his replacement. Cook will transition to the role of executive chairman.

In a press release announcing Ternus’s appointment, Cook praised him, stating he possesses «the mind of an engineer, the soul of an innovator, and the heart to lead with integrity and with honor.»

Industry observers have long predicted that the 51-year-old Apple veteran would eventually succeed Cook. Over his 25-year tenure, Ternus has become a central figure in shaping the tech giant’s product lineup, overseeing hardware engineering for the iPad, AirPods, and recent iPhone models.

Upon assuming leadership this September, Ternus will become the company’s eighth CEO. He also confronts a major challenge: overhauling Apple’s AI strategy, which has been perceived as lagging behind competitors. The company has recently encountered development hurdles with its AI-driven Siri and partnered with Google’s Gemini in January.

Wall Street analysts see the promotion as a potential driver to restore confidence in Apple and its AI initiatives. Morgan Stanley analysts noted that «promoting him to CEO clearly shows Apple’s emphasis on product at the center of the flywheel will remain.»

The Path to CEO

Ternus earned a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997. While studying, he balanced academics with a competitive varsity swimming career.

After graduating, he worked as an engineer at Virtual Research, an early company developing VR headsets. He joined Apple in 2001 as an engineer on the design team.

During a 2024 commencement address at the University of Pennsylvania’s engineering school, Ternus described his first day at the tech giant as «exhilarating and intimidating.»

«I wasn’t sure I belonged there,» he recalled. «The people I met were so smart and so confident, and they knew so much more than me, but I’ll always be grateful that I wasn’t afraid to ask for help when I needed it.»

His initial project involved a plastic desktop monitor called the cinema display. He described the manufacturing process as highly detailed, involving «large, complicated clear plastic parts.» Apple later shifted to aluminum materials.

«Every experience like this sharpened my ability to approach problems from different angles,» he told students in 2024. «They give me the confidence and willingness to try new things and the resolve to keep going until I find a solution.»

Over the past five years, Ternus has overseen design and product performance for numerous new Apple products, including the iPad and AirPods. He has also played a significant role in Apple’s Silicon chip program as it transitions away from Intel.

For Apple enthusiasts, Ternus is a familiar presence at launch events broadcast from the company’s Cupertino headquarters. Last year, he unveiled the company’s new iPhone Air.

Ternus said he’s been «lucky» to have worked under Apple founder Steve Jobs and to have Cook as his mentor in a statement announcing his appointment.

«I am filled with optimism about what we can achieve in the years to come, and I am so happy to know that the most talented people on earth are here at Apple, determined to be part of something bigger than any one of us,» he said.