Microsoft brings its new AI-powered Bing to the Windows 11 taskbar

Microsoft’s new Windows 11 update adds a button promoting its Bing A.I. chatbot

Microsoft

 In its Windows 11 update on 01 Maerch 2023 (Tuesday), the startup announced that it will begin promoting a new Bing chatbot based on OpenAI artificial intelligence capabilities.

Bing isn't very popular, but Windows accounts for 9% of Microsoft's revenue. With a share of around 82% (as of 2021), it is the leading operating system in the world. Adding a link to the updated Bing next to the familiar Start button is a huge step forward in technology that can sometimes be inaccurate or offensive.

This gesture is a challenge for Microsoft to Google

, earlier this month allowed "trusted testers" to try out the Bart chatbot, which will compete with Bing's new ability to respond to queries with web information.

"This is a new day in search," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said three weeks ago at an event where Microsoft unveiled the new Bing. “This is a new search paradigm. Fast forward opening.

The new Bing options will become a standard feature of the 2021 release of Microsoft Windows 11. Windows 10 support will end in 2025 and many people still haven't upgraded. StatCounter estimates that as of January, around 69 percent of Windows PCs were still running Windows 10, and 18 percent were running Windows 11.

Initially, Windows 11 does not show the chat button. Microsoft has given more than 1 million people access to the new Bing. That's fewer than the estimated 100 million people who used OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot in January.

Over time, changes to the taskbar may increase usage of Bing. More than 500 million people use the Windows search box every month, Microsoft product manager Panos Panay wrote in a blog post.

Bing has been available from the Windows taskbar for years. Microsoft makes money by showing ads in search results after users type specific search queries. The frequent use of updated Bing can give you a financial advantage. Amy Hood, Microsoft's chief financial officer, said on February 7 that the company could earn an additional $2 billion for every 1 percent of revenue in the search advertising market.

Jefferies surveyed 900 consumers about the new Bing, and of the 127 who tried it, 86 percent said they were impressed or very impressed, but only 17 percent said they were new to Bing. I replied that this is my default search engine.

Users of Windows 11 PCs running version 22H2 can now access Bing with smarter features and other additional features by opening the Windows Update section of the Settings app and clicking the Check for Updates button, Panay wrote in a blog post  You Can See a Newer Request Version.