Microsoft New Bing vs ChatGPT vs Google: First Impressions

Microsoft New Bing vs ChatGPT vs Google: First Impressions

On February 14th, I had the opportunity to access the latest version of Microsoft's Bing, specifically the new Bing app on my iPhone, and compared it to ChatGPT and Google. In this article, I will share my initial thoughts on the new Bing app and how it stacks up against the competition.

1. New Bing as a Digital Assistant:?

The Bing app for iPhone has a natural language interface, allowing users to ask questions and receive voice responses. This feature puts it in direct competition with other digital assistants such as Apple Siri, Google Assistant, and Amazon Alexa. Bing's responses also suggest follow-up questions, which can be selected or asked via voice or text. Bing can maintain the conversation flow using its GPT and Prometheus engines. However, the app's response time can take up to 10 seconds, which could be improved to enhance the user experience.

2. New Bing as a Search Engine:?

When I searched for a river cruise in Bangkok for an upcoming event, the new Bing app provided a smooth and efficient search journey. Its shortlisted results were clear and concise, and the app provided specific narratives on my choice selection, including the price and the service's quality.

By the end of my search, the app guided me on how to book the cruise. Unlike traditional search engines that require users to jump back and forth to find the desired result, Bing's journey is more natural and conversational. Bing can search the entire internet for each subsequent query while keeping the context the same, unlike call centers that are limited to their specific services.

3. New Bing and Advertisement:?

The new Bing app includes advertisements in chat-style responses, mixing natural and paid results. Bing's reference indicator clearly indicates which results are natural (SEO) and which are paid (SEM). Bing chat also includes images and carousel results that are not available in ChatGPT. This feature could have many commercial potentials for Microsoft if it can draw enough traffic to the new Bing app.

4. New Bing Search vs Compose Mode:?

One interesting difference between the new Bing app and ChatGPT is that when the app is in "Search" mode, it uses the Prometheus model to blend the latest internet results with its GPT baseline. It provides reference links to the original sources and suggests follow-up questions. However, when the app is in "Compose" mode, it works similarly to ChatGPT, providing results immediately without providing links to source pages.

This difference has its pros and cons, and it remains to be seen how it will be improved and optimized for a better user experience.

5. New Bing Response Quality and Speed:?

When the new Bing app is in "Search" mode, it uses the Prometheus AI to generate results that include original pages and links. This mode is suitable for finding final landing pages and performing additional calls to action.

However, when seeking knowledge or opinion based on prompts, I prefer ChatGPT's response depth and quality over the new Bing app's summarizing approach, which references a limited number of pages.

ChatGPT's pre-trained knowledge allows it to deliver impressive answers immediately, while the new Bing app can take longer to provide results. Nonetheless, when the app is in "Create" mode, it skips the Prometheus part and generates the results right away, similar to ChatGPT.

The Bottom Line

In summary, Microsoft's new Bing app with voice interface has significant potential as a digital assistant and search engine, and even includes advertisements in chat-style responses. During a test search for a river cruise in Bangkok, the journey was smooth and natural, similar to calling a contact center and asking any question that comes to mind until all questions are answered. Bing provides a contextualized experience across all subsequent queries, surpassing the limitations of contact centers that only offer responses specific to their service.

While Bing's search mode, which uses Prometheus AI to blend the latest internet results with its GPT baseline and provides reference links to original sources and suggested follow-up questions, may take up to 5-10 seconds to respond, its "compose" mode is comparable to ChatGPT, generating responses immediately. However, it may lack the depth and quality of ChatGPT's response, as Bing always puts original links to support its response, resulting in a summary from limited pages.

Microsoft may need to fine-tune and balance its GPT AI model and Prometheus AI model to deliver an "always better" result than ChatGPT. The winning AI chat will be the one that can deliver better results across all scenarios, eliminating the need for users to choose between AI chats based on individual strengths. The new Bing, particularly the mobile app with a voice interface, has great potential, and it will be interesting to see how Microsoft continues to develop this promising technology.