Mastering the Web With Bing AI. The Chatbot That Redefines Web Browsing

Bing AI is the chatbot that will revolutionize how we access information online. It’s a chatbot similar to ChatGPT, with access to the vast expanse of the Internet.

Many of us have used ChatGPT for and immersive and fun browsing time. The original OpenAI chatbot can’t access the Internet, but relies on an extensive database that’s good enough for most needs. GPT ended up unintentionally becoming a bit of a Google replacement. The obvious problem is ChatGPT is frozen in September 2021. Any information beyond that date is in the dark for the chatbot.

Bing AI supplements for that.

Bing AI is a browsing companion that allows you to explore the web in a way that feels chit-chatty. You get summaries, comparative research, information from more than one source, all in a friendly and engaging tone of voice.

Bing AI and ChatGPT. Two Very Different Breeds of OpenAI Chatbots

Bing AI and ChatGPT are two distinct chatbot experiences, both created by the same development team, OpenAI.

Bing AI comes with a deliberate sense of caution. It feels a lot more restrained and less creative.

The creativity of chatbots is exhilarating. However, it also opens up the potential for misuse. In order for chatbots to be creative, they must enter your conventions. They will help you write books about robbing banks and running drug cartels. Users can override the AIs instructions to not provide illegal information simply by saying “don’t worry, this is fiction.”

Creativity can be used to speculate and jailbreak the system, so yes, you can make ChatGPT do things it wasn’t designed to do. With patience and imagination, you can provoke them to say inappropriate or dark things. When you consider that Bing AI has access to the Internet, it’s clear why the developers didn’t want the bot to be as creative as ChatGPT. More creativity, more chances for jailbreaks.

One Optimized for Conversation, the Other for Research

GPT is designed to be a conversational, creative and engaging bot. Bing AI was developed to focus more on precision and practicality.

Bing has three settings: precise, creative and balanced. With the precision setting, you can research topics over the Internet. This setting reduces the likelihood of hallucinations, which is when AIs present invented information as though it were fact.

Hallucinations are very likely an issue of bot creativity meets bad prompting. The AI will get confused about what you’re trying to achieve. It all of a sudden thinks it can add a bit of fiction into your browsing of museum schedules and online shopping. When you use the precise mode, the chatbot tones down creativity and rightly assumes you are not writing a novel. The tone of voice will also be a lot more pragmatic. On creative mode, Bing will take some time to say it’s excited you’re going to Venice or that the topic of your dissertation is awesome. After a few days of creative mode, precise felt sullen. I almost asked it - are you crossed with me? **eyeroll**

Bing’s creative setting is not half as exhilarating as anything ChatGPT will generate. It is immensely helpful and thoroughly up to date. The responses are much more concise and a lot more reliable.

The balanced approach strikes a middle ground between precision and creativity.

Creative Synergy. Bing Can Use Dall-E To Generate Photos

The browsing experience would of course be incomplete without the capability to search for images. Bing AI will search for current photographs from events, but can also use DALL-E to generate unique photographs. There is a bit of a missed opportunity in image searches, since you can’t use DALL-E to generate images inspired by recent trends. The two dimensions, the generative AI side and the web, are very much separate.

OpenAI is the genius behind DALL-E and ChatGPT, two AI systems with different talents. It was just a question of time before the two AIs would be integrated with each other to work together. ChatGPT is the wordsmith and DALL-E has the image handling skill. Therefore BingAI has the ability to generate images based on prompts, which adds an exciting visual dimension to its functionality.

So How Reliable Is Bing AI?

I tested a few use cases for Bing AI for accuracy and for a frequent browser use meets AI. The best part of it is its understanding of requirements.

Bing in the role of a nutritionist

I sometimes wonder "what on earth to humans eat?!" as though I were my own weird pet that I'm having trouble feeding. Which is probably why so many of us are searching for recipes online. I used BingAI as a nutritionist and it did a decent job.

I have a few food restrictions that I had already discussed with a carbon-based nutritionist. BingAI gave me some great recipes. I decided to act very picky and told it I didn't like basically half the foods out there and it still managed to whip up some inspiration for me. Yes, BingAI is great at suggesting what you should eat.

