Bing Chat, a preview of the trending ChatGPT-powered search engine is now available on your iPhone and Android phone, where I find it to be a wild desktop experience.
In fact, it’s more wild. Unlike desktops, mobile devices ChatGPT Bing adds a special component of a voice. Right, Bing talks to you. There is some irony here that the most exciting thing Microsoft has done in years is also a moment to reflect on the company’s final Quixotic foray into voice assistants: Cortana.
You miss Cortana, don’t you? If you’ve ever played Halothen you must have at least a basic knowledge of the AI assistant that helped Masterchef Navigate your world. That fictional AI character was so popular that Microsoft adopted the moniker as the codename for its own real-world AI assistant and then kept the name when it was introduced a decade ago.
Cortana never delivered on her AI promise and was eventually deprecated and eventually removed from Microsoft products.
Another opportunity at voice AI
We now have a new AI voice chatbot from Microsoft and OpenAi (via a modified version of ChatGPT) has no name of its own, it simply lives inside Bing.
However, knowing the history of Microsoft and spent two weeks playing with Bing chat on my desktopI couldn’t resist spending time switching voices with mobile Bing.
I re-downloaded the Bing search app, a mobile piece of software I hadn’t touched in years.
While the desktop places a large “Ask me anything…” prompt front and center, I have to select the small “b” icon at the bottom of the Bing app screen to access the game. AI-powered stories.
Once installed, you still have to decide if you want to allow the app to track you (I always say “no”) and give the app access to your microphone so Bing can hear your traffic. your question (say “yes”).
It’s weird but I have the best thing I can call AI anxiety. When faced with an artificial intelligence that prompts me to “Ask it anything,” I froze, unable to think of a good question.
Help along the way
I finally decided, “Bing, write me a haiku about using an iPhone,” I told the app.
Note, you don’t have to start with “Bing.” It’s not a password and the AI-powered ChatGPT-enabled Bing activation hit the Bing button.
Bing took a considerable amount of time before it responded. One thing I’ve noticed is that Bing also shows what it’s looking for based on your query. It’s pedantic, but it’s also useful in case you hear that Bing has misunderstood and you want to stop Bing’s search.
After a while, Bing reads in a female voice that sounds a bit like Cortana the original haiku:
On the iPhone screen
A world of information
Bing is here to help
Not bad and yes, it hit the 5-7-5 syllable limit per haiku line.
Next, I suggested that Bing organize a romantic dinner for two with seafood and rice. The only caveat is that the preparation time must be less than 30 minutes.
After a long wait, the Bing AI chat told me about two recipes and asked me which one I wanted to choose. Here, however, the conversational aspect is broken down a bit. Instead of leaving the microphone open to receive my feedback, I found myself having to press the microphone button again. After doing so, I told Bing that I chose the “second one”. Bing then graciously provided the Salmon and Rice recipe that it would read out in its entirety if I let it.
Finally, I asked the Bing AI chat to play a game of Tic-Tac-Toe with me.
Bing happily agreed and presented a full-text table and without asking me, the first move was “X”. Every time either of us makes a move, it announces on the board, not only the location of the “X” and “O”, but also the dashes and plus signs it used to make a move. move. Fine, now I can live with that awkwardness.
After a few moves, I was ready to block Bing AI chat to win. Unfortunately, Bing cheated and insisted it won even though the table showed that it didn’t.
Besides the sketchy game moves, the mobile version of Bing AI is relatively attractive. Microsoft still needs to work at speed if they want this to be a real conversational AI and take in things like Siri And Alexa. Otherwise, Cortana might have been useless in her digital life.
