Bing’s surge only lasted a few months. Microsoft’s conversational agent based on GPT-4 is now called “Copilot”, like its other services linked to artificial intelligence. The Bing brand once again becomes exclusive to the search engine, which has failed to take advantage of its new momentum to catch up with Google.
In February 2023, Bing was not far from a comeback against Google. At the time when the world discovered ChatGPT, Microsoft, which financially supports OpenAI, announced that it was launching a new version of its search engine with the GPT-4 language model integrated into Bing. The new Bing Chat was capable of having real conversations, although it was very derailed at first. With this super intelligence, Microsoft nevertheless hoped to convince Google aficionados to give Bing a chance. A technique that paid off initially, since Bing saw its market share increase (even if Google had nothing to worry about).
Nine months later, Bing’s rebound seems to have been only very temporary. The proof is that Microsoft is already giving up the name Bing Chat. After announcing that it was going to add an artificial intelligence called “Microsoft Copilot” to Windows 11 and its flagship software (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, etc.), the company is abandoning the Bing Chat brand in favor of “Copilot “. Since November 15, Microsoft has distinguished its search engine from its competitor ChatGPT, since these two uses are ultimately different.
A new site for Microsoft Copilot
In the world of generative artificial intelligence, the main competitors are now called ChatGPT (OpenAI), Microsoft Copilot and Google Bard. Others could arrive soon (we’re thinking of Elon Musk’s Grok or Apple’s boosted Siri), but these three brands are the most powerful in November 2023. There are obviously other strong AIs in other areas ( Dall-e, Midjourney, Adobe Firefly…), but they have little to do with the conversational agents of OpenAI, Microsoft and Google.
If conversation mode is still available on the Bing home page, Microsoft hopes that its users will go through copilot.microsoft.com to access its AI. Like ChatGPT, which has its dedicated site, Microsoft wants to attract people with a distinct service, which should not be in the shadow of a search engine little used around the world.
Of course, it’s important to remember that Microsoft Copilot is very similar to ChatGPT, since it uses the same language model. The two systems are nevertheless different in certain aspects, since Microsoft has its own settings.
The Copilot brand, a Microsoft asset?
In 2024, Microsoft should put Copilot everywhere. The company, which also announced on October 15 its intention to manufacture its own chips and Copilot Studio, so that anyone can create their AI (like OpenAI’s GPTs), believes more than ever in its ability to become even more powerful thanks to the emergence of generative artificial intelligence. Copilot is its new strong brand.
With the emergence of Microsoft Copilot as a service accessible everywhere, one wonders what future Microsoft has in store for Bing. Should we stop the fees, hoping that AI will make search engines obsolete? Or continue, in case these two activities remain popular with users.
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