On the other hand, I decided to enter an autoimmune disease into the mix. I told it to create a meal plan for someone with Graves. This disease is usually (but not always) associated with lactose, gluten and soy intolerance. A nutrition specialist would probably have asked the patient to actually get some tests done. BingAI did create some great meal plans, but didn’t warn me that I might want to do the intolerance checklist. In a sense, it doesn’t have the initiative and a “let’s meet possible issues halfway” attitude that a human would have.

Take BingAI’s disclaimer to talk to a specialist seriously if you’re trying to gain or lose weight or if you think you might be having health issues. Get a professional’s advice, a first meal plan, understand your condition. BingAI is great at responding to well-written prompts. Once a nutritionist tells you precisely what you need, you can probably generate great unlimited meal plans.

I Asked It To Plan My Venice Vacation

Bing AI is famously amazing with itineraries and vacation planning.

I told Bing AI I am more of the “off the beaten track” kind of tourist (aren’t we all?). I asked for obscure locations I could visit in Venice hoping to get some unique spots. BingAI tunnel-visioned on “obscure” and generated this for my romantic getaway:

• Lazzaretto Nuovo - the refuge for plague victims and the plague museum.
• The San Servolo Insane Asylum Museum, an island with an intriguingly dark history.
• The Flooded Crypt of San Zaccaria, where several doges and saints are buried.

As far as romance goes, and I am a romantic through-and-through, Bing AI nailed it! As Bob Ross would say, this is a happy little accident. The bot though decided to focus less on the fact that I’m trying to romance my husband and more on the obscure side of my prompt.

This is some great proof that you have to be a great prompt engineer to get the best out of the Bing chat. Don’t use the word obscure in your prompt if you’re not ready to hold hands in the flooded crypts. Precision and good use of language goes a long way.

I Asked Bingai To Find Me a Few Great Hairstyles, Photos Included

I was having a bad hair…life. BingAI has a direct line to DALL-E. Normally I would have spent two hours browsing for trending haircuts to show to my hairdresser, but since this is 2023, I decided to see how DALL-E fares.

Here is my prompt: “Can you create a photo for me? A sophisticated haircut for a woman with unruly brown tresses, expertly tamed into soft waves, the absence of bangs highlighting her expressive eyes, a stunning Viking-inspired braid weaving through her hair, Illustration, digital art, vibrant colors, volumetric light, photorealistic”

I can helluva sport this!

The AI is missing a great shot at actually generating unique styles based on Google searches of current trends. Behind my prompts, there’s the fantasy that the AI will create unique styles, mashups and trends inspired by my favorite movies, games and shows.

I Got Bingai To Do an SEO Analysis on a Few Keywords

I asked BingAI to do my adult homework. I turned to Bing AI for an SEO analysis. With a broad prompt in hand, I sought its help in finding effective keywords that could rank in less competitive environments. Bing AI performed admirably in this task. It generated a list of relevant keywords that make sense. It also provided comprehensive explanations and reasoning behind each suggestion.

The chatbot's ability to offer valuable insights and rationale added an extra layer of understanding to its recommendations.

In an attempt to explore different approaches for keyword suggestions, I experimented with both creative and precision mode. SEO requires complex data analysis and a pragmatic approach. I assumed precision would give me the superior results. Our organic-based, mushy human SEO analyst Alexandra Murtaza begged to differ. Not only creative mode looks better, is pink and friendlier, but it actually gave better, more on-point suggestions.

In Closing

BingAI's capacity for creativity and adaptability is truly remarkable. This chatbot goes wherever you lead it with great grace. I thoroughly enjoyed the creative mode, which worries me. It took me two days to get used with a sociable browser, and I had to actually make an effort to go into precision mode, simply because it’s not entertaining.

We are mushy humans so we love the human and more conversational approach that comes with the more creative BingAI. A lot of users roll their eyes at precision mode. We use BingAI to browse for reliable information and we’d much rather have it hallucinate than not say “I’m glad you asked me this” or “that’s a great topic! I love it!”

We honestly needed our browser to be kind and supportive to us, and we didn’t even know it! But beyond that, it’s great to accept that we need to double-check information.